Summer Marjani Walker (born April 11, 1996) is an American R&B singer. She signed with the Atlanta-based record label Love Renaissance, an imprint of Interscope Records in late 2017. The following year, she released her debut commercial mixtape Last Day of Summer (2018), supported by its lead single, “Girls Need Love.” The song became her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and spawned a remix featuring Canadian rapper Drake. Her debut studio album, Over It (2019) was met with critical and commercial success, peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 chart—briefly breaking the record for the biggest debut streaming week for a female R&B artist—and receiving double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Her second album, Still Over It (2021) debuted atop the Billboard 200. The album broke the record for most streams in a single day by a female artist on Apple Music and broke her previous record for largest streaming debut-week for a female R&B artist; she also tied with Taylor Swift as the only female artist to have 18 concurrent songs from one album enter the Billboard Hot 100. It spawned the single “Ex for a Reason” (featuring JT of the City Girls), which peaked within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, while its follow up single, “No Love” (with SZA and Cardi B) peaked within the top 15 and received platinum certification by the RIAA. Her 2023 single, “Good Good” (with Usher and 21 Savage) also entered the top 40 of the chart.
Her accolades include a Billboard Music Award, a IHeartRadio Music Awards two Soul Train Music Awards, and two Grammy Award nominations. In 2022 Billboard Women in Music recognized Walker with the Chart Breaker Award for her achievement on Billboard charts As of 2024, Walker has sold over 32 million certified units from the RIAA between albums and songs.
Early life
Walker was born in Atlanta, Georgia. From 2016 to 2018, she had a small cleaning business, and was also a stripper in Atlanta before she taught herself how to play the guitar by watching tutorials on YouTube. Soon after, she began performing covers and posting various videos of herself to the platform
Career
2018–2019: Career beginnings and Last Day of Summer
Walker was discovered by a woman of the same name, who works as the studio manager of an Atlanta-based label called Love Renaissance. In 2017, she signed with this label and Interscope Records. On October 19, 2018, Walker released her debut commercial mixtape, titled Last Day of Summer, supported by the lead single, “Girls Need Love”. Walker’s album contained her thoughts on love, doubt, and womanhood.
Towards the end of 2018, Walker toured with 6lack on the From East Atlanta With Love Tour. Following the success of her mixtape, Apple Music named Walker as its newest Up Next artist in 2019, and she became the number 8 R&B artist worldwide across the platform. On January 25, 2019, Walker released her first EP titled Clear, consisting of four tracks of acoustic recordings. On February 27, she released the remix to her song, “Girls Need Love”, with Drake.
2019–2020: Breakthrough and Over It
On August 23, 2019, Walker released a track, called “Playing Games” as the first official single for her debut studio album, titled Over It. The song, which contains an interpolation of Destiny’s Child’s number-one hit “Say My Name”, was produced by London on da Track. On September 12, Walker revealed that Over It would be released on October 4 via LVRN and Interscope Records. Along with her album announcement, she shared the official artwork. Over It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with 134,000 units in its first week. Its debut week marked the largest streaming week for an R&B album by a female artist, in terms of on-demand audio streams.
In early 2020, Walker collaborated with an American rapper 21 Savage on a song, titled “Secret”. Walker also appeared on a remix for Justin Bieber’s song Yummy. In April 2020, she was featured on Khalid’s remix of “Eleven”. On June 29, Walker announced the release of an EP, titled Life on Earth to be released on July 10. The announcement came a day after she performed “Session 32” and “Come Thru” with Usher at the 2020’s BET Awards, where Walker was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B/Pop Artist.[30] Life on Earth debuted atop the Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart, becoming Walker’s second number one. It also debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 becoming Walker’s second top 10 project on the chart.
2021-present: Still Over It
On November 5, 2021, Walker released her second album Still Over It which has since broken the record for biggest R&B debut on the US albums chart since Beyoncé’s album Lemonade. The album surpassed 166,000 units within the first week of release. On November 29, Walker and Ari Lennox performed the song “Unloyal” together at the 2021 Soul Train Music Awards.
On September 28, 2022, Ciara released the single “Better Thangs”, featuring Walker. The official music video, directed by Mia Barnes, premiered online on September 30.
Personal life
While teaching herself guitar through YouTube tutorials, Walker worked as a stripper in an Atlanta strip club. In an interview with The Face she stated that the experience was “helping her grow out of her shell” and that it was “a fun experience”.
Walker has well over 24 tattoos as of 2019, including face tattoos.
In November 2020, Walker announced that she was expecting her first child, with then-boyfriend London on da Track. Her daughter was born on March 22, 2021. Months later, the pair ended their relationship. On June 25, 2022, Walker announced on Instagram Live that she was expecting her second child with then-boyfriend rapper Larry A.K.A. Lvrd Pharaoh. She gave birth to twin boys on December 29, 2022. She dated BMF co-star and rapper Demetrius Flenory Jr from April to July 2023.
Artistry
Walker has said that she draws inspiration from Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, and Erykah Badu. She noted Mary J. Blige as an inspiration for the vulnerability and authenticity she displays in her own music, saying “back when Mary J. Blige and Faith Evans were making R&B, they had real pain and real stories. That’s why it was so good.” Walker has also cited Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo as inspirations for her to experiment and explore new sounds within the R&B and neo soul genres.
