Meet SAILORR: The Genre-Bending Disruptor Putting Alt-R&B on Notice in 2025

SAILORR is a new kid on the block who already proved she is here to stay. Her recent music video BITCHES BREW left us in awe and we decided to find out more about this provocative artist.

SAILORR is the genre-blurring Vietnamese-American R&B artist redefining what it means to come up in the digital age.

Born Kayla Le in Jacksonville, Florida to Vietnamese immigrant parents, she grew up straddling two worlds—one shaped by her family’s resilient roots, the other pulsing with the swagger and soul of her Southern city.

Her original moniker, Sailor Goon, tipped its hat to the magical girl power of Sailor Moon and her family’s flight from war. As her sound sharpened, so did the name: now just SAILORR.

SAILORR doesn’t just nod to her heritage—she wears it. Literally. Her signature black grillz aren’t just a fashion flex; they draw from traditional Southeast Asian teeth-blackening practices, remixing history into a bold aesthetic.

She first surfaced in 2019 on SoundCloud with JUST FOR ME, a dreamy R&B cut uploaded under the Sailor Goon name. It was a quiet drop that would quietly build a cult following.

Her mixes were moody, her voice magnetic, and her range impossible to box in—imagine Lauryn Hill’s soul, Erykah Badu’s mystery, and Chief Keef’s bite all simmering in the same pot.

She briefly flirted with a career in musical theater (she even auditioned for DePaul’s theater program), but bailed when she realized the stage she belonged on didn’t require jazz hands.

A venom-laced breakup track inspired by Requiem for a Dream, it blew up on TikTok, hit 12M+ streams on Spotify, and landed her in the Billboard Hot R&B Songs Top 10.

A remix with fellow Floridian Summer Walker threw gasoline on the fire, and her From The Block performance racked up a million views in weeks.

Follow-ups like W1LL U L13? and Cut Up kept her momentum sharp—SoundCloud even crowned the latter as Track of the Day in early 2025.

Then came the debut: From Florida’s Finest dropped last week that made Billboard name her their R&B Rookie of the Month before the album even hit.

Now based in L.A. and signed to a label run by Akon’s brother, SAILORR’s no longer just Jacksonville’s secret. She’s an independent force, backed by Wasserman Music, making alt-R&B that’s clever, confrontational, and completely her own.