News

Yolanda Quartey To Support Will Young

• 19th Oct 2009

Bristol based singer and songwriter Yolanda Quartey has co-written the lead single for Will Young’s forthcoming Christmas compilation album ‘The Hits’ due for release on November 8th 2009. Having just provided backing vocals for Dizzee Rascal live on ‘Later with Jools Holland’ as well as for Ronan Keating on his new album, so far 2009 has been an amazing year for Quartey. Last year Yolanda was invited to tour with Massive Attack as lead vocalist on their world tour, performing some of their most memorable tracks including ‘Unfinished Sympathy’. She has also co-written a new track with Daddy G called “All I want” to be released on their new album. This year, her own band Phantom Limb are doing a U.K. Tour supporting Will Young on his forthcoming theatre/arena tour in November. With Yolanda’s vocals, often likened to Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples, Limb are one of Bristol’s most musically accomplished bands, a seamless amalgam of classic, southern soul, country blues and gospel – now the most talked about band in the South West.

Yolanda began recording at just 16 with a local drum and bass duo, performing locally around Bristol. On leaving school, things really began to happen when she was invited to tour with Freq Nasty during her gap year, an experience that ensured she never returned to university after her week's induction; her talent instead carrying her through 2 years of touring Europe, this included performances at Exit Festival in Serbia and Glastonbury. At this point Yolanda began working with The Cuban Brothers and Bugz in the Attic, Touring with both acts simultaneously for the following two and a half years including two world tours in U.S, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. However this promising singing career was almost cut short when Quartey lost her voice after being diagnosed with vocal nodules in the winter of 2006. After this time she was keen to move away from the gruelling schedules of dance music tours and concentrate on her own style of music, a far more soulful, organic sound. Months of rest and voice therapy saw her tentatively regain her voice, allowing her to finish Phantom Limb’s much praised debut album in the winter of 2007, giving some of her best performances to date.

This year Massive Attack invited Yolanda to tour with them again on their 2009 Album tour for “Weather Underground” – however she turned this down in order to focus on her own career as a band member and songwriter. Having recently signed a publishing deal with Kobalt, Yolanda is now regularly writing for and with other artists, a move that has seen her career really take off.