Laura Mvula
@ the Love Supreme Jazz Festival
5 July 2014

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Biography

Laura Mvula (née Douglas) is a British soul singer-songwriter from Birmingham. Her debut album “Sing to the Moon,” was released on March 4, 2013.

Mvula grew up in the Birmingham suburbs of Selly Park and Kings Heath with two younger siblings, and was influenced by the girl band Eternal. She sang with Black Voices, an a capella group set up by her aunt. She graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire with a degree in composition. While she was working as a supply teacher in a Birmingham secondary school, she started writing songs on her laptop. She was working as a receptionist when she sent out two demos to several people in the music industry. She is married to singer Themba Mvula.

Signed to Sony subsidiary RCA, Mvula released her debut extended play, “She,”on 16 November 2012. Her debut studio album, “Sing to the Moon,” was released on 4 March 2013. One person has described her music using a new term, “gospeldelia”. The album was preceded by the single “Green Garden.” The song is an elegy to her home in Kings Heath.

On 6 December 2012, Mvula was shortlisted for the Critics’ Choice award at the 2013 BRIT Awards. On 9 December, she was nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2013 poll, and finished in fourth position.