2016–2017: Influence At the age of 17, Crookes released her debut single "New Manhattan" in February 2016, as well as "Sinatra" in August 2016, and "Bad Feeling" in June 2017. "New Manhattan" is a love song that was named after the area in
Brussels.
M Magazine wrote about Crookes at the start of her career, stating, "[She] may not be out of school yet, but what she lacks in experience she certainly makes up for in sonic dexterity." When describing the aesthetic in Crookes' debut music video for "Sinatra", Pip Williams from
Line of Best Fit wrote, "much like [her] sound, [the video] blurs the classic with the contemporary, blanketing the listener in nostalgia whilst teasing them with hints of something brand new." Crookes released her debut EP,
Influence, with Speakerbox and
Insanity Records in July 2017. She told
BBC that she wrote the song by herself on New Year's Day of 2017 and began playing the song on tour, stating "When you tour a song you get to know it – you stay over at its house, you meet its mum, you get to know the sibling it doesn't like. So by the time we did Colors, it was a walk in the park. The video really changed everything. For about six months after that, everywhere I went people would say, 'Are you Joy from Colors?'" before releasing her second EP,
Reminiscence, in January 2019. before releasing the singles "Since I Left You": "a hauntingly stripped back break-up song," as well as "London Mine" in April 2019. "The song celebrates the invisible people and how London belongs to no one but everyone," Crookes told
The Line of Best Fit about "London Mine". "It's a celebration of immigrants who make up this country." Crookes performed on the
Introducing Stage at
BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in May 2019, before releasing her third EP,
Perception in June 2019. The five-track EP features "Hurts", "No Hands", "London Mine", "Since I Left You", and "Darkest Hour". In September 2019, Crookes self-produced released "Yah / Element" a
medley of "
Yah" and "
Element" by
Kendrick Lamar, before announcing her headlining tour of Europe for October 2019. She released the single "Early" with Irish hip-hop artist
Jafaris in early October, which later went on to reach No. 1 on the
UK Asian chart. Crookes made her debut television appearance when she performed "Early" with Jafaris on
Later... with Jools Holland in November 2019. Crookes made an appearance on the Irish music TV series
Other Voices in November 2019. Crookes was shortlisted for
Rising Star Award at the
2020 Brit Awards. She was placed fourth in
Sound of 2020, an annual
BBC poll of 170 music critics who predict breakthrough acts for the coming year.
2020–2025: Skin In April 2020, Crookes released her first single of 2020, "Anyone But Me", which debuted atop the UK Asian Top 40. The song is about her battles with mental health and how she feels that "there's another person living in [her] head." consequently entering both the
UK Singles Downloads and the
UK Singles Sales charts. which became her third single to top the UK Asian Top 40 and is featured on the EA Sports video game
FIFA 22 Its third single, "When You Were Mine", was released later that month and became her fourth single to top the UK Asian Top 40. On the album, Crookes incorporates samples on songs like "19th Floor" and "Kingdom". In an interview with Sound of Boston, Crookes explains the origins of both samples, and why she chose to include them: "The opening of 19th Floor is my grandma saying goodbye to me as she usually does when I leave her flat on the 19th floor of her block in south London. The voice call in Kingdom is my dad talking about the importance of punk music. I included these to contextualize my life at the time and where those songs were born from. I am a super family-orientated person and it felt like an important part of my narrative to include them on the album." On 18 October 2024, Crookes was featured on the song "Strength (R U Ready)" from
The Blessed Madonna's album,
Godspeed.
2025–present: Juniper On 10 January 2025, Crookes premiered a new single titled "Pass The Salt", featuring
Vince Staples. A second single, "Mathematics", featuring
Kano was released on 5 February, the song became her first number one on the British Asian Music Chart. The album received mostly positive reviews from critics. In a four-star review for
The Guardian,
Alexis Petridis opined that the album "asserts Crookes’s talent as a vocalist and songwriter". In an 8/10 review for
The Line of Best Fit, critic Lana Williams stated that the album was a "triumphant foray that establishes her as a truly unparalleled artist." In an interview with the BBC, Crookes stated that the album had been inspired by her struggles with
anxiety, as well as an abusive relationship which culminated in a "
hedonistic period of her life" . A deluxe version of the album featuring the bonus track, "Fade Your Heart" from the soundtrack to
EA Sports FC 26, was released on 31 October. In promotion of the album, she performed at the
Tate Modern on 26 September, as well as at the
Glastonbury Festival 2025. She also embarked on a tour containing dates in Britain and America. She made her acting debut as Samira in
Ish, which premiered at the
2025 Venice International Film Festival. == Personal life and artistry ==