At last year’s Brits, Dave’s showstopping appearance climaxed with the rap genius coaxing a solo from his flame-throwing guitar. Yet the first sign that his performance was going to be incendiary came during its opening verse, delivered by an unknown singer with a stunningly bluesy voice, almost terrifying in its throaty power. That’s Konyikeh, a 23-year-old Londoner classically trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, who’s just released her superb debut EP, Litany.

Its five songs provide an array of showcases for Konyikeh’s elemental vocals, displaying her talent at writing for violin, piano or guitar. There’s the Spanish-tinged Sorrow, the first song she ever wrote, aged 13, or the sparse, warm soul of Girls Like Us and Teenage Dreams, which are quietly devastating on the humiliations of feeling stunted in the shadow of other people’s privilege.

“These are songs from the darkest time in my life,” she told Clash magazine, “things I wrote in my teenage years that held me together.” The “litany” title is because these songs are “little prayers to myself”. Absence, loss and rejection may be threaded through Litany, but it’s never too bleak to contend with, as Konyikeh’s voice portrays strength and vulnerability in a singularly mesmerising way, an unhurried, calm unfurling of feelings with majestically delivered lyrical barbs.

Hopefully she’ll be back on stage soon, as hers is a talent we should cherish.

• Litany is available now via FAMM