The Austin 100: Jordan Mackampa

By Stephen Thompson

Published March 17, 2020 at 5:01 AM EDT

Hometown: London, England

Genre: Soul

Why We're Excited: Born in the Republic of Congo and raised in London, Jordan Mackampa has spent his life straddling identities — a challenge the singer-songwriter addresses right in the title of his debut album, Foreigner. Appropriately enough, Mackampa's music juggles genres, too, as it mashes decades of classic pop together with tinges of gospel and lots of dramatic, timeless, string-swept soul.

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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