‘It felt liberating’: Laura Mvula on her ‘unfiltered’ Mercury Prize reaction and championing female artists

Published

3 years ago

October 6, 2021

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After this year’s Mercury Prize ceremony had wrapped up, Laura Mvula found herself in tears in a hotel room. Nominated for a rare third time – she has never released an album that hasn’t been shortlisted – the pressure had built up.

While Mvula never really went away, the ’80s pop-inspired Pink Noise was a return of sorts, released through Atlantic in July after she was unexpectedly dropped by former record label Sony early in 2017. A difficult period was followed by yet another when the pandemic hit, and suddenly an accolade that previously would simply have been the cherry on top of an exceptional career had become all-consuming.

On the night, the prestigious Mercury Prize went to Arlo Parks, for her debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams. “I get robbed. A lot,” Mvula tweeted afterwards, following it up with: “Mercury Prize can lose my number.” The next day, she shared a longer message on Instagram: “I really thought Pink Noise might’ve won last night… I needed it for several reasons too complex to dive into here. I don’t expect to be understood fully by the British public but try not to judge my pain… I’m just tired. Please buy the album if you can and come to a show. Many thanks. Love you.”

A few weeks later, Mvula is feeling a lot more positive, her energy and infectious laugh lighting up a Zoom call. We are here to talk about National Album Day, for which she is an ambassador this year, and she is keen to praise the artists who have inspired her – everyone from Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and Des’ree to contemporaries such as Lianne La Havas, Little Simz and Nao, as well as the late Amy Winehouse and composer Errolyn Wallen.

She is also candid about how strongly she feels about her own record and the Mercury Prize. There is “no malice” towards Parks but she is honest about how missing out made her feel.

“I was so exhausted,” she begins. “I don’t just mean from the day, I mean from the moment I even thought about making a third record… I’d had two previous nominations so there was a sense of ‘third time round’. I allowed myself to get caught up in the noise, pardon the pun, of it all. That’s what I regret the most, is that for the first time I really started to make so many things matter to me that ordinarily have nothing to do with what I really care about.”

Mvula chuckles as she adds that she’s “mid-30s, still trying to make a living”, but it matters. It’s not often an artist is so candid about their own personal situation, but the way the industry treats female artists as they get older is no secret.

“It’s a weird thing to get used to high critical acclaim,” Mvula goes on. “There’s something bittersweet because it’s wonderful to be acknowledged as an artist who makes things people respect. That’s something I consider to be a high privilege and something I’m proud of. But at the same time, when it doesn’t necessarily translate to something tangible, that can be where it gets complicated. And [there’s a] need or desire to be visible and to have a growing audience, to not want to just have a legacy that is, ‘yes, we know of her, but oh, she never broke through’, or whatever the narratives are in my mind.”

Of the handful of artists who have been nominated three times or more, the classically trained musician is not in bad company when it comes to those who have not won: David Bowie, Coldplay, Laura Marling, Florence And The Machine, to name a few; Radiohead have a record five nominations, but no win. So clearly it speaks nothing of her talent; she won the equally prestigious Ivor Novello award for best album in 2017 – just months after being dropped by Sony – for the previous year’s The Dreaming Room, on which she collaborated with Nile Rodgers and reportedly had to turn down Prince.

But still, in that moment, it hurt. “I really yearned for it in a way that I wasn’t even ready for. When it went to Arlo, it was almost nothing to do with Arlo Parks and her music and Laura Mvula and her music, and all the other artists and the music, it became about something else.”

She refers to recent comments made by Ed Sheeran about awards shows, which he described as “filled with resentment and hatred”. “There’s something really draining about the whole experience, and the win and the lose aspect,” Mvula admits. Her tweets after the Mercury Prize were tongue in cheek, she says, but came from a place of truth. “I guess, that was the real, unfiltered Laura. It was my rejection of all the pressure and all the nonsense and all the being pitted against one another… Here we are all desperately trying not to care. But somehow you end up caring so much.”

Back in the hotel room, Mvula’s friend and sister suggested she take her online posts down. “I just went to bed crying. I ignored them and I felt sort of more alone in that moment.” In the morning, they discussed a “pain” that many women will identify with. “We’re not supposed to say things that make us look not elegant and put together and demure and softly spoken, because anything else is just ugly,” says Mvula.

