Odeal

As I speak with Odeal, he’s just four days away from dropping his first full project of 2026. Naturally, I wonder how he’s feeling. His answer, however, sets the tone for everything that follows. 

“I can’t wait to see how the world uses it.” 

It’s a curious choice of words. Too often we treat songs as something to consume. They slot into playlists. They wait for their turn on shuffle. They soundtrack your commute to work, set the tone for your meet-up with friends, hold you tightly when you retreat behind your earphones. And before long, another release comes along to take their place. 

But Odeal – born Hillary Dennis Udanoh – sees them differently. Songs stay with him long after they finish their runtime. They’re vessels of memories, stories, faces and places – however fleeting – that make permanent imprints on a life. 

“Kinda like snapshots, exactly,” he responds from his hotel room in LA. His camera off, understandably, given the early hour he’s connecting with me in London over Zoom. Many would consider it too early to get philosophical, but Odeal comes to it with ease. After a year spent trailing across the UK, Europe and Australia for his sold-out The Shows That Saved Us tour, joining Summer Walker for legs in North America and Europe, and finishing his new EP between temporary homes, studios and airport terminals, he’s gotten used to carrying those snapshots with him. And now, more than ever, he wants the world to carry them too. 

“I can’t wait for this new project to drop. I ain’t dropped in a while; it’s just been features and stuff, but nothing is more fulfilling than dropping your own music. I feel like life starts to make sense again after I drop songs.” 

For as long as he can remember, music was Odeal’s avenue for expression. His ability to write superseded his ability to articulate; his pen speaking before the words could catch up. “That’s why, when I make music and I’m writing, I’m like, ‘People have to hear me.’ Like, I need people to hear me as soon as possible before this feeling changes again.” 

A look over his discography proves as much. Since his 2024 hit “Soh-Soh” – the velvety Afro-R&B anthem that propelled the British-Nigerian singer-songwriter to global prominence – Odeal’s artistry has evolved into an audio diary with millions waiting for him to turn the page. Last year, he celebrated obtaining his British citizenship with “The Summer That Saved Me”, an unburdened EP that gifted fans “London Summers”, a viral Leon Thomas collaboration with “Miami”, and called for a sonic celebration of freedom and agency. 

Just four months later, Odeal turned the pendulum with yet another EP, “The Fall That Saved Us”, coming off a summer of highs into a season of self-reflection. It’s arguably some of the 26-year-old’s most confronting work to date, an almost sobering look at life’s vices and a promise to seek something bigger and better. Side by side, the efforts cement the duality of Odeal as an artist. His work varies not just in sound but in sentiment. It’s at once deeply personal yet painfully universal, feel-good but introspective. And, he assures me, all of it is intentional. 

“I think I’ve become stronger in my ‘why’ and why I’m doing all of this, which is to connect people, to connect different parts of the world together through sound and to just be a vessel through which people can express their feelings,” he muses. “There’s so much that people haven’t been able to express or articulate or feel, and I think my music allows that. I’m just stronger now. Since the beginning till now, I’ve just become stronger in my why and my way. Just keeping it authentic and staying true to myself, you know?” 

The growth is palpable. Since 2025’s back-to-back EPs, Odeal’s sound has found a home in places he once could only imagine. He took his tracks to Radio 1’s Big Weekend before heading on tour, finally bringing “London Summers” back to his hometown with a sold-out finale at Brixton’s O2 Academy. Along the way, he picked up two MOBO Awards nominations, snagged major festival and tour spots from All Points East to Kehlani and booked his debut on NPR’s Tiny Desk. In May, he collaborated with Stormzy for “24 Hours”, marking his subtle return to the world’s summer playlists, before heading back to the writer’s desk. 

The milestones are those of a music mogul, yet Odeal receives them humbly. “I feel like with all the goals that I want to achieve, I will achieve them in due time. What I do is put my best and put my all into what I do and make sure that the music feels authentic enough that it connects with the souls of people. I don’t like to put too many expectations on a project and be like, ‘Yo, this has to achieve this.’ Because then it’s just for me. It’s a selfish goal. Whereas I really want it to be for other people.” 

It's an outlook that shaped every decision behind his new EP. This time round, Odeal’s goal was simple: “I want to make music that people can enjoy.” The project – which we’re both now eager to discuss – has been long-anticipated. But the contemplative state his last project provoked was necessary. “Giving myself time is very important,” he clarifies. “You can’t rush music. You have to really give yourself the time to live life and to put all your energy into it. In the last seven months that I’ve wanted to release, it was only in the last couple of months that I was like, ‘Oh, actually, let’s tweak this, let’s do that instead.’ Time is really, really important,” he says before adding with a knowing smile, “But I also work really well under pressure, to be fair.” 

That quality was paramount. Reflecting on his day-to-day life over the last seven months, he lets out a weighted sigh. “Do you know what, I knew it would be busy – and I know it’s going to get busier – but even the way it is busy right now, I’m kind of like, ‘Woah, bloody hell.’ I kind of want to enjoy and live life, but it comes with work as well, same for everyone. So I can’t wait to be able to perform this to people. It’s a blessing at the same time.” 

