Biography

Why are you here? What do you want to leave behind? Is there anything left to give? These are the tough questions that Angel Buchanan asked herself after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. At the time, she was nine months pregnant with her youngest son. What has emerged from the “ugliness” of this disease, however, is authenticity, happiness, and connection. “Cancer has been like a bridge back to music,” says the singer-songwriter based in Santa Barbara, California. Buchanan now approaches her craft with a new perspective, clear intentions, and an inimitable sound that seamlessly blends R&B, soul, and alt-pop.

Rife with honesty and emotion, Buchanan’s cathartic tracks tell her unique story of survival and resonate with anyone who has ever felt lost, broken, or powerless. Her soulful ballads also offer listeners a sense of strength, hope, and resilience. “You have to take responsibility and decide how you’re going to show up in the world,” says Buchanan, whose inspiring mission extends far beyond music. She wants her powerful lyrics and evocative arrangements to spark a larger movement and create a community. “No more excuses—I want people to wake up, join in, and seize life,” she adds. “It’s never too late to live.”

Buchanan is the epitome of her powerful message. Only days after a recent hospitalization, she returned to the recording studio weak in body but far from broken. “I was channeling the music from a place that was so much bigger than me,” she says. “It felt like somebody was holding me to the microphone so that I could sing.” For Buchanan, music has become an intrinsic part of her healing journey. “I’m not going to wait for the cancer to be gone to start moving my feet,” she says. “I don’t know how far I’ll get to go, but for now, I feel like I need to sing my story through song.”

Transforming trauma and tragedy into power and purpose, however, hasn’t been an easy road. Growing up the youngest of five children in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Buchanan was inducted into her family’s gospel group as soon as she was old enough to hold a mic. In the early 2000s, she opened for world-renowned artists like Prince and Ginuwine alongside her three older sisters. Known as Milenia, the sister act joined Prince’s Hit N Run tour and continued to work with the late music legend for two years before Buchanan made the decision to step away from the music business.

After a ten-year break from the stage, she says that cancer was an “awakening” that spurred her to forge a new path on her own terms. Often coming to her in dreams and visions, Buchanan’s new songs capture her vulnerability, her passion, and her unshakable determination to “live and love fearlessly. “I feel pulled off the bench, almost like the music found me again,” explains Buchanan. “During my hardest moments, music has given me the drive and will to get back in there and do what I feel in my heart.”