She’s the soul singer and two-time Mercury Prize and Brit Award nominee, with a public endorsement from Prince. Her album The Dreaming Room features collaborations with legend, Nile Rodgers. Laura Mvula first sang in church and later with all female acapella group Black Voices. By 2008 she had formed, and was composing for, her own jazz/neo-soul outfit Judyshouse. Mvula is a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire and holds a degree in composition. Her debut album, Sing to the Moon, was released in 2013 and garnered multiple award nominations and critical acclaim. Discussing her follow-up, 2016 album The Dreaming Room, the UK Guardian described how Mvula “pulls the listener along with her through the most serpentine songs: however, winding their routes, the melodies are almost always beautiful; however much the musical scenery shifts, it is always striking.” “Beautiful in voice and soul, lift your eyes skyward and watch this girl soar.” – Clash Magazine

Laura Mvula live in concert at Somerset House, March 2016. Opening her performance with Martin Luther King reading the lyrics to black rights protest song “We Shall Overcome”, it is clear she has something to say. Her gig at London’s beautifully lit Somerset House comes after the fatal US police shootings of two more black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, and, although she does not reference the racial tension directly, her emphasis on empowerment is pointed. “Take your broken wings and fly” she commands on the uplifting “Overcome”, sadly without featured guitarist Nile Rodgers (“I tried to get him to come and play but he said no…”).