VV Brown
| V V Brown | |
|---|---|
Brown performing in 2008 at the Bristol O2 Academy
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Vanessa Brown |
| Born |
24 October 1983 Northampton, Northamptonshire, England |
| Genres | Indie pop, dance-punk, |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, model, producer |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, guitar, percussion |
| Labels |
Island Records Universal Republic Records Universal Music Group Capitol Records EMI |
| Website | vvbrown |
| Notable instruments | |
| One-String Acoustic Guitar | |
Vanessa Brown (born 24 October 1983), known professionally as VV Brown, is a British indie pop singer-songwriter, model and record producer.
Vanessa Brown was born in Northampton, England. She is the eldest of six siblings; her mother is Jamaican and her father is Puerto Rican.
She attended Overstone Park School near Northampton, which her parents own and work in. She then went to Kingsthorpe Upper School, now Kingsthorpe Community College, and sat her A-levels a year early. She achieved four A-grades and received offers to study law at five universities including Oxford but declined them to pursue a music career.
While at school and college she declined three offers of a record deal, including one from rapper P. Diddy's label Bad Boy Records, to focus on her studies.
Brown studied violin until the age of nine but gave up to focus on piano, vocals and trumpet, which she found easier. She completed her grade 8 trumpet examination aged 16 and played in jazz bands until the age of 21. Her childhood musical idols were jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. She is also a lifelong hip-hop fan and was nicknamed "VV" by her peers as an MC at her middle school.
Aged 18, Brown attended an open audition for the VH1 Divas concert and was stopped outside the venue by an executive from London Records, who offered her a development deal. This ended a year later, at which point she was offered deals by Polydor in the UK and A&M Records in the US. She left both in 2006 after releasing one single and a promotional EP called Back to the Music.
Brown moved back to London and began performing in bars and clubs around the city. She was rediscovered by executive Darcus Beese and signed to Island Records. She recorded her debut album Travelling Like the Light between 2007 and 2008.
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