UNSTOPPABLE

"When you have a soothing yet strong stage presence, a killer voice and serious songwriting skills you can’t expect another thing that your audience’s love. Meet the majestic Lianne La Havas, our Artist of The Week, who has all that to offer and more.”

Lianne (what a lovely name!) is British and grew up in South London, a fact that honestly didn’t come to me as a surprise, as it seems that most of the UK’s music scene chases me.

Her father, Henry Vlahavas is Greek and her mother Lorraine Barnes is Jamaican. Talking about names, Lianne La Havas’ artistic name is an adaptation of her father’s surname, her real one is Lianne Charlotte Barnes.

Lianne La Havas performing.

(Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LIANNE_LA_HAVAS_-1.jpg | Author: Ludovic Etienne)

I first heard of Miss La Havas, through her gig as an opening act for Coldplay’s 2016 South American tour “A Head Full Of Dreams”. And, although it was her first time playing here, her confidence, immense charisma and powerful performance left everyone wishing that her 8-songs-set would last a lot longer. In fact, her success was such, that she decided to perform an additional secret pocket show. Which, as you can imagine, was sold out and got her a thriving network of new fans.

Amazing video performance by Lianne, for her song "Unstoppable", definitely worth to watch!

Growing up, she spent most of her time on her grandparents’ house, as her parents were separated and worked long hours. Since she was little, she’s always loved to sing. By the age of 11 she wrote her first song but only at 18, she learned how to play the guitar (a situation that I can relate to and that gives me hope of being able to play the guitar well in the future, if I may say so). Her father is a bus driver and an amateur musician; as a multi-instrumentalist, he taught her the basics of guitar and piano.

Even though her parents were divorced, she credits them as her major musical influences as they had a diverse taste in music and listened to albums all the time. Her first experiences in the musical career started during school, where she joined the school choir.

Some years later, she studied with the singer-songwriter Allan Rose. Soon enough, they became friends and Allan introduced her to other musicians who have helped her develop her sound and record her first demos. One of these other musicians was Paloma Faith, who, amazed by Lianne’s voice, invited her to be one of her backing vocals on an upcoming tour.

In 2008, Duncan Ellis, owner of Scruffy Bird Artists Management discovered La Havas’ work through her MySpace page. Two years later, she had signed with Warner Bros. Records. As she wanted to produce new material, Warner gave her two years to improve her songwriting skills before publicly releasing any music.

Warner’s decision seems to have really paid off in the end, as her first EP Lost &Found really helped to put her on new fans’ radar and even got her to make her television debut, at the programme Later… With Jools Holland. At this show, Lianne met the folk band Bon Iver and, shortly after, was invited to be their supporting act on their North America tour in December 2011.

09 July 2012 was also an important date on Lianne’s agenda, this was the day she released her debut album Is Your Love Big Enough?. The album received huge critical acclaim, being nominated for important prizes, such as the Mercury Prize and making her win iTunes' Best Album of The Year. Stil, in 2012, La Havas was nominated to BBC’s Sound of… 2012.

The most important partnerships she has done were with Paul Epworth (Adele’s producer), Prince (with whom she became great friends with) and Stephen McGregor, also known as Di Genius, a jamaican producer that helped La Havas to explore new sounds and put together her second studio album Blood (2015), an album about family and reconnecting with your roots.

Lianne performing in a festival with a beautiful green summer dress.

(Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LianneLaHavas_June2013_4.jpg | Author: Jean-Marc Bellenger)

Lianne’s music captures the listeners attention with its smoothiness and complexity, hearing her songs attentively you can detected how deep they are, being built on with many layers, which you can slowly savour while immersed on her outstanding lyrics.

One of her songs that most caught my attention was Green & Gold, from the album Blood. This song sums up the LP really well: it is confident, full of attitude and honest. It’s like we’re sitting on Lianne’s living room getting to know her better, listening to her tell us all about her life and childhood. And, although its lyrics are powerful and the rhythm complex, you can feel nothing but complete bliss and calmness while it is being played.

Green & Gold reminds me of South of The River, by Tom Misch, which we talked about here.

Unstoppable is another track worth mentioning, her pleasant vocal tone mixed with the strong, marked beats throughout the song are so involving that you can’t help but dance along.

Lianne is currently working and finishing her third album, don’t miss out on her amazing work as we’re sure you’ll hear a lot about her in the future. To learn more, head to her website.

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