To coincide with the single, she will be playing some London shows next month. A raspy, up-tempo soul number, it sets the tone for her album, which follows in January. Laura's new single, From My Heart To Yours, is out on November 10. 'I wanted my debut album to be 100 per cent from me.' She spent four years crafting her album, writing and arranging the songs herself and resisting the urge to hook up with any bigname collaborators. With Atlantic Records hovering, she didn't remain unsigned for very long. She played with Al Green and James Brown and, in 2006, became the first unsigned artist to win a Meteor, Ireland's equivalent of a Brit. As one of the few black singers in Dublin, she would often get the support slot when a visiting R&B star headlined. A year later, she won an Irish song competition and used the prize money to fund her musical ambitions. I fell in love with soul.'īy 14, Izibor was gigging regularly in Dublin.
One door opened to the next - first I discovered Marvin Gaye, then Otis Redding. But I found myself fancying music at about 13. She says: 'My mother raised five kids on her own, so there wasn't much time to buy records. Her debut album, Let The Truth Be Told, out next year, combines funky workouts with gospel ballads and lush orchestration.īorn and raised in Dublin, the piano-playing 21-year-old didn't grow up in a particularly musical household. In common with Alicia Keys and Corinne Bailey Rae, Laura has a healthy respect for classic soul and a penchant for more modern, touchy-feely pop. Dubbed 'the soul of Ireland', she is ready to take her place alongside VV Brown and Ladyhawke in the vanguard of a fast-emerging wave of female singers who could rule the roost next year. Dublin's leading R&B diva and a singer-songwriter with a sassy lilt in her voice.