"I go and sleep on your shadow"
Literally within seconds of hearing the song Venom of Angels you will be bitten and smitten by Irma. While embraced by 50's piano, a bopping do wop sway and backing singers singing "shoobie do wahs" in the background, it is Irma's incredibly alluring vocal aesthetic that pushes enduring forever in love buttons with her earthy lilt and back in the throat gritty wailing sustains.
The 31 year old singer songwriter and soul pop producer stirs up fans everywhere she goes or everywhere her songs or videos are heard or seen. She has that kind of voice that gets to you. Raised in Doala, Cameroon who performed acoustic covers in her bedroom as a teenager, she now is based out of Paris, France. Amazing.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Soul pop artist Irma is one of France's biggest success stories to date with a huge online fanbase watching her every move. Irma went from performing acoustic covers in her bedroom as a teenager to becoming a highly accomplished soul-pop producer, singer-songwriter and online sensation and has completed several worldwide tours.
The time of rebirth has come for Irma, 31 years old, born in Douala and Paris by adoption, singer and citizen of the world as it is today... but also as one would dream.
Born Irma Pany in Bangangte, Cameroon to professional parents, Irma grew up in Douala where she started playing classical piano aged seven. Her parents were a great inspiration musically: Her father played bass and her mother sang in the Chuch Choir. They met at university in Paris and after returning to Cameroon they vowed to send their children to school there. And so it was that Irma and her siblings moved to Paris to pursue their studies. It was here that Irma blossomed into a fully-rounded artist - both as a writer and performer. It wasn’t long before people started to notice. She signed a record deal in 2008 while continuing to develop her online presence, hooking up with established artists to perform various classic songs including Will.i.am (the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back”). This buzz led to her being chosen by Google for their ad campaign, that not only featured her as an artist but also featured her debut single I Know . She subsequently reached the Top Ten in France in 2012 with this single and its parent album, Letter to the Lord and - notably - signed a U.S. deal with Universal Republic. Her star was rising. She followed this by heading to NYC to start of her second album Faces with the very producers she revered while playing her favourite songs as a child: Jerry Wonder, Rodney Jerkins, and Doc McKinney. There, with their guidance, she experimented with many musical styles which she later brought back to her creative home of Paris where she then started work on her latest album The Dawn.
This plurality is obvious from the first listening of her 3rd album. Mixed in London by Rhys Downing (Mark Ronson, Brett Anderson, Hollysiz...), it was produced by the singer, who brings together everything she loves: R&B, pop, blues, folk, soul, a mix she calls "afrofolk", where Lauryn Hill, James Blake or Michael Jackson dialogue.
Between the dancefloor and the intimate melancholy revealed, "The Dawn" reveals the personality of an artist who has decided to assert herself as she is. A powerful woman is born in front of us, her name is Irma and we can no longer do without her.
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