{"id":303452,"date":"2017-03-21T08:28:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T08:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=303452"},"modified":"2017-03-21T08:28:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T08:28:16","slug":"laura-mvula-found-out-she-was-dropped-via-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=303452","title":{"rendered":"Laura Mvula found out she was dropped via email"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer Laura Mvula has revealed she found out she was dropped by her record label Sony via e-mail.<\/p>\n

In January, her former manager met the label and was told face-to-face that Mvula’s contract would not be renewed.<\/p>\n

But the Mercury-nominated musician told the BBC that she only found out about it from a forwarded email, which was seven lines long.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t see anyone, I didn’t hear anybody’s voice. I just read words. It felt so cold and cruel,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Not even the fact that I was dropped, the way that the whole thing happened. To be treated like that doesn’t feel quite just.”<\/p>\n

Sony confirmed the sequence of events, but declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old was signed to Sony subsidiary RCA Victor five years ago, in a five-album deal.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Laura
Mvula’s debut album Sing to the Moon was released in 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her debut Sing to the Moon was released in 2013 and Mvula earned Brit, Mercury and Ivor Novello nominations, as well as Mobo and Urban Music awards.<\/p>\n

But her next album, The Dreaming Room, sold less well and failed to break into the top 10 when it was released in June 2016.<\/p>\n

Seven months later, Laura revealed on Twitter that Sony had dropped her. But she did not say how.<\/p>\n

“I was definitely naive in the beginning,” she said. “When I was signed, I thought when someone says, we love you and we’re with you until the end, that’s what they mean.”<\/p>\n

But, she laughed ruefully: “It doesn’t work like that, it’s business.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Laura
Mvula said being dropped was a “huge wake up call”<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It’s about money, it’s about sales. And that has certain implications if you are not popular or there aren’t enough elements in what you do that draws in the masses.<\/p>\n

“The album culture is, ‘Momentum, please… when’s the next record coming?'”<\/p>\n

She recalled receiving the e-mail, which thanked her for her efforts and wished her the best for the future.<\/p>\n

“First I was confused, I didn’t understand. I was always told I was such a valued part of what Sony had become today – I was an artist who was taking risks and doing things that are fresh and genuinely new – I believed them.<\/p>\n

“I guess in my head I always thought there would be a conversation, a renegotiation, but never a kinda, ‘it’s over’.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a huge wake up call,” she added.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Prince\"
Mvula says she was inspired by encouragement from her friend Prince<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Mvula remembered a conversation she had with her friend, the singer-songwriter Prince, before he died in April 2016.<\/p>\n

“He urged me, Mvula you have the music. Find the means to own your own thing and do it yourself. And at the time I remember hearing those words and thinking, yeah but you’re Prince, it’s all right for you.<\/p>\n

“But I think actually, now I reflect, I understand what he was saying.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have any regrets, because I think we made,” she corrected herself and laughed again, “I made two great records with them.”<\/p>\n

But at a time when Mvula said she felt “rejected by the mainstream” she was asked to write the music for a new production of Antony and Cleopatra staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/span><\/figure>\n
\n
\"Laura
Mvula has composed the music for a new RSC production of Antony and Cleopatra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
<\/figure>\n

It is the first time she has composed for a professional theatre production. “This is a huge moment for me creatively,” she said.<\/p>\n

But while Shakespeare and soul music may not seem obvious partners, the collaboration should not come as a surprise. Mvula studied composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire for four years.<\/p>\n

And she revealed that writing music for the tragic love story is a dream come true.<\/p>\n

“This is what I’ve wanted to do since I was 12 or 13, write music for theatre and film. And here’s my first gig… and it’s not a bad first gig.”<\/p>\n

Mvula said she “knew immediately” how she wanted her music for the play to sound.<\/p>\n

“I had this palette forming that was somewhere between Prince’s Purple Rain and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain.<\/p>\n

“It’s been brilliant for opening my mind again and my heart to a new dimension.”<\/p>\n

She added audiences should expect plenty of “groove and funk”.<\/p>\n

\n
\"RSC
Antony and Cleopatra is currently in previews<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
<\/figure>\n

She said she has “no idea” what she will do next, but insisted there will be another album.<\/p>\n

“It’s now time for a new season for me, as an independent artist, which is really more true to who I am and what I do.<\/p>\n

“Let what I do be in better hands,” she declared. “Let me better understood and taken care of.”<\/p>\n

–<\/i><\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singer Laura Mvula has revealed she found out she was dropped by her record label Sony via e-mail. In January, her former manager met the label and was told face-to-face that Mvula’s contract would not be renewed. But the Mercury-nominated musician told the BBC that she only found out about it from a forwarded email, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[3,5320,5321],"class_list":["post-303452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-showbiz","tag-ghana-news","tag-laura-mvula","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}