Although she was born in Athens (Georgia, USA, 1973), she grew up and started singing in Paris.When she was 16, she joined the Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band and, in 1996, she released the aforementioned album Dreamland that sold more than 200,000 copies.Got you on my mind and Careless love (2004) gave a huge boost to her career and were followed in 2006 with Half the perfect world. Whilst most of her previous work was based on composers and singers from the first half of the 20th century, most of this last album concentrates on artists and composers from the second half, such as Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Fred Neil and Joni Mitchell.Peyroux’s skill for choosing the perfect song is again the key to the album’s emotional impact, although her uninterrupted growth as a composer is equally surprising.

 

Madeline is not your average singer.She adds a carefully chosen repertoire to her emotive singing style and her reserved and rebellious attitude, giving a glimpse of intense life experience - Billy Holiday, Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, Serge Gainsbourg-, a handful of interesting own compositions and standards that are difficult to personalise.Finally, although her voice – which she uses in the purest jazz tradition, as if it were just another instrument – brings Billie Holiday in the thirties to mind, her style is personal enough to distance her from any possible comparison.