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Ebony Riley

Known to the fashion world as Riley Montana, Ebony Riley also makes deeply passionate contemporary R&B under her birth name. Unfulfilled by a highly successful modeling career that took flight in the early 2010s, Riley pursued her main passion and landed a recording contract with Interscope in 2020. The New York-based Detroit native made her commercial debut three years later with Ebony (2023), an EP she wrote to help heal from a relationship. Although it contained cathartic tracks such as "Deuce Deuce" and "Why," it also showed Riley's more humorous side on the Evelyn "Champagne" King-inspired "Draws." Her handful of 2024-2025 singles includes "Mirror," an early-'90s throwback produced by heavyweights Bryan-Michael Cox and Jermaine Dupri. Born and raised on Detroit's west side, Riley started singing and performing as a youngster in church and at school, and absorbed a mix of gospel and R&B that included the likes of the Clark Sisters, Mary J. Blige, and Lauryn Hill. In 2011, after she graduated from high school, she auditioned for America's Next Top Model and further pursued modeling in Los Angeles and New York. Near the end of 2013, she signed with a model agency and was soon featured in a Givenchy campaign, leading to a slew of high-profile modeling gigs over the next many years. Riley worked on music as her star rose in the fashion industry, and in 2020, she landed a music deal with major-label Interscope.Collaborating with a team of fellow songwriters and producers that included James Fauntleroy, Shea Taylor, Jeff Gitelman, and Hollywood Cole, Riley recorded the Ebony EP and released it in February 2023. The seven-song set was led by "Deuce Deuce," an airy if impassioned slow jam. That June, she made her stage debut in New Jersey -- on a bill that also featured fellow Michigander Queen Naija, Ari Lennox, and Jazmine Sullivan -- and performed at the BET Awards during the program's L.A. Basement Showcase segment. Also during 2023, Riley was among the models featured in the campaign for Beyoncé and Balmain's Renaissance Couture Collection, and she toured as an opener for Coco Jones. Riley continued in 2024 and 2025 with a handful of singles, including the aching "Mirror" and the sultry "Only You."
© Andy Kellman /TiVo

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Discography

20 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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