Ones to Watch 2013 - #9 Laura Mvula

Today’s one to watch 2013 was introduced on Breaking More Waves as a new wave two months ago and has already picked up a head of media and blog love steam as she heads off for destination public popularity. She reportedly only played her first solo live performance in September at the iTunes festival in London, but this is not actually true; our favourite blog lady Flying With Anna raved about Laura Mvula after catching her at Camden Crawl 2012 in May.

Mvula, who was previously a member of the band Judyshouse released her debut limited edition single She last month and has already picked up play on daytime BBC Radio 1 through Fearne Cotton’s show. She’s what her label describes as a ‘priority act’ for 2013 and it’s easy to see why; Mvula’s soulful voice sounds utterly timeless, her classical music training impacting here possibly. Her music is the type of music to disconnect from the world to and find a space to exist only for the sound. It is a definition of beauty.

Those who have seen Laura perform live are falling over themselves with superlatives; a recent show in London left The Society of the Golden Slippers stating that her performance was “one of the most stirring live sets we've seen, ever.”

At the time of writing Laura Mvula’s Facebook page has around 900 likes. By the time you read this we suspect it will have a significantly larger number. Give it another year and we suspect some extra 0’s will have been added to that figure. Wonderful music - watch the video of She below and be blown away.

Laura Mvula - She

Laura Mvula - Like The Morning Dew

Laura Mvula - New Waves

At the end of 2011 we predicted that 2012 would be a good year for female singers with the initial L. Lana Del Rey, Lianne La Havas and Lucy Rose have all done the business and there are some others that are bubbling under right now such as Laurel and Laura Welsh that are already giving us goose bumps.

So today we’re introducing another L-lady, another Laura and another goose bump moment. Laura Mvula came to our attention yesterday thanks to a tweet recommendation to us courtesy of Belgium’s number 1 music blog Disco Naïveté. 

This jazz / soul vocalist previously fronted a band called Judyshouse and has worked with schools and young people in Birmingham on composing and performing projects. But it’s the first offering from her new solo project that has caught our ears. Formed out of delicate mirror like chimes, soft silky strings and layered voices She sounds musically like the night before Christmas – a time of hope - which is echoed by the lyrical sentiment of never giving up, even when things are going wrong.

We understand that Laura is working with Tom Elmhirst who has worked with the likes of Adele, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, so there's a good pedigree with this one. If 2012 was a good year for the L-ladies, 2013 looks like it could be equally as good.

She will be released on October 22 and you can pre-order it now on 7” vinyl using this link here.

Laura Mvula - She