Camille O'Sullivan
| Camille O'Sullivan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 December 1974 London, England |
| Origin | Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Alternative rock, baroque pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, actress |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, keyboards |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | Little Cat Records |
| Website | camilleosullivan |
Camille O'Sullivan (born 30 December 1974) is an Irish musician, vocalist, and actress.
O'Sullivan was born in London, England, to Denis O'Sullivan, an Irish racing driver and World Champion sailor, and Marie-José, a French artist. She was raised in the village of Passage West, near Cork, Ireland. After finishing secondary school, O'Sullivan studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She dropped out of her course after a year because she felt "if I study any more that might kill my love for it." On her parents' advice, she enrolled in University College Dublin and studied architecture for four years. Whilst in UCD, she became known as "the singing architect" as she performed in all available university productions and was a member of Dramsoc.
O'Sullivan took a year off from her studies and moved to Berlin, Germany, where she worked at an architect's office. During her time in Berlin, she regularly attended local cabaret clubs and began listening to the narrative music of Hanns Eisler, Kurt Weill and Friedrich Hollaender. Upon returning to Ireland, she met Agnes Bernelle, a mentor who encouraged her to sing, saying "to do this right, you have to be a better actress than a singer, it's all about the story." She graduated from UCD with first class honours and the highest marks at the university in a decade. O'Sullivan then continued to work as an architect—winning an Architectural Association of Ireland award in the process—while continuing to perform in local clubs at night.
In 1999, O'Sullivan was involved in a near-fatal car crash, in which she suffered a head fracture, her pelvis was fractured in six places, her hips displaced and the tendons in her hand were shredded. It was months before she could walk again, and she was hospitalised for a year; she still has a metal plate in her pelvis . The accident encouraged her to follow her dream of singing and she performed her first show after the accident while still in crutches.
O'Sullivan is not a classically trained singer or musician, although she plays piano, and has stated that this stopped her from having the confidence to begin a singing career for many years. In her early career she got around this lack of experience by working with musicians who were able to adapt to her singing style, which focuses more on acting, emotion and 'light and shade', than technique or strict tempo.
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