“I’m not going to lie: there was something very liberating about saying what I felt, knowing that I hold no malice in my heart at all towards Arlo or any other artists, but knowing I feel so passionately about what I do, and that me and the people who work so hard around me deserve some kind of break.” She shrugs. “That was it, really.”

She is sanguine about it all now. The reason the Mercury Prize matters is because it celebrates the album as an art-form, something Mvula feels passionately about. Pink Noise and its ’80s shoulder-padded aesthetic is a fun record, a shift from the more experimental, baroque soul of her first two albums. But making it did not come easily. “In the beginning… even making one song would have felt impossible at one stage,” she says, because she has to “really believe” in everything she puts out. But now it’s here, vibrant, unsubtle and a statement of intent, she couldn’t be more proud.

“I wasn’t always the most confident person, I didn’t always want to feel loud and be noticed or be seen or heard. In fact, the idea of being on a stage as a solo artist was something that used to freak me out. Pink Noise was my celebration of my life in its loud, bombastic, romantic, fragile glory.”

While the colour pink held lazy connotations and once felt “imposed” upon young girls growing up, now Mvula embraces it. “I wasn’t interested in wearing pink clothes and fluffy dresses because that supposedly fit some ideal or that meant I was beautiful and whatever,” she says. “And weirdly, I feel more beautiful [now] than ever.”

National Album Day 2021

National Album Day takes place on 16 November and this year celebrates women in music
Laura Mvula is an ambassador, alongside Kylie Minogue, Sharleen Spiteri, Ray BLK and Joy Crookes
Tim Burgess, who launched Twitter listening parties in 2020, will host events with artists including Spiteri and Minogue as part of the celebrations
Fans will be able to buy limited edition versions of new albums, boxsets and classic reissues by artists including Stevie Nicks, Donna Summer, HAIM, Eva Cassidy, Dido, Garbage, Roisin Murphy, Patti Smith, Solange, Lykkie Li, Amy Winehouse and more
Various events will be taking place at local music shops throughout the UK

Along with artists including Kylie Minogue, Ray BLK and Sharleen Spiteri, Mvula is an ambassador for National Album Day 2021, which is this year shining a spotlight on female performers. “I think it’s so important to lift women up, and specifically in the arts and making albums because for decades there’s so many unsung heroines.”

When it comes to black, female artists especially there is “always so much work to be done” she says, in terms of making the opportunities available and visible. “But I’m encouraged because I do feel like we’re now living in a time where there’s much more awareness, much more dialogue, and there seems to be a widespread acknowledgement.

“My story began in music because I was taught I could do anything; there wasn’t a room I felt uncomfortable in, whether that was learning to play the violin and piano or putting a neo-soul band together when I was in my teens, or singing in an a cappella group with my auntie. At the time as a kid, I was not aware of how rich that plethora of different experiences was.”

Mvula is positive. “I think we’re living in exciting times,” she says. And that also applies to being able to perform live again after more than a year of venues being shut. So far this year she has performed at the Olympics Homecoming ceremony with Rodgers and played a sold-out show at Islington Assembly Hall, as well as at the Edinburgh Festival. A tour is planned and as well as Pink Noise, she also features on the soundtrack to “new-school Western” The Harder They Fall, starring Idris Elba.

“I now feel sort of ready to refocus on the next thing, which for me is performing and getting back on the road,” she says. “Trying to get that good feeling back that I think the pandemic stole from a lot of us who made lockdown albums. I think there’s a weird exhaustion that comes from that as well.”

It has been a challenging time, “dire for everyone”, she admits, but good things are on the horizon. “I was chatting with my accountant on text, and he was like, ‘yeah, man, it’s rough’, but he said we’re going to get back on the road and, you know, it’s not going to be so troublesome,” she laughs.

“We’re on the up and up, it’s just gradual. And I think that’s good because my God, am I now savouring everything. I do not miss a moment, you know, I really just drink it in. There is beauty in suffering, I think. That’s what I’ve been taking from this very trying time.”

Laura Mvula’s latest album, Pink Noise, is out now. National Album Day, celebrating women in music, takes place on Saturday 16 October with new albums, boxsets and classic reissues including: Amy Winehouse, Stevie Nicks, Solange, Donna Summer, HAIM, Eva Cassidy, Dido, Garbage, Roisin Murphy, Patti Smith and more

Entertainment

Glastonbury Festival announces changes to ticket buying process

Published

4 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Glastonbury Festival announces changes to ticket buying process

Glastonbury is changing the way fans can buy tickets for the world-famous festival.

