Alessia Cara

Singer Alessia Cara projects a raw authenticity in everything she does.

That was certainly true when she first wowed the internet with the covers she recorded as a precociously talented 13-year-old growing up in the suburbs of Toronto.

Rather than get smoothed away, that quality is even stronger on her trip-hoppy 2015 breakthrough, “Here,” an inspirational call to arms for anyone who’s ever felt left out at a party, and “Scars to Your Beautiful,” a frank and stirring exploration of body-image issues that, in 2016, became Cara’s second Top 10 single.