{"id":215,"date":"2010-07-06T14:08:26","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T21:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=215"},"modified":"2010-09-12T20:35:56","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T03:35:56","slug":"whos-next-imelda-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/07\/whos-next-imelda-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Imelda May"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHO’S NEXT: <\/strong><\/p>\n

IMELDA MAY<\/h1>\n
\"Imelda<\/a>

Imelda May<\/p><\/div>\n

HOMETOWN:<\/strong> Dublin, Ireland<\/p>\n

INFLUENCES:<\/strong> Billie Holiday,
\nLuke Kelly, Gene Vincent<\/p>\n

ALBUM:<\/strong> Love Tattoo<\/em>, out now<\/p>\n

WEBSITE:<\/strong> imeldamay.com<\/a><\/p>\n

MANY WHO TUNED IN DURING JEFF BECK\u2019S TRIBUTE TO the late Les Paul on the Grammy Awards earlier this year found themselves wondering about the identity of the
\nintriguing young woman singing \u201cHow High the Moon\u201d alongside the guitar great. Those listeners were getting their fi rst dose of Imelda May.<\/p>\n

Despite her youth, May, 35, was right at home singing a 70-year-old standard\u2014she grew up in Dublin listening to old-school rockabilly and blues passed down from her parents and her four older siblings. (Her distinctive fashion sense, as seen in her retro look at the Grammys, followed suit.) She began singing at age 4, harmonizing with her sister\u2019s folk group. May made her auspicious professional debut at 14 singing a commercial jingle for Findus Fish Fingers, and began performing soon after at a Dublin nightclub.<\/p>\n

In 1998 she decided to seek her fortunes in London, where she has lived ever since. There she fronted R&B and swing bands\u2014and even spent time performing in burlesque clubs. \u201cI\u2019d sing while the girls were onstage,\u201d she recalls. \u201cOne of them used to take a metal grinder to her crotch and would produce a shower of sparks. One day a spark fl ew down my throat when I was singing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Her big break in Europe came when she was invited to appear on the BBC TV show Later \u2026 after host (and onetime Squeeze keyboardist) Jools Holland caught her live act. In the audience that night was Beck, who had come for the sole purpose of seeing her. In addition to their Grammy performance, she adds her vocals to a version of the standard \u201cLilac Wine\u201d on his new Emotions & Commotion<\/em> album. Now things are happening fast for May, which is just fi ne by her. \u201cIt\u2019s all gone mental lately,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHO’S NEXT: IMELDA MAY HOMETOWN: Dublin, Ireland INFLUENCES: Billie Holiday, Luke Kelly, Gene Vincent ALBUM: Love Tattoo, out now WEBSITE: imeldamay.com MANY WHO TUNED IN DURING JEFF BECK\u2019S TRIBUTE TO the late Les Paul on the Grammy Awards earlier this year found themselves wondering about the identity of the intriguing young woman singing \u201cHow High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83],"tags":[872,870,88,871,49,10160],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}