Her notable performances include opening for the MOBO Awards "Pre-Show" in 2016, and playing the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 6 March 2018.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson was born in London, England, of Jamaican heritage;[2] her mother is a teacher and her father is a television, film and theatre actor Wil Johnson.

[5] While in America in 2010, she became the first non-American to win first place at the Apollo Theater's famous Amateur Night,[6][7] whose previous winners included Ella Fitzgerald and Jimi Hendrix.

[8] Performing both classical and contemporary music – she sings while playing the cello and has described her song-writing style as "a bit of soul, hip-hop and reggae"[9] – Witter-Johnson has toured with artists including Anoushka Shankar, Courtney Pine, Andrea Bocelli and Peter Gabriel.

[3][10] She has said: "Some of my inspirations both musical and non-musical are Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, Eckhart Tolle, Bach, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Sojourner Truth, Berio, Stravinsky, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson, Ligeti, Jill Scott, Marcus Garvey and Sting....They have encouraged me to celebrate my authenticity, to explore my unique mode of expression and to write from a place of personal truth.