The songbird of new orleans
and the pride of louisiana
WITH ROBIN BARNES, MUSIC IS INGRAINED INTO THE VERY FABRIC OF HER BEING; IT’S IN HER BLOOD.
Robin Barnes, known as “The Songbird of New Orleans,” is a multi-award-winning vocalist and songwriter whose work reflects the cultural depth, history, and living traditions of her hometown. A Crescent City native raised in the Lower Ninth Ward, Barnes is widely recognized as one of New Orleans’ most compelling contemporary voices, an artist whose music functions as storytelling rooted in place, lineage, and lived experience.
Blending jazz, soul, funk, and traditional Louisiana influences, Barnes has performed on major stages around the world, from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and ESSENCE Festival to international festivals in Europe and Asia, while also appearing on national television and film. Her music has charted on Billboard, and she has been repeatedly voted “Best New Orleans Artist” by Gambit magazine.
Her debut album, Louisiana Love, honors her ninth-generation Louisiana heritage and explores themes of culture, resilience, and belonging.
A Lower Ninth Ward native, Robin’s music is rooted in culture, lineage, and storytelling.
Robin Barnes grew up in a family where stories, songs and values were passed down from eldest daughter to eldest daughter, often without being written or recorded.
After Hurricane Katrina, and the loss of elders who carried that knowledge, she felt the weight of how fragile oral tradition can be; she began learning more about her family history and creating songs. When she discovered her tumor just a few years later, it pushed her to move quickly in preserving her music, which led to the creation of her debut album, Louisiana Love.
Louisiana Love honors her ninth-generation Louisiana heritage through the rhythms, languages and culture of the state. This album is her form of oral tradition, created through music, language, collaboration, and visual storytelling, so that her daughters will always have a living record of who they come from.
Robin Barnes: Multi-award-winning vocalist and songwriter
A multi-award-winning and Billboard Top 10 charting artist, Robin Barnes blends jazz, funk, soul and second-line energy into a sound that is unmistakably New Orleans.
Named the "Songbird of New Orleans", she has performed on major stages around the world, from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and ESSENCE Festival to international festivals in Europe and Asia, while also appearing on national television and film. Barnes has shared the stage with legendary artists including Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, India.Arie, Anders Osborne, Aloe Blacc and GRAMMY-winning trumpeter Chris Botti, and has appeared as a featured performer on Daisy Jones & The Six, NCIS: New Orleans, and Bravo.
Beyond the stage, she’s also one of New Orleans’ biggest ambassadors and influencers. Robin Barnes founded Move Ya Brass, a New Orleans-based movement experience that fuses music, dance and community, along with the nonprofit Make Your Move Foundation, which expands access to culturally rooted wellness programming across Greater New Orleans.
“Nicknamed the “Songbird of New Orleans” — a play on her name, her strong, versatile voice and her love for feathered outfits — Barnes has been a regular, expressive presence at festivals and local clubs, performing a mix of R&B, jazz and funk. And she often performs with her husband, bassist Pat Casey. Barnes also created the group fitness brand Move Ya Brass.”
“On a humid Friday night at The Peacock Room in New Orleans, Robin Barnes holds a packed room in the palm of her hand. Moving effortlessly from Britney Spears to Amy Winehouse to jazz standards, she stitches genres together with a kind of ease that feels less like versatility and more like instinct. Watching faces light up as she works the room from table to table, it’s clear that her artistry is guided by emotion and human connection.
’Performing covers taught me how to listen deeply,’ Barnes tells RANGE. ‘When I move between Britney, Amy and a jazz standard, I’m stepping into different emotional languages, different rhythms and different ways of telling the truth. That freedom shows up in my original music.’”
“Some people were born to sing! That couldn’t be more true for Robin Barnes. There’s a reason why she’s called ‘The Songbird of New Orleans.’ With her career taking off, the world is her stage.”
“Growing up, all the children at my church were encouraged to join choir,” says Robin. “The first mass after my mom made me join (yes, she made me), I was given a solo in ‘Ave Maria.’ I closed my eyes and sung my heart out and when I opened them, I only looked at my mother. She was crying along with the rest of the congregation. That’s when I realized how moving music was, and that I wanted to sing for the rest of my life.”