Description

Vanessa Brown (born 24 October 1983), known as VV Brown (sometimes styled as vv brown), is an English recording artist, songwriter and producer signed to Universal's Island Records in the United Kingdom and to EMI's Capitol Records in the United States. The Los Angeles Times and UK newspaper The Independent have both named Brown an artist to watch in 2009.Early life and career/nVanessa Brown was born in Northampton. She is the eldest of six siblings and is of Caribbean parentage, her mother being Jamaican and father being Puerto Rican. She attended Overstone Park School near Northampton, which her parents own and work at. Brown learned to play the piano, developed her vocals and took classical and jazz piano lessons at a musical arts school which she attended at the weekend. Growing up, Brown listened to early 20th-century jazz artists like Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. Brown gained four "A" grades at her A levels, studying at Kingsthorpe Upper School (now Kingsthorpe Community College) a year early and was offered places at five top UK universities including Oxford, King's College London, LSE and York. She declined the offers to follow a career in music. :)/nP. Diddy attempted to sign her to his label Bad Boy Records.Travelling Like the Light (2009 - present)/nUnder the moniker "VV Brown", she released her debut album, Travelling Like the Light, in July 2009 by Universal Records. The album was preceded by a limited non-chart eligible release of "Crying Blood" on 7" vinyl and digital download. Brown wrote the music and plays instruments on the album. The album is inspired by 1950s and electronic music as well as sounds emitted from Game Boy and Nintendo.. Most of the lyrics on the album are about a failed affair Brown endured. Brown performed Crying Blood and a new song, "Bottles", on the first episode of the 33rd series of the BBC's Later With Jools Holland. She was the musical guest on The Sunday Night Project on 11 January 2009 and performed Crying Blood, as well as short extracts from other of her own songs throughout the show. On 5 December 2008, she was nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2009 award, alongside acts including Little Boots and Lady GaGa.Collaborations/nBrown is an established songwriter, and under the alias "geeki" has written for many artists whom she chooses to remain quiet about. She also creates instrumental compositions and hopes to eventually get involved in scoring film./nBrown is also developing a graphic novel with friend David Allain who directed and produced the video for the single "Crying Blood". The novel will be released serially and has not been confirmed when this will be released. Both are in talks with publishers. The partnership will release a demo version of the first chapter alongside a charity book that will be released later this year./nBrown also collaborated with Jamie Cullum and Killa Kela in a revolutionary broadcast over the internet where the biggest music class was taken place with over 10 million children watching all over the country. This resulted in a discussion about music and a performance at the end./nVV Brown also took part in the Abba tribute in Hyde Park September 2009 hosted by radio 2 of which she performed in front of 36,000 people./nShe took part in the first War Child charity single, "I Got Soul"/nVV Brown's songs have been featured in many American TV shows such as Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, The Vampire Diaries (TV series), The Hills and The City, CSI: NY (episode Battle Scars) and currently awaiting confirmation for a song to be in a new blockbuster movie./nThe song Leave was also featured on a national advert for a French bank, BNP, of which it stayed apart of the campaign for 6 months. Because of this VV Brown is beginning a campaign in France with this particular single and has several press and TV events lined up./nThis led to a number 1 album in the French charts also leading to a number 7 charted single with the song "Leave". VV brown will be playing and performing at several festivals throughout France during 2010 and will soon do a national tour towards the end of the year./nVV Brown has also started her U.S campaign with an EP available in the states in November. She has appeared in Teen Vogue and took the cover of women's wear daily in October. She has also been featured in many other U.S magazines./nNovember 5 was the launch of VV Brown and David Allain's comic book of which a few pages were submitted in a book celebrating new comic book writers. This was also displayed in a top Soho gallery./nThe first edition of the comic looks to be released next year and both are in pursuit of a publishing deal to make the comic book available national before taking further stages. They say "it's a project of passion and we want to get it right. It will be ready when it's ready, we are just enjoying being creative right now"Touring/nBrown played many festivals and gigs in 2008. Brown was invited by Damon Albarn to play African Express tour. She sung with Fela Kuti's son Femi. Brown toured with Ladyhawke and The Ting Tings. She has been confirmed for Camden Crawl, The Great Escape, Evolution Music, Camp Bestival, Supersonic, and Turning Point festivals while awaiting confirmation on several others. In March 2009 Brown played for the Teenage Cancer Trust event at the Royal Albert Hall. In June she played the Glastonbury Festival. Throughout the summer she played every major festival including Glastonbury, at which she was the only new artist to perform on the main stage. She states " it was a massive achievement in my life to do such a big stage at such a early point in my career." VV Brown did a sold out tour throughout the UK. She spoke of being overwhelmed about how many people sang the words so loud in the crowd to the point where the band couldn't be heard. She was pleased about the fact that a core fan base was being created and she looks forward to that fan base growing. Her most recent performance was during the Young Voices concert tour, in which she was a guest star; venues for the tour included the O2. VV will be opening concerts of Pink in the UK ./nMusical style/nBrown describes her sound as "musical mashed potatoes". Her style has been described as retro pop with an indie punk and rock edge. The Los Angeles Times has said: "Brown delivers something her retro UK peers have thus far lacked - just pure, whimsical fun".Fashion “ I used to read my mum’s Vogue when I was little and I was fascinated. ”/nStanding tall at 5 ft 11in, Brown was signed to Next Model Management, after a chance meeting with one of their agents on a transatlantic flight. On 27 January 2009 VV Brown did her first shoot for Vogue magazine which is in the April/May issue. She hopes to continue to do more in fashion and photography./nPerhaps the most noticeable feature of Brown is her trademark retro fringe, nearly always rolled into a flattop with the rest of her hair left long./nOn 30 June 2009 Brown's online vintage clothing store went live. www.vvvintage.com/nIn November 2008 VV Brown took part in the Naomi Campbell charity fashion show at which she catwalked with the likes of models such as Tyson Beckford and Daisy Lowe with many others. On 20 February 2009 Brown also modelled and performed at the Ashish fashion for London Fashion Week. VV Brown has been confirmed as one of the new faces of Marks & Spencer, starring in adverts alongside Twiggy and Dannii Minogue

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