Jazz-soul singer Lady Blackbird: ‘I feel like I’m in my own biopic!’ | Music

“I’m pretty damn persistent,” Marley Munroe laughs. “It’s been a long, often gruelling road, but I’m finally here.”

Munroe, AKA Lady Blackbird, has just walked off stage at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, after belting out three note-perfect, jazz-referencing songs backed by a symphony orchestra for Radio 2’s Piano Room Sessions. Adorned in her signature peroxide afro and oversized gold collar, she is capping off a whirlwind three years after decades spent searching for recognition in the music industry.

“I’ve done it all, from the cover gigs in hotel bars to rock, R&B and soul,” she says, ensconced on a red sofa in her dressing room. “I had so many moments where I thought it was happening and then the rug was pulled out from under me. I kept wondering: ‘When is it gonna change? When will it catch?’”

It was in 2020, only days after the murder of George Floyd, that Munroe’s stripped-down cover of Nina Simone’s Blackbird caught. Backed only by an acoustic double bass and trills of piano, Munroe’s yearning vocal power brought Simone’s 1963 civil rights anthem into new light. Although the timing of the release was coincidental, Blackbird’s message of resilience in the face of oppression mirrored another moment of reckoning for Black America. “Once we found that sound, things started moving really fast,” Munroe says. “People began responding in an entirely new, emotional way.”

Munroe’s ensuing debut album, Black Acid Soul, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim. The album comprises jazz covers such as Blackbird, which Munroe took as her stage name for the project, as well as folk covers and several haunting originals, but it is the Munroe’s husky vocal that keeps the listener compelled. Sold-out European tours followed, as well as a slot opening for jazz star Gregory Porter and even a performance at the Queen’s platinum jubilee concert. In October, Munroe sang on Graham Norton, receiving praise from fellow guests Bono and Taylor Swift.

“This whole process has felt like going back home because this soul music is what I grew up singing,” Munroe says, referencing her love of vocal greats such as Gladys Knight, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. “I was leaning back into my vocal after trying everything else and luckily it worked.”

Munroe, who grew up in the small town of Farmington, New Mexico, remembers singing that soulful music as soon as she could walk. “My mother realised I had a voice and she started shaping me as a performer. She would put me forward to sing the national anthem at local basketball games. She would even try to get [department stores] Sears or JC Penney to sponsor my outfit! She was my first manager.”

By 12, Munroe had been signed to a Christian record label based in Nashville and begun working with the rap-rock crossover group DC Talk. But by 18 she realised that “religion wasn’t sitting well with me and I didn’t want to make music in that direction any more so I left,”.

Munroe’s journey through the industry continued, with her working as a session vocalist and songwriter for other artists, including pop singer Anastacia. In 2013, she had another breakthrough, signing to Epic and releasing two hook-laden, pop-leaning singles under her own name. It should have spelled the start of her career proper, but the deal wasn’t to last.

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“Epic wanted more of an R&B direction. We ended up having some creative musical differences,” she says with a pause. “I expected my career to really get going once I signed to a major, but it crashed and burned. I had to go back to the drawing board.”