Ren Harvieu

She's just 21 years old but Lancashire born Ren Harvieu's musical inspirations seem to come from three decades before her birth - the string-soaked white soul of Dusty Springfield or the cinematic melancholic MOR of The Walker Brothers, to name just two.

After a childhood peppered with talent show disasters, she was discovered through a demo on MySpace by manager Paul Harrison. Harvieu was paired with producer/writer Jimmy Hogarth (Duffy, Amy Winehouse, Suzanne Vega) and given a year or so to come up with some material. A tour in support of Glasvegas led to an invitation from BBC Introducing to play Glastonbury, and a trip to the US resulted in an invitation to collaborate with superstar hip hop type Nas. Neither of those things happened though - a freak accident in a London park led to two months in hospital and facing up to the possibility she might never walk again.

Luckily that wasn't the case and Harvieu has most recently been treading the boards in support of James Morrison. Rumours abound of a possible collaboration with Johnny Marr, and following in the footsteps of Duffy, Rumer or even Adele, Harvieu looks likely to become one of the most talked about singing voices of the next few years.

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