Shura

Shura (born June 17, 1991 in Hammersmith ; bourgeois Aleksandra Lilah Yakunina-Denton ) is a British singer , record producer and songwriter working in the fields of electronic pop music, alternative rock , contemporary R&B , new wave and synth-pop .

Life

Denton was born in 1991 in Hammersmith, a district in south-west London, and grew up there. She is of Russian descent from her mother, who works as an actress, and of British descent from her father, who works as a documentary producer. Her parents divorced when she was three years old. Denton has two brothers. Her twin brother Nicholas featured in several of her music videos, including the later singles Touch and What's it gonna be? , a guest appearance. At the age of 11, Denton played football for the Manchester City female youth team . She learned to play the guitar from the age of thirteen. Three years later, Denton quit the soccer game and began producing his own music.

During her studies at University College London , she formed a duo with guitarist Patrick Duncombe.

After graduating from University College, Denton spent a gap year in Brazil, where she studied a. dealt with the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Denton is openly gay and speaks English and Russian fluently . Her stage name "Shura" is a short form of her real name.

Musical career

In 2011 she met the music producer Hiatus . Both recorded a remix of Denton's Song River and released it that same year. After the release of the single Fortune's Fool in 2012, the duo released other songs, including Cloud City , Iran Air and We can be ghosts now .

In 2014 they released their first own single, Touch , a co-production in which Joel Pott from the British band Athlete also played. The music video was published on the Internet by Denton and achieved a high number of clicks on the Internet and mostly positive reviews. This was followed by Just Once , Indecision and a remix of Jessie Ware's Say You Love Me .

In early March 2015, Denton released the single 2Shy , followed by White Light , which was also released as an EP of the same name. Both songs made it to the Billboard Hot 100 .

Denton also appeared at various well-known British festivals such as Festival N ° 6 and Latitude. On February 18, 2016, Touch appeared again in a duet with Talib Kweli. The demo version was released as a limited single on Record Store Day 2016.

Her first studio album, Nothing's Real, was released in Great Britain on July 8, 2016 . The album reached number 13 in the US charts. In Switzerland it rose to number 35. Some of the singles it contained had already reached placements in the British and American music charts. The album received mostly positive reviews from critics.

In 2019 Shura released the album Forevher on the Secretly Canadian label. In March 2020, Elevator Girl followed as a non-album single . The online radio station ByteFM describes the duet with the US rapper Ivy Sole as "synth-heavy R&B".

Denton's music has influences from Mariah Carey , Whitney Houston , Phil Collins , Madonna , Elton John , Pink Floyd , Diana Ross , Peter Gabriel and Tina Turner .

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
year	title	UK	CH	BE ^W	BE ^F	Remarks
2016	Nothing's real	UK13 (2 weeks) UK	CH35 (1 week) CH	BE ^W130 (1 week) BE ^W	BE ^F73 (2 weeks) BE ^F	First published: July 8, 2016
2019	Forevher	UK61 (1 week) UK	-	-	-	First published: August 16, 2019

Singles

2014: Touch
2014: Just Once
2014: Indecision
2015: 2Shy
2015: White Light
2016: What's It Gonna Be?
2016: Nothing's Real
2016: 311215
2019: Bklynldn
2019: religion
2019: The Stage
2020: Elevator Girl (feat.Ivy Sole)

With hiatus:

2011: River
2012: Fortune's Fool
2013: Iran Air
2013: Cloud City
2013: We Can Be Ghosts Now

Featurings

2015: Love for That ( feat.Mura Masa )
2016: Touch ( feat.Talib Kweli )
2018: Air ( feat.Tracey Thorn )
2019: Love Theme ( feat.Tourist )

Remixes

2011: River (by Shura himself)
2014: Say You Love Me by Jessie Ware
2015: Priestess of Pumarosa
2016: My Boy My Town by Mabel
2016: Boyfriend of Tegan and Sara
2016: Gold from Kiiara
2016: Nothing's Real (Lindstrøm & Prins Homas Remix)
2018: Canyons (FaltyDL & Shura Remix)
2018: It's Easier (Shura Remix)

Individual evidence

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Shura
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lilah Yakunina-Denton, Aleksandra (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British singer, record producer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	June 17, 1991
PLACE OF BIRTH	Manchester , UK

[1] FACT: Four Tet unveils dance floor remix of Shura's "Touch"

[2] Meet Shura, Electro Pop's Downy New Poster Girl

[3] Jump up ↑ TheFader - How Shura Turned Growing Pains Into A Glittering Pop Record

[4] BF - The second of our ones-to-watch for 2015 is the self confessed "most awkward human being in the world".

[5] BBC News - Shura interview: 'Pop music doesn't represent me'

[6] Shura: 'Football has affected my character and my work ethics which definitely affects my music

[7] NYLON - Band crush Shura (Get starry-eyed dream with pop'snew chanteuse).

[8] HungerTV - get to know: Shura

[9] Shura talks about her coming out

[10] TheFader - Meet Shura, Electro Pop's Sleepy New Poster Girl

[11] Shura on Clash

[12] Shura on Pitchfork - "Just Once"

[13] CoS New Music: Shura shares a gorgeous synthpop song "Indecision" - listen

[14] The405: Shura ennounced White Light EP

[15] DIY: Shura shares "Three Years" short film

[16] Record Store Day UK - Shura "Touch"

[17] DIY: It's a Shura Thing: "My boobs, licensed to Polydor"!

[18] Jump up ↑ No Elevator Music: Shura's Love R & B - ByteFM. In: ByteFM Blog - News and reviews from our editorial team. March 24, 2020, accessed on March 26, 2020 (German).

[19] The Telegraph: Shura - New Music

[20] Shura on Loud And Quiet

[charts-21] Chart sources: CH UK