Madeleine Peyroux

Raised in New York and California, Madeleine Peyroux's first instrument was the ukulele and she was in her mid teens when she first began to sing on the streets in Paris. She joined a group called the Riverboat Shufflers before touring Europe singing jazz standards with The Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band. Including covers of Edith Piaf's 'La Vie En Rose' and Patsy Cline's 'Walkin' After Midnight', Peyroux's first album 'Dreamland' in 1996 inspired a lot of interest, igniting comparisons to Billie Holiday. But throat problems hampered her progress and by the new millennium Peyroux was back busking in Paris. She then teamed up with multi-instrumentalist William Galison before being signed by Rounder, with Larry Klein producing her second album 'Careless Love' in 2004. Featuring covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Hank Williams and Leonard Cohen, it went on to sell over a million copies while her third album 'Half the Perfect World' (2006) - on which she covered Tom Waits, Charlie Chaplin and Serg Gainsbourg songs - was similarly successful. Peyroux's dislike of publicity led her to drop out of view for long periods of time, resulting in something of a cult status, but she returned to action in 2009 with 'Bare Bones', incorporating a broader rock style on a collection of collaborations and self-written songs. In 2011 she moved into rootsier territory with the album 'Standin' On the Rooftop'. She followed this with 'The Blue Room' in 2013, 'Keep Me in Your Heart for a While: Best of Madeleine Peyroux' in 2014 and 'Secular Hymns' in 2016, with 'Anthem' being released in 2018.

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