Imelda May

Imelda May at the Madgarden Festival, July 1st, 2015

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Love tattoo   UK 58  gold 11/01/2008 (4 weeks)   IE 1 29/01/2009 (255 weeks) Mayhem   UK 7th  gold 10/16/2010 (37 weeks)   US 108 08/06/2011 (1 week)   IE 1  × 2 Double platinum 09/09/2010 (198 weeks) Tribal   UK 3 05/10/2014 (8 weeks)   US 92 10/11/2014 (1 week)   IE 1 05/01/2014 (46 weeks) Life Love Flesh Blood   CH 33 04/30/2017 (1 week)   UK 5  silver 04/28/2017 (9 weeks)   IE 2 04/14/2017 (49 weeks)

Singles

Mayhem   IE 24 09/09/2010 (3 weeks) Kentish Town Waltz   IE 25th 12/16/2010 (11 weeks) Make a wish   IE 46 12/22/2011 (1 week) Johnny Got A Boom Boom   IE 88 04/26/2012 (1 week) It's Good To Be Alive   IE 19th 05/01/2014 (5 weeks) Tears Of Clew Bay   IE 89 December 18, 2014 (1 week)

Imelda May (born July 10, 1974 in Dublin ; real name Imelda Mary Higham, born Clabby ) is an Irish singer and musician . Their music can be described as a mixture of neo rockabilly , blues and jazz .

Childhood and youth

Imelda May is the youngest of five siblings. Growing up in the Liberties , the historical part of the Irish capital, she came into contact with different styles of popular music as a child. Her preferences were mainly folk and rock'n'roll . Imelda May describes her musical influences as follows: “My brother was a big Elvis fan. In his room I found recordings of Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent . I thought this music was fantastic. ” Other formative influences were the blues musician Elmore James and the jazz singer Billie Holiday .

Imelda May had her first appearance as a singer in an advertisement for fish fingers. At sixteen she made her first appearances in Dublin clubs - among others alongside Mike Sanchez, a British blues musician and pianist. It quickly became an integral part of the Dublin club scene. She received feedback from older fellow musicians that her voice was good, but not too rough. On her website, she reports that her father once gave her similar feedback. He once brought the crying Imelda to a gig and asked, “Is your heart broken? Well. Now you can sing the blues too. ” According to May, this episode was a decisive turning point in her career.

Musical career

Imelda May began her career as a professional musician in 2003. Under her maiden name Imelda Clabby, she formed her first band and released her first album, No Turning Back . Maintained in May's typical rockabilly style, she later recorded the album again and released it on her own label - now under her stage name Imelda May. In 2007 she was signed by Ambassador Records, a sub-label of Universal Music Group .

In the same year their second album, Love Tattoo , was released, which rose to number one on the Irish music charts . Love Tattoo received some rave reviews. The album also caught the attention of British band leader and TV presenter Jools Holland . Holland supported May on live tours and promoted them on his TV show Later with Jools Holland , a BBC music show for contemporary music, of which individual episodes are also repeated on the ZDFtheaterkanal . In early 2009, the two singles Johnny Got A Boom Boom and Big Bad Handsome Man were released . In the same year, the musician received the industry award Female Artist of the Year . In 2009 she toured the United States as supporting act for Jamie Cullum . As part of the music program Other Voices , the Irish TV station RTÉ brought unplugged recordings of the two singles on August 14, 2009. In autumn 2010 Imelda May performed three concerts in Germany - in Berlin , Hamburg and Cologne . In September of the same year, Mayhem was released , their third studio album, which reached number one in the Irish charts.

As part of TV shows and live concerts, Imelda May completed numerous appearances with other musicians - including Alison Moyet , Dionne Warwick , Bryan Ferry , Anastacia , the Supremes , Sister Sledge , the Scissor Sisters , the Dubliners , Madeleine Peyroux , Matt Bianco , Elvis Costello , Jools Holland, Jeff Beck , Jeff Goldblum , Elton John and Tom Jones . In addition to her band work, she sings regularly at the Candy Box Burlesque Club in Birmingham . She has been married to guitarist and band member Darrel Higham since 1998. In an interview with the music weblog Totallydublin in April 2009, she stated that she was a vegetarian.

Style and reviews

The style of the singer and band is recognizable based on rock'n'roll and rockabilly elements. The amalgamation with other styles, especially jazz, blues, pop and folk song elements, is regularly emphasized in the media. The styling also attracts a lot of attention: the type of appearance including the inclusion of stylistic elements from pin-up design and neoburlesque as well as the staging of the lifestyle of the rock'n'roll era of the 1950s and 1960s . The weblog Popammlung.de announced the singer's appearance in Cologne in autumn 2010 as follows: (...) “Imelda May reaches people not only through her music. Her eye-catching style and her clearly cool, but also bizarre 50s look have already put her on the cover of the 'Irish Sunday Times Style'. (...) On her new album 'Mayhem', Imelda May is developing her unusually fresh mix of classical music styles further, and it also shows her outstanding songwriting qualities. "

The web portal Promiflash.de also focused on the singer's game with accessories from the fifties: “It seems as if Imelda has leased Fifties Rock for herself and can therefore easily sing baseballs on the wall. Her powerful voice is unique and has a high recognition value , just like her stylish rockabilly look, which consists of great clothes and twisted quotes. "

Mayhem , the third album , also received positive reviews . Musikwoche.de drew the following summary: “The word 'Mayhem' for Imelda May certainly doesn't just mean chaos. Rather, it makes a name for itself as a mood cannon for high demands, but which can also pull the emotional trump card at any time, for example with the 'Kentish Town Waltz'. The fact that she traces the classic 'Tainted Love' back to its soul essence also suggests that Imelda May knows exactly what she's doing. And what she's doing here is good. "

Discography

Studio albums

Imelda May at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, 2013

• No Turning Back (Foot Tapping Records, 2005)
• Love Tattoo (Decca / Universal, 2008)
• Mayhem (Decca / Universal, 2010)
• Mike Sanchez and His Band Featuring Imelda May - Almost Grown (Doopin Music, 2012) - contains previously unreleased session recordings from 2004
• Tribal (Decca, 2014)
• Life Love Flesh Blood (Decca 2017)

Singles

Imelda May (2010)

• Johnny Got a Boom Boom (Decca / Universal, 2008)
• Big Bad Handsome Man (Decca / Universal, 2008)
• Psycho (Decca / Universal, 2008)
• Mayhem (Decca / Universal, 2010)
• Kentish Town Waltz (Decca / Universal, 2010)
• Inside Out (Decca / Universal, 2011)
• This Is Rockabilly (2015)

swell

1. ↑ IE chart history UK chart history CH chart history / US chart history
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK IE
3. ↑ Interview with Imelda May on RTÉ Fashion website, December 9, 2008 ( Memento from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Website of the singer, section "Biography" ( Memento from September 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Article and interview recording on stv.tv
6. ↑ Article on Irish Times website, January 8, 2010
7. ↑ Concert preview on Fastforward Magazine website on October 7, 2010
8. ↑ Interview with Imelda May on Totally Dublin, April 8, 2009 ( Memento from January 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Imelda May. Concert announcement on www.popammlung.de, November 2010 ( Memento from November 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Imelda May: Rockabilly tube with a lot of style. Promiflash.de, November 21, 2010
11. ↑ CD review at mediabiz musik.woche by Manfred Gillig-Degrave

Web links

Commons : Imelda May  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the singer (English)
• Imelda May: Queen of rockabilly takes center stage at last . Article on The Independent, July 23, 2010 (English)