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AMSTERDAM - The English female singer Florence Rawlings was discovered at the age of thirteen during an audition, together with Katie Melua, by producer Mike Batt. Melua was offered a contract, Rawlings was to young. "Batt prefered that people appreciate me by my voice and not my age", explains the singer who recently aged twenty-one.

“I got a chance to grow op normally and I slowly discovered all the nice things that a live as an artist has to offer.” She enjoys her shows, being on tour – she now travels the world as support act for Tom Jones – and the attention she receives since the release of her debut album A Fool In Love.

With a record deal to be made when she turns eighteen, Rawlings was starting to discover what kind of genres she liked when she was still at school. She played in bands, listened to a lot of music and then discovered that she likes soul and motown the most. That you can hear on het debut.

“As soon as I turned eighteen, Mike and I started working together. We found the song Fall In Love which is from Tina Turner ans I immediately loved that song. From that moment we knew we wanted the album to sound like that.”

Then Batt started writing songs, a skill were he made Katie Melua famous with. “We also rediscovered some songs from Allen Toussaint and Chuck Berry.”

Although Rawlings is now in the soul corner with her first record, she's not shy to try other genres. “I would love to do something wth drum 'n bass in the future.”

Kristiaan Asscheman

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