Shola Ama
Shola Ama Bio
Shola Ama is certainly no newcomer to the UK music industry.
Her debut album Much Love entered the UK charts at #6 selling over one million copies and scoring Shola the Top 5 singles You Might Need Somebody and You’re The One I Love to name a few. The culmination of her critical and commercial success resulted in four Mobo nominations with Shola going on to collect two (Best Newcomer and Best R&B).
Shola has toured extensively across the UK and was a special guest to a whole host of artists (Fugees, 3T, Jamiraquai). She also headlined the 98 Rhythm Nation Tour feat Glamma Kid, D-Influence and Rashan Patterson. To top off an amazing year, Shola was nominated for two Brit Awards in and went on to pick up the gong for Best British Female, the crowning achievement for an incredible journey.
Shola then had the honour of being requested by the Vatican to perform for the pope, where, accompanied by the Harlem gospel choir, she gave a stunning performance. Between albums, Shola collaborated on the Glamma Kid single Taboo, reworking the Sade classic and making it effortlessly her own, scoring her yet another Top 10 single.
In 1999 she released her sophomore album; the critically acclaimed In Return co-writing eleven of the sixteen tracks with a host of international writers and producers (Darkchild, Babyface, Stargate, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, Angie Stone, Shaun Labelle). The album earned her a #2 single titled Still Believe in France, which stayed on the French radio chart for an amazing four months peaking at #1.
She then began a sell out UK tour which took her and her band all over the country extending to an extensive French tour and playing to an average of 28 000 every night; she also performed at sold out shows in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Shola’s single Imagine, remixed by Asylum, went on to become one of the biggest club singles of the next three years.
Once back in the studio, Shola worked on her third album Supersonic which was released in France on the French label Inca. Supersonic is one of Shola’s most personal works to date. Co-writing the whole album, Shola really flourished with her song-writing. Vocally, Shola’s voice has grown stronger than ever, showing a passion and maturity that puts her among the best singers in the world and not just the UK.
Whilst taking time out, Shola entered into motherhood, giving birth to her first child. During the summer of 2004 Shola was once again in the charts, featuring on the #8 hit You Should Really Know with the Pirates. Shola has constantly been writing and recording new material and is now ready to take that step back into the spotlight as well as into the charts. With the release of her first single (title unknown as yet), followed by her self-titled album Shola, she has big plans for the future.
Last year Shola was a guest judge for a girl group on the show Pineapple Dance Studios. Due to positive reviews, she is now pursuing other TV work. She has also featured on the Perempay and Dee single DJ Play. The song received heavy rotation on the radio. Shola has also been featured on London rapper Giggs’s song Cut Above The Rest and later featured on his album Let Em Have It on a song called Blow Em Away.
Coming up to date with things, Toddla T released his new single on Ninja Tunes titled Take It Back featuring the gorgeous vocals of Shola Ama. The track is already a huge club hit in the UK and has been on heavy rotation on Radio 1, Kiss 100, Capital Radio, Choice FM and 1Xtra plus many more.
Stay tuned.
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