Floetry

Strangely enough for a music duo who debuted so young, Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart first bonded over their shared love of basketball while they were studying together at the BRIT School in Croydon. While Ambrisious was musical, she wasn’t even studying a performing art the way that Stewart was, but the two young women kept in touch even after they left for university. Stewart went on to form a performance poetry group called 3 Plus 1 while Ambrosius began writing songs prolifically, and in 1999, they collaborated on a song called “Fantasize”. The fledgling duo were so proud with their efforts that Ambrosius joined 3 Plus 1 to perform its live debut with them, and soon afterwards Stewart and Ambrosius decided to collaborate more, forming a band together that they called Floetry.

However, the band saw no future for them in the U.K, so in 2000 the duo moved to the United States to perform on the poetry circuit there. They settled down in Philadelphia to begin writing and recording demos together, and in 2002 they signed a record deal with Dreamworks Records to release their debut album “Floetic” in the same year. Right off the bat they were critically acclaimed and found a sizeable following thanks to their live shows, but the duo wouldn’t find commercial success until the 2005 release of their second album “Flo’Ology”. Even though it stormed into the Billboard charts at number 7, it still couldn’t stop the band parting ways the following year. After succesful solo careers for both members, the band got back together at the end of 2014 during a solo concert of Ambrosius’, and have announced a string of tour dates for 2015. For being one of the best songwriting acts of the neo-soul style, Floetry come highly recommended.

Son of jazz cellist Adbul Wadud and cousin of singer Chrisette Michele, DeVaughn has lots of musical blood, however even in pre-school DeVaughn’s mother said he had an affinity towards music. After graduating from high school, DeVaughn attended Coppin State University in Baltimore City, U.S., and began harmonising with a group of street corner singers, and it wasn't long before he began skipping classes to write and record lyrics.

After winning a talent competition at the Washington DC nightclub named Bar Nun, CEO of Soul World Entertainment Cliff Jones asked DeVaughn to write a song for soul quartet Dru Hill. In doing so the singer caught the attention of DJ Jazzy Jeff and Roc-A-Fella A&R guy Kenny Burns which led to DeVaughn being signed by Jive Records in 2002.

After the successful single releases of “Guess Who Loves You More” and “You” DeVaughn released his major label debut “The Love Experience” on June 28, 2005. The album received critical acclaim, sold around 250,000 copies and reached No. 46 in the Billboard 200.

The music of DeVaughn has been compared to that of Dwele, D’Angelo and Marvin Gaye, with his mix of R&B, neo-soul and soft rock.

DeVaughn’s follow-up album “Love Behind the Melody” was his biggest charting hit, which peaked at No. 5 in the Billboard 200. The album also produced the song “Woman” was the singer’s most commercially successful ingle and was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Male R&B Performance in 2008. The R&B singer’s two subsequent albums “The Love & War MasterPeace”, which received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album and the independently released “A Place Called Love Land” both charted well, and secured DeVaughn’s position in the R&B mainstream.