A voice drenched with soul and a graduate of music composition -Laura Mvula is being tipped for great things in 2013.
26-year-old Laura Mvula is one of only three acts to appear both in the BBC Sound of 2013 poll and on the shortlist for the Brits Critics' Choice award.
Previous winners of both these prestigious awards include Jessie J, Emeli Sandé, Florence + the Machine and Adele. But Laura is almost a complete unknown at this point, that is until The Guardian and Observer began to write about her in recent days.
Her style of singing bears the influence of Jill Scott and Erykah Badu and there are hallmarks too of the classical choral music she listened to at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where she studied composition.
The singer was born Laura Douglas, and Mvula is in fact her husband's name. She met her hubby at the aforementioned Birmingham Conservatoire. "I don't think I have a great voice," the 26-year singer recently told The Guardian. "I think what I'm doing is interesting, and I can't wait to see the response to this project."
She is referring here to her debut album, due in March, which will showcase her extarordinary voice, swathed in strings. Her considerable vocal powers are enhanced along by horns, celeste, tubular bells,double bass, harp and timpani. "I've become a bit obsessed with getting the right orchestral sound," she says.
The singer grew up in King's Heath, Birmingham, in a religious household where pop music was frowned upon. Her father demanded she take piano lessons which she hated.
But she credits her dad at least with introducing her to the msujic of some great jazzz players and singers. And she recalls irritating him when she spotted and pointed out a bum note on one of his cherished Miles Davis records. So, expect no bum notes on what is coming down the tracks in a March product from Laura Mvula.
