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Nneka – November Tour

• 16th Nov 2009

25/11 : Ruby Lounge, Manchester
26/11 : Thekla, Bristol
27/11 : The Picket, Liverpool
28/11 : Coalition, Brighton

With the BBC Radio 1 A-listed ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Best African Act’ MOBO under her belt, Nneka embarks on a UK tour following the success of her recently released album – the lush and visionary 'No Longer At Ease'.

It’s a record on which brains, beauty and beats collide. It’s a record that has already made its mark with chart success across Continental Europe and beyond. It’s a record that Lenny Kravitz and Lauryn Hill both heard and said: ‘I want this girl opening my show!’ It’s easy to see what got Lauryn and Lenny so animated. Nneka’s music has still got a big splash of Bob Marley in the recipe, a measure of Nina Simone and a lick of Erykah Badu. But this time around there’s more of the best ingredient – Nneka herself. Holding it all together is the emotional focus of her beautiful voice, located in a place somewhere between yearning and rage.

It’s a testament to the strength of Nneka’s talent that her success so far is based on word of mouth, on the quality of her albums and the intensity of her live performance. She is not a big-label product, forced down people’s throats by marketing dollars. Her audience – and there are hundreds of thousands of them, across two continents – have sought her out, because there will always be a demand for music that does more than just entertain, but touches something universal. As she puts it herself: “I do it in a sweet way – but I sing to speak the truth.”

Aching with soul steeped in positivity, 'No Longer At Ease' is the perfect example of the talented Nigerian's ability to merge sounds with an individuality that draws on both her African heritage and experiences in Europe.