While the booking process itself will remain the same, the way people join it is different.

Organisers warned hopefuls to log in “at least a few minutes” before the sale opens on 14 November, to avoid refreshing the page and not to attempt to game the system by using multiple devices.

Fans must be registered by 5pm GMT on Monday 11 November.

Tickets for the annual event at Worthy Farm in Somerset cost £373.50 plus a £5 booking fee, and are sold exclusively through the See Tickets website, with no third-party sellers involved.

The sale follows chaos earlier this year when tickets for the Oasis reunion went on sale, seeing a multitude of disappointed fans as well as those who felt cheated after being charged hundreds of pounds more for their tickets than was originally advertised.

The festival website explains: “Rather than refreshing the holding page to attempt to access the booking page, this year, when the ticket sale begins (at 6pm or 9am respectively) everyone who is already on the glastonbury.seetickets.com page will randomly be assigned a place in a queue to access the booking process.

“Anyone who logs on once the sale has started will automatically be added to the back of the queue, so it’s important to make sure you are online ready at least a few minutes before the sale opens.

“Once you are in the queue, a progress bar will indicate how close you are to reaching the booking page.

“Please do not refresh this page or use multiple devices or tabs or you may lose your place in the queue.”

Once fans reach the front of the queue and enter their registration details, they will be able to purchase a maximum of six tickets – but they will not have long to do so.

The site warns: “You will have 10 minutes to complete this page before your session expires, however tickets are not allocated at this point.”

It also cautions: “Do not attempt to minimise the tab or open new tabs. If you move away from the tab you are on your session may expire”.

The advice also says that if the amount of traffic on the website is particularly high, users may see a “reduced version of the See Tickets booking site, with a minimal holding page”.

It adds: “This does not mean the site has crashed”.

The site discourages users from using multiple devices to increase their chances of getting tickets, warning it could actively harm getting through.

It says: “Refreshing the page, using multiple tabs or many devices can look like suspicious behaviour and can harm your chances of getting through by triggering anti-bot software; therefore you must stick to one tab/device per IP address and please do not refresh your page once you are in the queue”.

One exception to the refresh rule is if the message, “All available tickets have now been allocated” pops up, at which point refreshing the page will mean any orders that haven’t been processed will go back on sale, and so may become available to buy.

Once the message “SOLD OUT” appears, it’s game over, and no more tickets will be released back for sale.

There will be another chance, however, when any returned tickets go on resale in the spring, offering festival fans a second bite of the cherry.

While next year’s acts won’t be announced until after tickets go on sale, Oasis have already ruled themselves out of performing, telling fans: “Despite media speculation, Oasis will not be playing Glastonbury 2025 or any other festivals next year. The only way to see the band perform will be on their Oasis Live ’25 World Tour.”

2026 is likely to be a fallow year for Glastonbury (a year off), with the festival traditionally taking place four out of every five years, and the fifth year reserved for rehabilitation of the land.

Glastonbury Festival takes place from 25 to 29 June 2025.

Entertainment

Taylor Swift ‘shares extremely important reminder’ to her fans on US election

Published

10 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Taylor Swift 'shares extremely important reminder' to her fans on US election

Taylor Swift has given a “friendly but extremely important reminder” to her American fans to vote in the presidential election.

The neck-and-neck race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – which is believed to be the closest since 2000 – has seen US stars throw their weight behind both candidates.

It had been widely speculated that Swift would appear at Ms Harris’s final rally in Pennsylvania – where the 34-year-old singer grew up.

However, the Shake It Off singer was at Arrowhead Stadium to support her boyfriend – NFL star Travis Kelce – who was playing for the Kansas City Chiefs in a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

US election latest: Voting begins for millions of Americans

Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga were the big names alongside Ms Harris at her final big event.

Swift’s election reminder came in a post she shared on the eve of polling night, celebrating the wrap of the US leg of her Eras Tour, and sharing images from her last three gigs.

In the Instagram post, the singer wrote: “Thank you to everyone who came out to see us on our last three American shows.

