Nia Archives: The Artist Who Put Jungle Back at the Heart of British Music

Nia Archives is Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt, a jungle producer, DJ and singer born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in September 1999 (so 27 by the end of September 2026) and raised in Leeds, known for taking jungle back into the UK charts; her second album Emotional Junglist, released on 17 July 2026, is on the 2026 Mercury Prize shortlist, with the winner named in Newcastle on Thursday 22 October, and she plays her biggest headline show yet at Alexandra Palace on 26 November 2026. She took the fastest, most underground sound Britain ever made and turned it into chart and festival pop without sanding off a single breakbeat. In a few years she went from self-releasing a track off her student loan to a debut album that fused jungle with Britpop and soul, a MOBO award she effectively campaigned into existence alongside the Club BEMA collective, and a 2026 follow-up with guests Jorja Smith and Sampha. This is a working DJ and producer's guide to who Nia Archives actually is, the story behind the sound, and why she matters in UK dance right now. The facts below were checked in July 2026 and rechecked against current sources in late September 2026.

Nia Archives at a glance

• Real name: Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt, born September 1999 in Bradford, West Yorkshire; 27 by the end of September 2026 (the exact day is not public).
• Roots: moved to Leeds aged seven; a third-generation Windrush family whose grandmother once ran a pirate radio station with one of her sisters.
• Why now: Emotional Junglist is one of the 12 Mercury Prize 2026 Albums of the Year, winner announced on Thursday 22 October at Newcastle's Utilita Arena; Alexandra Palace Great Hall on Thursday 26 November 2026, doors 18:30, 16+.
• Genre: jungle and drum and bass, fused with Britpop, soul and indie, a sound she has called "future classic".
• Labels: her own HiJinxx (releases via Island) and, since April 2025, Up Ya Archives, also a weekly NTS Radio show of the same name.
• Debut album: Silence Is Loud (April 2024), a genre-blending breakthrough.
• New album: Emotional Junglist, released 17 July 2026 on Hijinxx/Island, 15 tracks with features from Jorja Smith and Sampha; number one on the UK Dance Albums Chart and number 30 on the UK Albums Chart.
• Awards: won the MOBO for Best Electronic/Dance Act in 2022, a category she campaigned to create, plus three BRIT nominations (Rising Star 2023; British Artist of the Year and Best Dance Act 2025), NME and DJ Mag awards, and Mercury Prize shortlistings for Silence Is Loud in 2024 and Emotional Junglist in 2026.
• 2026 live: a debut live band show, dates in the US, Japan and Europe, and a festival summer from Sónar and Parklife to Lowlands and ARC in Chicago.

Who is Nia Archives?

Behind the name is Dehaney Hunt, born in Bradford in 1999 and raised in Leeds from the age of seven. Her story is woven right through her music. She is a third-generation Windrush family member, her grandmother having travelled from Jamaica to Bradford at fourteen, and family history includes a pirate radio station run by her grandmother and one of her grandmother's sisters, the kind of detail that explains a lot about where her instincts come from. Her early life was hard: she left the family home at sixteen, moved around the north, including spells in Bury and a hostel in Radcliffe where she struggled financially, and found her calling through jungle documentaries and the women in them.

In 2017 that sent her south, onto a music production course and into a warehouse in Hackney Wick, where the Nia Archives project took shape. The crucial point is that she is not a tourist in this music. Jungle gave her a community and a language at a moment when she needed both, and she has called it "a real culture", which is why her version of it never feels like a costume.

The DIY rise: from "Sober Feels" to her own label

The breakthrough was pure do-it-yourself. In 2020 she sent her track "Sober Feels" to established jungle labels and got no takers, so she released it herself under the name Nia Archives on her own imprint, HiJinxx. Then she did the unglamorous, decisive thing: she spent around £500 of her student finance on digital advertising to push it. The gamble worked. The song found an audience, and by 2023 it had been streamed millions of times. That is the whole Nia Archives ethic in one move, control the music, back yourself, and treat marketing as part of the art rather than something done to you later. She built a fanbase before the industry came calling, which is exactly why she has been able to dictate terms ever since.

The sound: jungle meets Britpop and soul

Nia Archives makes jungle, the breakneck, breakbeat-driven sound that grew out of the UK rave scene, but she runs it through a songwriter's filter. Her records keep the frenetic, chopped Amen-break energy of classic jungle and lace it with the things jungle traditionally left out: Britpop's '60s-tinged melodies, Motown and soul warmth, indie-rock feeling and her own clear, vulnerable vocals. She has described jungle as "the bastard child of dance music", and she treats that outsider status as a licence rather than a limit.

