Newmarket Soul Singer Up For MOBO Award
Etta Bond, who grew up in Newmarket, was astonished when she heard she been nominated as Best Newcomer, an award won by Rita Ora last year.
The former Fairstead House School pupil told the News: “I was sitting on my bed in my pyjamas watching Eastenders when I got a tweet saying I had been nominated. One of my friends was there and I knew there was a party but it didn’t cross my mind to think I would be nominated.
“It was cool. It was really nice to be able to process the news in my own time. It is nice to be thought of for this award.”
A performer from a very young age, Etta attended Cambridge’s Bodywork Theatre School at the tender age of 3-years-old and went on to study Performing Arts at Tring School, Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance.
Growing up in Newmarket, Etta said she always loved to sing and she used to walk around the town’s Memorial Gardens with her headphones in, singing at the top of her lungs.
The 23-year-old said: “I always loved singing but I started recording when I was 14. One of my mum’s friends used to sing in a wine bar in Newmarket and he had a little studio so he said I could record something in there.”
A chance encounter with singer Labrinth on Myspace kickstarted her career, as the pair collaborated on ‘What is it you do’ before she was the first artist signed to his record label Odd Child in 2011 – an offshoot of Simon Cowell’s SyCo music label.
Now based in London, Etta has also collaborated with diverse artists ranging from Plan B and Wretch 32 to Devlin.
She cites Jill Scott and Billie Holiday as her inspiration and has described her music as “versatile” with influence from all different genres.
Etta said: “I am more concerned with my vocals and writing than genres. My music is about my life because everything is first hand and it is personal. I am just inspired by anything I hear, whether I like it or not. I was brought up on RnB and soul music and a lot of hip hop but I love other music too.”
The 18th annual MOBO awards will take place in Glasgow on October 19.