“And here’s a friendly but extremely important reminder that tomorrow is the US election and your last chance to vote.”

She will pick up her tour in Canada next week, with six shows in Toronto and three in Vancouver.

Her record-breaking shows – which have boosted the economy around the globe – will wrap on 8 December.

Swift publicly confirmed her support for Ms Harris in September, sharing the message on social media: “I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

At the time, Swift also shared links to information on how to register to vote and find out early voting dates, reminding voters: “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make”.

Shared with a photo of the star cuddling one of her beloved cats, she signed off her post “Childless Cat Lady,” in a nod to Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance’s now infamous 2021 remarks.

Entertainment

Quincy Jones: Oprah Winfrey, Elton John and Barack Obama among famous figures paying tribute to music legend

Published

21 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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Quincy Jones: Oprah Winfrey, Elton John and Barack Obama among famous figures paying tribute to music legend

Oprah Winfrey, Sir Elton John and Barack Obama among the famous figures who have paid tribute to Quincy Jones following his death at the age of 91.

Following the announcement of his death on Monday, a string of friends, collaborators and admirers have been speaking out to praise the music producer and composer.

TV host Oprah Winfrey said her life “changed forever for the better” after meeting Jones as he helped secure her role in the 1985 film adaptation of The Colour Purple, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

Jones, the jazz musician known for collaborating with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson, wrote the film score and also co-produced the film.

Winfrey wrote on Instagram: “My beloved Q. The world’s beloved Q. The one and only Quincy Jones ‘discovered’ me for The Color Purple movie in 1985. My life changed forever for the better after meeting him.

“I had never experienced, nor have since, anyone who’s heart was so filled with love.

“He walked around with his heart wide open, and he treated everybody as if they were the most important person he’d ever met. He was the Light. No shadows.

“He was love lived out loud in human form and he was the first person I ever loved unconditionally.”

Whoopi Goldberg, who was also in The Colour Purple, also wrote on Instagram: “I was lucky enough to have him in my life for all these years.

“My heart is breaking for his friends and his extended family who loved and adored him… my condolences.”

Former US president Barack Obama, who honoured Jones with the US National Medal of Arts in 2010, said: “For decades, Quincy Jones was music.

“From producing Thriller, to composing the score for The Color Purple, to working with Frank Sinatra to Ray Charles, it seemed like every big record – and every big film – had Quincy’s name on it.

“His music appealed to listeners of every race and every age. And by building a career that took him from the streets of Chicago to the heights of Hollywood, Quincy paved the way for generations of Black executives to leave their mark on the entertainment business.”

He added: “Michelle and I send our thoughts to Quincy’s friends, family, and everyone who has lived their lives to his songs.”

Sir Elton John remembered Jones as someone who had a more “incredible” career in music than anyone else.

He shared a photo with him at the Elton John Aids Foundation Oscar viewing party, and called him a “loyal supporter of this important fundraiser”.

The singer added: “Nobody had a career as incredible as Quincy Jones. He played with the best and he produced the best. What a guy. Loved him.”

Rapper Ice T hailed Jones as a “genius”, while US Grammy-winner Lenny Kravitz said he was “speechless”, but added: “What a life. What an expression of authenticity. What a teacher. I am humbled that I was given the gift of your openness and friendship”.

Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland thanked Jones for being “such a wonderful teacher” and creating the soundtrack to “some of the most extraordinary moments” in her life.

Jones also helped to launch and was an executive producer on the popular US sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, starring Will Smith.

Smith said: “Quincy Jones is the true definition of a mentor, a father and a friend. He pointed me toward the greatest parts of myself. He defended me. He nurtured me.

“He encouraged me. He inspired me. He checked me when he needed to. He let me use his wings until mine were strong enough to fly.”

Chic co-founder Nile Rodgers, who was friends with Jones, shared a video that said “Rest In Power Quincy Jones. The Greatest of All Time”.

Peter Hook, the bassist and co-founder of Joy Division and New Order, wrote on social media: “It’s so sad to hear about Quincy Jones. When he signed us to his label, he made us feel so welcome – inviting us to dinner at his home every time we were in town.

“He made us big in America. He was so humble & sweet that you immediately fell in love with him.”

Hook added: “And to this day I still got a lovely message from him every year on Christmas and birthday cards! A musical genius and a great, lovely man.”