Momo Boyd launches solo career with Miss Michigan EP — SkimNews
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- Momo Boyd, 27, released her debut solo EP 'Miss Michigan' in April, with a second EP in the works; her US tour leg wrapped in August and she will continue through Europe in the fall, including a London date in November.
- Boyd, who is part of the sibling quintet Infinity Song that debuted in 2015, describes her solo sound as 'folksy, emotional and personal' — distinct from the band's guitar-driven romanticism — and says balancing both lanes has been 'pretty easy,' with her siblings in full support.
- Boyd's debut single 'American Love Song' drew accusations that she was catering to white audiences with its pastoral, Americana-styled video; Boyd defended the song as autobiographical, drawn from her family's life in Shay Lake, a rural working-class Black community in Michigan.
- Boyd has been called 'the Black Lana Del Rey' by listeners, a comparison she embraces, citing Del Rey's emotional complexity as a key influence on her work.
- Boyd skipped college to practice guitar and bass at home for hours daily; her father John Boyd started multiple community choirs in Michigan before the family relocated to the Bronx, where Boyd recalled being told she 'talk like a white girl.'
- Boyd situates her career within a tradition of Black female artists whose sound is flattened by the industry, citing Santigold's 2022 Tiny Desk remarks on narrow definitions of 'Black music' and SZA's comments about her work being labeled R&B because she is Black.
- 'Miss Michigan' drew critical praise: The Fader called Boyd's voice 'moisturized,' while The Source described the EP as 'reflective and deeply personal.'
Why it matters: Boyd's solo emergence highlights how Black female artists continue to navigate genre gatekeeping and aesthetic scrutiny — her 'American Love Song' backlash echoes Beyoncé's CMA snub after Cowboy Carter topped the Billboard charts, and Mickey Guyton's fight to claim space in country. When a Black woman chooses pastoral Americana imagery, her right to make that art becomes the story, not the art itself; Boyd counters by grounding every visual in her actual childhood in Shay Lake.
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