Laura Prince

Laura Prince's world? Authenticity and sincerity

As a writer, composer and performer, her aim is to remain in harmony with herself and the world around her. Her uncluttered music speaks of her childhood fears, her mixed roots and her heartbreak.

She has an atypical background, one that inspires.

A daughter of Togo and France, she has always been rocked by world music: Celia Cruz's Cuban salsa, Fela Kuti's Afrobeat and Manu Dibango's Makossa, but also by the emotion of Piaf and Barbara, the cry of Brel and the swing of Aznavour...

Thanks to her father, she was influenced by the music of Mozart and Bach, and she developed her ear intuitively, singing and playing her first compositions on a small piano given to her by her mother.

Around the age of 13, she learned to read music and master harmony to accompany herself on the piano. 

She composed and played her first piano/vocals: ‘A young heart with an old soul’.

She was enthusiastic about the civil rights era, the birth of the blues and jazz, the era when people sang with their souls and which saw the birth of her favourite artists, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, Etta James...

She then took dance classes in jazz, hip hop/house and salsa, drew and became interested in cinema.

All these artistic influences inspired her to create her own music.

After her baccalaureate, still curious about her origins, she studied ethnomusicology at the University of ParisX. By the age of 19, she was working on her voice and taking gospel singing lessons at Studio Bleu in Paris. At the same time, she became an alto conductor and took piano lessons with Philippe Baden Powell.

Despite personal hardship, moving house and odd jobs. Laura continued to pursue her passion for music. She travelled from the Americas to Asia, from Europe to Africa, and in particular to Togo, her native country, from where she returned grown and inspired.

She has definitely chosen music, the kind that heals, comforts and liberates.

In 2021, she released her album ‘Peace of mine’ with Grégory Privat on piano, Tilo Bertholo on drums, Zacharie Abraham on double bass and Inor Sotolongo on percussion.

On this album, she shares with us the inner peace that has come with time, the peace of the little Laura who hid from the storms and was already listening to the sounds of the winds of Africa and Navarre.

A Jazz Magazine ‘Jazz Revelation’ in 2021, she now performs at the major jazz festivals in France, including Marciac, Jazz à Sète, Jazz à Vienne, Saint Jean Cap Ferrat and the Monte Carlo Jazz Festival, as well as in Europe and Africa.