LADY BLACKBIRD

Lady Blackbird didn’t mean to soundtrack a revolution. Equally, she wouldn’t have dared hope to release one of 2021’s most critically acclaimed debut albums. But over the past two years, she’s done both.

“Ultimately, I’m in this to entertain, not to be any sort of leader. That’s a huge responsibility that’s so deep within itself. I want to entertain and push people’s buttons. But having that platform, having people willing to listen to you and your music, that’s a responsibility – and one of using that opportunity to share your views.”

Lady Blackbird isn’t the Nina Simone of the Black Lives Matter era; she certainly wouldn’t call herself that. But she is the talent, and the force-of-nature, and the talk-walking personality, that Gilles Peterson has dubbed “the Grace Jones of jazz” – an accolade reinforced by the remixes of her cover of ‘Collage’ (originally made famous by The Three Degrees) by jazz and house heavyweights Bruise, Greg Foat and KDA.