Kiesza

Kiesa Rae Ellestad (born January 16, 1989), better known as Kiesza (/ˈkaɪzə/ KYE-zə), is a Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist from Calgary, who has most recently worked in New York City and London.

Personal life

Kiesza was born and raised in Calgary. Her last name Ellestad is Norwegian from her paternal side and her grandfather is from Fagernes in Norway. When she was 16, she took part in the Sail and Life Training Society (SALTS) program and later became a sailing instructor at the Glenmore Sailing School in 2007. A year later she joined the reserves of the Royal Canadian Navy along with her brother, becoming a NavCom (Naval Communicator). It was while she was at crew singalongs at the Navy that she taught herself to play guitar. Meanwhile, she also entered the Miss Universe Canada pageant. She stated that her time in the Navy motivated her to give away 4,500 CDs to Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan in 2008.

Kiesza took part in the Young Canadians, performing tap and jazz dancing, as well as theatre. She also trained as a ballerina, however, a knee injury at age 15 ended her ballet career. When Kiesza was 18, she says that her parents' divorce caused her to write her first song, as a way of expressing her feelings. The same year, she heard a song of hers played on the radio.

Sound of...

Sound of... is an annual BBC poll of music critics and industry figures to find the most promising new music talent. It was first conducted by the BBC News website in 2003, and is now widely covered by the corporation's online, radio and TV outlets, as well as other media. A 15-strong longlist is published each December, with a ranked shortlist and annual winner announced the following January.

Winners

2003–09

2010–16

Notes

Sound of 2009

More than 130 critics, editors and broadcasters took part in the Sound of 2009 survey, which was won by electro-pop singer Little Boots. For the first time, a longlist of 15 acts from the 2009 poll was published by the BBC on 5 December 2008. The other five acts on the longlist were The Big Pink, Frankmusik, Master Shortie, Mumford & Sons and The Temper Trap.

Sound of 2010

The longlist for the Sound of 2010 poll was revealed on 7 December 2009. The acts nominated were Daisy Dares You, Delphic, Devlin, The Drums, Everything Everything, Giggs, Gold Panda, Ellie Goulding, Hurts, Joy Orbison, Marina and the Diamonds, Owl City, Rox, Stornoway and Two Door Cinema Club. On 8 January 2010, Ellie Goulding was announced as the winner. She has since gone to reach No. 1 with her debut album Lights.

Sound of a Woman

Sound of a Woman is the major label debut studio album by Canadian recording artist Kiesza. It is her second album after her 2008 self-titled independent release and her first full-length international debut. It was released on 17 October 2014.

Background

In February 2014 Kiesza released the video for her new single "Hideaway" through the indie label Lokal Legend.Idolator considered it unique, for having a single take through the entire video, as Kiesza walked and danced through the streets of Brooklyn. John Gentile of Rolling Stone called the style "impressive". Kiesza reported to Rolling Stone that she had trouble making the video, partly because she broke a rib just before filming, and "couldn't move for an entire month afterward." It was premiered by Annie Mac on her Mac's Special Delivery segment on BBC Radio 1. "Hideaway" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart issued for April 26, 2014.

Shortly after "Hideaway" charted, Kiesza released a new video for her cover of Haddaway's song "What Is Love". Mike Bell of the Calgary Herald referred to her version of the song as a "jaw-droppingly gorgeous cover of Haddaway's 1993 dance smash What Is Love?" She did a slowed down version, with a video showing her and others, slowly revealed to be without clothes, to express "raw emotions".

Jack Ü

Jack Ü (also known as Skrillex and Diplo) are an American DJ duo, side group and collaborative project, consisting of Mad Decent founder Diplo and OWSLA founder Skrillex, formed in 2013. Jack Ü performed at Ultra Music Festival Miami in 2014. They released their first official single "Take Ü There" featuring vocals from Kiesza on September 17, 2014. On February 3, 2015, the trio announced that they would be working with Missy Elliott on a remix to "Take Ü There". They released their debut album Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü on 27 February 2015.

Jack Ü also performed at Ultra Music Festival in 2015 with the entire "Jack Ü crew", featuring live contributions from CL, Kai, Diddy, Kiesza, and Justin Bieber.

History

Jack Ü's debut performance took place at the Mad Decent Block Party in San Diego on September 15, 2013, which is a nationwide tour that record label Mad Decent puts together in order to showcase different artists signed to the label. Diplo announced the project by releasing the Mad Decent Block Party lineup with Jack Ü playing at multiple stops on the tour. After some guessing by many of who Jack Ü was, Diplo finally came out to reveal that "Jack Ü ... means Skrillex and Diplo together".

La La

La La or Lala may refer to:

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