Event Description : Join us on our studio stage for a Mini-Concert featuring ESTELLE!!!
She may be a born-and-raised West London girl, but we’d venture that 28-year-old Estelle Swaray is right at home in the energy of New York, her newly adopted city. She’s got the self-determination with a bit of swagger. The get-up-and-go hustle. And this is one singer/songwriter/producer/rapper who is not afraid to take risks.
The brief period since moving to NYC from London in May 2007 has been an absolute whirlwind, as Estelle gears up for her re-entry into the musical landscape with Shine, her second album. She’s the first artist to release under John Legend’s new Homeschool label, in partnership with Atlantic Records. It’s her debut on a major label, and an American one at that, but with Homeschool’s philosophy of artist control and good soul music, her affiliation with the label is at the essence of what she’s all about.
The album’s love songs, while sensual, reveal a thoughtfulness when it comes to modern day matters of the heart. “I’m a real woman. Been in relationships and been hurt, and hurt other people.” When she got into the booth with Wyclef for “Substitute Lover,” Estelle’s answer to the shorty shout-outs dominating hip hop radio, Wyclef said he had never worked with a young artist that reminded him so much of Lauryn Hill, mostly because of Estelle’s improvisational style. “I did it on a level of, let me just speak my mind, and then a lot of women out there agree with it.” My influences? Ella Fitzgerald—she’s my be all and end all. Mary J. Blige, because she’s a person I love to sing to. Recently, Dinah Washington. She’s so cheeky in performances. I like the emotion in a lot of classic rock, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses. Freddie Mercury—“Bohemian Rhapsody” is still classic. Put it on today and it’s still an original mix of sounds. Out in spring 2008, Shine is also an original mix of sounds. Where Senegal meets London and hops the pond. Where funk shimmies up against reggae and R&B. Somewhere out of this world is where you’ll find Estelle.
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