Amel Larrieux
Jun 30, 2013
Amel Larrieux is a singer-songwriter and keyboardist. Larrieux rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a founding member of the duo Groove Theory along with Bryce Wilson. After leaving the group in 1999, she released her debut solo album Infinite Possibilities the following year on Epic Records. In late 2003, Larrieux founded her own independent label, Blisslife Records, on which she has released three albums so far. Larrieux cites Ella Fitzgerald, Prince, Sade, Rickie Lee Jones, Stevie Wonder, Shawn Colvin, Chaka Khan, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Joni Mitchell as her musical influences.
An urban chanteuse by birth, Amel Larrieux grew up in a West Village "artists building" in New York City, her parents exposing her early to a community of artists and artistic experience that would mold her eclectic sensibilities. At the age of 18, sure that she wanted to express herself musically, Amel wrote and demoed a song, which led to her pairing with Bryce Wilson to for the duo Groove Theory. As lead vocalist and co-writer for the group, she enjoyed success with "Tell Me," which broke the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top five on the R&B charts before being certified gold in October 1995.
Flying high with a Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals Grammy nomination for her work on Stanley Clarke's "Where is The Love," Amel Larrieux stretched her wings in "Bravebird" (Blisslife Records), her second solo work that was released in 2004, rising courageously into atmosphere untouched by her contemporaries. The ballad "For Real" pulses with the beat of early Prince, offering a classic, unabashed ode to the human heart. In "Bravebird," Amel mourns female circumcision by describing a fearless victim who fled her native Somalia for the U.S.
In her solo debut in 2000, "Infinite Possibilities" (Epic Records), Amel fuses a range of genres - R&B, soul, hip-hop, jazz and folk, with flashes of Middle Eastern, West African, and Indian styles. Its single "Get Up" is an ode to working people that became a modern anthem and magnet for the growing legion of Amel's fans.
Amel has contributed to film, soundtracks, writing and singing in such films as Barbershop, Love Jones, Down To Earth, Sunset Park, Takers, and Why Did I Get Married...
"Ice Cream Everyday" Amel's upcoming fourth solo album, is slated for release in 2013.