VanJess was a Nigerian-American R&B duo composed of sisters Ivana and Jessica Nwokike. The duo began their career on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

performing cover songs. After one of their videos, a cover of

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

's "

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", had viral success, they decided to pursue a serious career in music. In 2011 the duo hired a manager and recorded in a studio for the first time. On 12 November 2018, the group announced that they had signed to the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

joint venture label Keep Cool. Thus far in their career, VanJess have released one studio album, ''Silk Canvas'', and one EP, ''Homegrown''.

History

The sisters are first generation Nigerian immigrants of

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...

origin, although they were both born in the United States. According to Jessica, they spent 'about eight or nine years' of their childhood in Nigeria, before moving to

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, California with their mother, when they were 10 and 8 years old, respectively. They later moved to Cerritos. Jessica and Ivana attended a performing arts elementary school. In middle school and high school, they performed as a duo in talent shows. They have supported causes like the "Louder than Words" campaign in 2012 and performed at 2013's "Lights Camera Cure" dance-a-thon. They have made appearances on shows like VH1's ''The Linda Perry Projec''t. The duo re-released their debut EP ''00 till Escape'' in 2015 which charted in the iTunes top ten and trended worldwide. Their debut album '' Silk Canvas'', an album of original material, was self-released by the duo in 2018. The duo released five singles from the album: "Adore", "Touch the Floor", "Through Enough", "Addicted", "Easy", and "Control Me". The album includes collaborations with Masego,

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, and Berhana. They released their EP, ''Homegrown'', on February 5, 2021. The project includes collaborations with

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, Jimi Tents, Garren, and Devin Morrison. The duo have listed

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, Janet Jackson, Xscape,

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, and

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as their biggest musical influences. In a 2021 interview with ''Buzzfeed'', they listed Brandy,

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, and

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as additional influences to their music. On March 16, 2023, Jessica announced that Ivana had stepped away from VanJess eight months earlier. Jessica also announced that she will continue to make music on her ow

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

References

{{authority control Musical groups established in 2009 Girl groups Sibling musical duos American people of Nigerian descent American musical duos Female musical duos Contemporary R&B duos