The result is music that works at 170 BPM in a dark room and also on daytime radio, which is an almost impossible balance to strike. Where a lot of modern drum and bass chases either nostalgia or pure aggression, Archives writes proper songs about loneliness, family, self-acceptance and love, then wraps them in breakbeats. It is jungle you can cry to, and that emotional core is what pulled the genre back into the centre of British pop culture.

Silence Is Loud: the album that rewrote the rulebook

The statement record was Silence Is Loud, released on 12 April 2024 through Island and co-produced with Ethan P. Flynn. It reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and was shortlisted for the 2024 Mercury Prize, 27 years after Roni Size/Reprazent's jungle album New Forms won it. Rather than a club tool stretched to album length, it played like an organic, experimental pop record, full of Britpop, Motown and alt-rock colour, with the frenetic energy of jungle drum patterns underneath. It explored loneliness, self-acceptance, parental estrangement and love, both unconditional and unrequited, and it landed as one of the most acclaimed British debuts of its year.

Even the title carries weight. Archives has explained that silence can read as weakness, the things you were too afraid to say, but that holding your tongue can also be a form of power. That refusal to treat jungle as a purely physical, lyric-light genre is the whole point. She made a jungle album you listen to for the writing as much as the drums.

How she made the MOBOs change the rules

The clearest sign of her influence is institutional. Frustrated that the MOBO Awards, which celebrate Black British and global Black music, had no dedicated home for electronic and dance artists, Archives wrote an open letter calling for one. The MOBOs introduced a Best Electronic/Dance Act category, and she won the inaugural award in 2022. It is hard to think of a more direct example of an artist reshaping the system around her rather than waiting for it to notice her. She has since earned three BRIT Award nominations, for the BRITs Rising Star award in 2023 and both Best Dance Act and British Artist of the Year in 2025, which Beatportal and Resident Advisor reported as a first for a jungle artist, even though she did not win, alongside awards from NME and DJ Mag and the half-joking, half-serious nickname "Queen of the North".

Emotional Junglist: the 2026 album

In 2026 she went further. Her second album, Emotional Junglist, was released on 17 July 2026 through Hijinxx and Island, a 15-track record written across a single year and made with a strong supporting cast: James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Blur), her returning collaborator Ethan P. Flynn, and the pop songwriter Julia Michaels, with guest appearances from Jorja Smith and Sampha. The theme is love in all its forms, not the idealised version, reflecting a year in which she both fell into and out of it, with the flirtatious single "Danger", the defiant "Boys In Blue", firing back at an ex who called the police on her, and the euphoric "Vertical" trailing the album across 2026, and a 15-track listing that includes "Get Me Down" with Jorja Smith, the fourth single, and "Tender" with Sampha. It went to number one on the UK Dance Albums Chart and number 30 on the UK Albums Chart, and on 30 July 2026 it was named one of the 12 Mercury Prize Albums of the Year; the winner is announced at Newcastle's Utilita Arena on Thursday 22 October 2026.

The title doubles as a mission statement. "Emotional Junglist" is exactly what she has spent her career proving you can be: someone who lives in the hardest, fastest end of dance music and still leads with feeling. On the evidence of the singles and the calibre of collaborators, it is a bid to make jungle a fully mainstream album proposition without softening the breaks.

2026 live: a jungle live band and a packed festival run

The live leap is just as ambitious. In 2026 Archives took her debut live band show, "Out of Her Shell", on the road, a real reinvention for an artist who built her name DJing, with intimate dates in Leeds, London and New York in May and a full-band festival debut at Sónar in June. The festival summer was enormous: Sónar in Barcelona and Parklife in Manchester in June, Lowlands in the Netherlands in August and ARC in Chicago on 4 September, with Boardmasters, All Points East and Sziget also on her announced run. The next London date is her biggest headline show yet: Alexandra Palace's Great Hall on Thursday 26 November 2026, on her Emotional World Tour. It follows her 2024 Glastonbury appearance on the West Holts Stage and one of her more characterful stunts that year, DJing the "Nia Archives Express", a train chartered to carry fans from London to the festival.

That instinct for spectacle with a human touch, a train rave, a live band, a festival headline that still feels like a community, ties her to the wider shift in club culture towards shared, in-person experience, and it sits alongside the broader UK breakbeat resurgence we have tracked through garage and drum and bass.