It’s settling to hear even the most successful of rising artists can still feel the burden of the work grind. But it’s Odeal’s practice of perspective that gets him through it. “This is the thing… I’m travelling a lot at the moment. So everywhere I’m at, I actually had to shift my energy from being like, ‘Oh my gosh, now I have to go here.’ To just be present everywhere I am and showing up and enjoying myself for however long I’m there for. That’s why this project really is ‘For A Good Time…’”

His latest EP – which borrows its title from the phrase ‘for a good time, not a long time’ – is an apt snapshot of Odeal’s life during his brief break from releasing. Flitting between continents, it was the project’s seven tracks that remained a constant; packed into the luggage of his mind that translated to every country, culture and language. The reminder he himself needed to enjoy every moment – however busy – as if it were his last. 

“Every single song on there is literally ‘For A Good Time…’. When you’re on the way to a party, on the way back from the club, heading to a park, spinning a set, with friends, they’re all songs that are pick-me-ups. You play them, and you’re automatically ready to go. I didn’t want to do anything too conceptual, like too story-heavy; I just wanted to have songs that reflected where I was in life and that felt uplifting.” 

But what Odeal realised as he sat down to write the record was that that very intention outgrew the music itself. If “For A Good Time…” was his invitation for fans to be present, he needed a voice to stay with the people when he couldn’t. The EP’s springboard, "Bluey Vitton", was originally scored as an homage to the golden era of house music. “It has a lot of soul and R&B infused in it,” he explains. “So when I made the track, I was thinking, ‘This is exactly what I want people to be able to vibe and dance to. They need to hear this all summer.’” The track boasts a heavy groove in the tradition of Peven Everett and Pal Joey—an inescapable percussion that physically compels the body to move “ten toes down as the disc rotates.” It embodies the carefree spirit Odeal spent this year chasing. And eventually, that spirit took on a name of its own in Bluey Vee. 

“For me, Bluey Vee is almost like the spirit animal of anyone who works hard but also plays hard. Someone who is itching to let loose. It’s that innate feeling of, ‘Yo, I just wanna have a good time.’ So whenever that character shows up, you know it’s gonna be a great time. Whenever you see that colour blue, you already know we’re going up—that’s my whole thing. Because if I wasn’t going to be around, if it wasn’t me, I wanted there to be something that people could remember for this specific time.” 

It almost feels paradoxical. Throughout our conversation, Odeal speaks of his music as something that outlives the moment. Yet “For A Good Time…” is built on the premise that things never last forever: to embrace them before they’re gone. But when I pose this to him, he doesn’t see a contradiction. “I think all of the songs go along the theme of, ‘Okay, you’re here for a good time, but are you present or are you thinking about what happens after this?’ That’s really what it is.” 

Every track that came after “Bluey Vitton” was therefore an exploration of what “For A Good Time…” really means. “I thought, if we’re taking the listeners through a journey, it’s going to start here, and we’re going to ease them into this house record and flesh it out from there. Let’s say ‘Rush’ for example, it’s like you’re in the moment and the person you’re with is probably thinking, ‘I don’t know if we should rush this because we don’t know how long we’re going to be here.’ Some people can live in the moment, others don't think like that. And then from there we go to ‘Get Down’ which is a very in-the-moment song—like, ‘I’m down when you want to get down’. It’s provocative, it gets you going. Same with ‘Bluey Vitton’—it’s a present song. But then after that is ‘Coming Home’, where you get that realisation of, ‘Yo, I’m having a great time right now, but I know where home is, I’m going to come back there.’ It’s about being present and going back to where you’re comfortable.” 

“It’s so interesting how I make music,” Odeal says, interrupting himself. “I like to make sure that it holds its weight no matter where I am.” He had the perfect opportunity to test it, writing “Bluey Vitton” in Colombia, “Trying Things" and “Get Down” in LA, finishing with his intro “Rush” on a tour bus from Vegas to Seattle before re-recording the whole thing in Vancouver. But, just like the journey of his EP, nothing felt more special or comfortable to him than “Coming Home”. 

“One thing that I was longing for throughout was just that essence of London,” he admits. “So I thought, who better than Jorja Smith for a record, you know what I mean?” The track he recorded with Jorja – the emotional core to the EP – serves as a friendly reality check, a warm reminder that even when the dancing’s done and the moments gone, there’s always a place, a person or a feeling waiting to welcome you home. 

In Odeal’s case, it’s all of the above. In just a month, he’ll finally place the songs – written across the globe – where they were always meant to be. “I literally can’t wait to perform in London. All Points East is legendary, so being able to perform songs that are made specifically for the people for the summer, during the summer at that venue… Like, come on. That’s top for me, can’t lie.” 

On Friday 21st August, Odeal will join his collaborator Jorja Smith alongside Tems, Nia Archives and more in Victoria Park. It’s the welcome home party to London he’s been craving since he left. “Everyone comes to festivals, and they’re just ready to have a good time. The energy is high, artists are coming on and off the stages, it’s frantic backstage. But I think what it is for me is having people sing my songs back to me, and seeing what people connect with. As soon as those beats drop, people go crazy. That’s all I want to see: good vibes, high energy, people dancing and enjoying themselves.” 

For now, Odeal is ready and waiting to see how the world uses his music. As a mood-booster, as inspiration, as a reminder that moments aren’t special because they last forever, but valuable because they don’t.

Still, if Odeal has anything to do with it, they’ll certainly be remembered.