Kaytranada Canadian DJ Born 1992 in Port-au-Prince

Early life

Kaytranada, whose birth name is Louis Kevin Celestin, was born on 25 August 1992 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His family relocated to Saint-Hubert, a suburb of Montreal, shortly afterwards, and that is where he grew up and where his musical activity began. When he was around fourteen, his brother Lou Phelps showed him FL Studio, the software he used to start producing his own tracks. The first record he ever sampled, at fifteen, was "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire. He left high school before graduating so that he could work on music full time and help support his family.

Career

Celestin began releasing material in 2010 under the alias Kaytradamus. After two projects under that name he switched to Kaytranada in 2012. A reworking of Janet Jackson's "If" spread rapidly on SoundCloud in 2013 and brought him much wider attention. He built up a large body of mixtapes, remixes and original projects, and he toured cities across Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia.

In December 2014 he signed an exclusive deal with XL Recordings. During 2015 he opened for Madonna on two dates of her Rebel Heart Tour, one in Canada and one in the United States. His first studio album, 99.9%, arrived on 6 May 2016 and featured guests such as GoldLink, AlunaGeorge, Syd, Anderson .Paak and Vic Mensa. He also appeared on "Got It Good", a track from British singer Craig David's album Following My Intuition.

His second album, Bubba, followed on 13 December 2019 through RCA Records. Together with his brother he forms the hip hop duo the Celestics. In spring 2023 he performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and, with rapper Aminé, put out the joint album Kaytraminé on 19 May 2023. Its lead single, "4eva", included Pharrell Williams, and the record also carried verses from Freddie Gibbs, Big Sean, Amaarae and Snoop Dogg.

Timeless, his third solo album, was announced in May 2024 and released on 7 June 2024. Childish Gambino, PinkPantheress, Don Toliver and Ravyn Lenae were among its collaborators. In August 2025 he announced his fourth studio album, Ain't No Damn Way!, which came out on 15 August 2025. Its first single, "Space Invader", appeared the following day and is built on a sample of "My Life" by Latrelle featuring Kelis.

His recordings are classed as hip-hop and electronic music. By one count from his career so far, he has put out thirteen projects and forty-one remixes, which gives a sense of how much of his output sits outside the studio albums listed above. His professional name is usually printed in capital letters, and it is sometimes shortened to KAYTRA.

Recognition

Kaytranada appears in the records with two nominations. The better known of them is the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, for which he was a nominee in 2020. His Instagram account had about 1.76 million followers when last recorded in October 2026.