Corinne Bailey Rae and Laura Mvula

Laura Mvula is something of a late bloomer in the current pop landscape, at least compared to the likes of Lorde, Adele and Taylor Swift. Despite releasing her debut album after she was old enough to drive in her home country, she has more than made up for lost time by packing a whole career’s worth of success into the three years she spent promoting her debut album. Mvula was born in the suburbs of Birmingham, not exactly the most inspiring of surroundings but still, she sought out ways to feed her passion for music. By the time she was 19 she was singing with Black Voices, an a capella group set up by her aunt and soon afterwards she had formed her own band, a Jazz influenced group called Judyshouse.

Mvula continued to focus on music, directing a number of gospel and community choirs before graduating from the Birmingham Conservatoire with a degree in composition. This, of course, meant that she took up a job as a supply teacher in a Birmingham secondary school, as the demand for composition degrees in today’s job market isn’t exactly rabid. However, it was at this time that Mvula started writing her own songs on her laptop, and in 2012, she began sending the demos out to the few contacts that she had made in the music industry. One of the contacts she had made was fellow composer Steve Brown, who was so impressed with what he heard that he passed it on to his manager Kwame Kwaten, who was just as impressed and offered to become Mvulas manager.

She gladly accepted his offer and Kwaten started organizing showcases for Mvulas talent. These led to a record deal with RCA, and Mvula had such a backlog of songs that her debut E.P “She” was released in November of the same year. The E.P generated massive amounts of acclaim, leading to her first BRIT Award nomination for the 2013 Critic’s Choice award. With Brown in the producers chair, the duo got to work on her debut album soon after Mvula’s first round of proper touring, and on the 4th of March 2013, “Sing To The Moon” was released to yet more critical acclaim and a top ten placing on the U.K album chart.

Ever since then, she’s netted two MOBO Awards, released an orchestral version of her debut album and got nominated for two further BRIT Awards for British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo Artist. It’s kind of incredible to say that this is just the beginning for Laura Mvula, and when she hits the peak of her powers, she’s going to be unstoppable. For that, she comes highly recommended.