GINNY BLACKMORE

HOMETOWN: Auckland, New Zealand

INFLUENCES: Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Lauryn Hill

ALBUM: Due out late fall

WEBSITE: ginnyblackmore.com

New Zealand native Ginny Blackmore remembers precisely the moment she decided to be an entertainer: She was 9 and sitting in a movie theater captivated by Lauryn Hill’s performance in Sister Act 2. Blackmore was raised in a religious family and had little knowledge of secular music. “It was the first time I heard hip-hop, R&B and soul,” she says. I came out of the theater and said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I chose music that day.” Blackmore threw herself into music, and eventually dropped out of high school to pursue her dream. “My parents allowed me to leave school provided I treated songwriting like a job,” Blackmore says. “I had to work from 9 to 5, five days a week. If there wasn’t music coming out of the room for longer than half hour, my dad would knock on the door.” At 19, Blackmore moved to London and within months signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV. She planned to write songs for other artists while pursuing a solo career—and Christina Aguilera wound up recording one of her songs, “Sing for Me,” for her 2012 album, Lotus. Despite her success, Blackmore was unfulfilled. “I wanted to sing my own songs so badly,” she says, “that I found it really hard to write for others.” Veteran music manager Mark Sudack arranged meetings with a couple of L.A. music execs, which eventually led to the release of her own Top 20 hit “Bones.” Blackmore is now working with British producer Step (Adam Lambert) and is preparing to release her debut album later this year. “The music is as honest as I could make it,” she says. “It’s my perspective on life. I really hope people can hear themselves in it somewhere. That’s what I care about. It’s an album for humans.”