Essential Nia Archives tracks

If you are new to her, start with "Baianá", her 2022 single and one of the tracks that broke her, a euphoric, sample-flipped jungle anthem. "Forbidden Feelingz" is the title track of her breakthrough EP and a definitive early statement. "Sober Feels" is where it all began. From Silence Is Loud, "Crowded Roomz" and "Cards on the Table" show the songwriting-plus-breakbeats formula at its best, and "F.A.M.I.L.Y" is the emotional core. The 2026 singles "Danger" and "Boys In Blue" point to where she is heading next. Together they explain why jungle, a sound many had written off as a nineties relic, is back in the charts.

Why Nia Archives matters

Nia Archives matters because she did three difficult things at once. She made jungle, a genre long treated as underground heritage, feel completely current and emotionally direct. She did it as a self-made, self-releasing artist who built her audience before the industry arrived, which gave her the power to keep control. And she changed an institution, the MOBOs, to make room for the music she loves. Add a band, a Mercury-shortlisted second album and an international tour, and you have the most important figure in the British jungle revival, and one of the clearest proofs that the most underground sounds can reach the mainstream without selling out their roots. For the wider revival she leads, our profile of Tim Reaper covers its most prolific engine, and the best jungle and drum and bass tracks of 2026 maps the records driving it.

FAQ

What is Nia Archives' real name?

Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt. She was born in September 1999 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and performs as Nia Archives.

Where is Nia Archives from, and how old is she?

She was born in Bradford in September 1999 and moved to Leeds aged seven, so she turns 27 in September 2026; the exact day is not public. She is from a third-generation Windrush family.

What kind of music does Nia Archives make?

Jungle and drum and bass fused with Britpop, soul and indie influences and her own vocals, a melodic, emotional take on breakbeat music she has called "future classic".

What is Silence Is Loud?

Her debut album, released on 12 April 2024 and co-produced with Ethan P. Flynn. It blends jungle breakbeats with Britpop, Motown and alt-rock, and explores loneliness, family and love. It reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and was shortlisted for the 2024 Mercury Prize.

What is Emotional Junglist?

Nia Archives' second album, released 17 July 2026. The 15-track record features Jorja Smith and Sampha and contributions from James Ford and Julia Michaels, with singles "Danger", "Boys In Blue", "Vertical" and "Get Me Down", and explores love in all its forms. It is on the 2026 Mercury Prize shortlist; the winner is announced on 22 October 2026.

Did Nia Archives win a MOBO Award?

Yes. After writing an open letter urging the MOBO Awards to create a dedicated electronic and dance category, she won the inaugural Best Electronic/Dance Act award in 2022. She also has three BRIT Award nominations, for the BRITs Rising Star award in 2023 and both Best Dance Act and British Artist of the Year in 2025, plus NME and DJ Mag awards.

What are Nia Archives' best songs?

Key tracks include "Baianá", "Forbidden Feelingz", "Sober Feels", "Crowded Roomz", "Cards on the Table" and "F.A.M.I.L.Y", plus her 2026 singles "Danger" and "Boys In Blue".

Sources

• Wikipedia on Dehaney Hunt's biography, Bradford and Leeds upbringing, Windrush family and early career
• The Face, Loud And Quiet, Clash and GRAMMY.com interviews on her sound, jungle culture and Silence Is Loud
• DIY and Dork on the 2026 album Emotional Junglist (released 17 July 2026; tracklist, collaborators, singles "Danger" and "Boys In Blue")
• MOBO Awards coverage of the Best Electronic/Dance Act category and her 2022 win; Beatportal and Resident Advisor on her record three BRIT nominations as a jungle artist; NME and DJ Mag award records
• 2026 single coverage of "Boys In Blue", "Danger" and "Vertical" and the Emotional Junglist tracklist (GRM Daily, NME, DJ Mag, The Line of Best Fit); Boardmasters 2026 live-show announcement
• Official tour pages, MusicRadar on the Glastonbury train, and 2026 festival listings (Sónar, Parklife, Sziget, Lowlands, ARC); Resident Advisor event listings for her 2026 dates
• Mercury Prize, "2026 Mercury Prize Albums of the Year Revealed" (30 July 2026), for the shortlist and the 22 October awards show; Alexandra Palace event page for 26 November 2026; Wikipedia (Brit Awards 2025, Emotional Junglist) for nominations and chart peaks

This guide is part of House of MNEEMO's ongoing coverage of the electronic and club music scene, written by London-based DJ and producer MNEEMO, with millions of streams to his name and a party series running through some of London's best clubs.