Kesha, Erika Jayne, et Chromeo

Born in California in 1987, Kesha Rose Sebert was raised by a single mother who was a successful singer-songwriter in her own right but struggled financially, torn between the demands of her craft and the need to support her family. When the family moved to Nashville, a young Kesha’s out-there persona did not sit well with the conservative surroundings however she used the time productively to work on her music and built her craft.

When she was just 17 she was persuaded to drop out of school and return to California to pursue music by songwriter and producer ‘Dr Luke’ who subsequently signed Kesha to his label and publishing company. Slowly, with Dr Luke's tutorage, Kesha began to write songs for artists and feature as a backing singer but still had to waitress on the side in order to live.

Her first breakthrough came when she sang backing on Flo Rida’s massive hit ‘Right Round’ but, determined to make it on her own terms, she declined featuring in the video or taking any credit for the performance. The appearance did however act as a catalyst for her signing a deal with RCA and finally being able to put the finishing touches to an album that she had already been working on for 6 years.

That album became ‘Animal’ which hit the top of the Billboard charts when it was released in January 2010 birthing the massive single ‘Tik Tok’. Having worked hard to get to that point, Ke$ha wasn’t going to stop there and the success continued with the release of her second album ‘Warrior. To begin with the dollar sign in Ke$ha’s name was an ironic nod to being broke but now everyone knows that it spells success.

The Montreal duo of David Macklovitch (the older brother of Fool’s Gold owner A-Trak) and Patrick Gemayel first came together musically when Macklovitch joined Gemayel’s band. When the band fell apart the duo began producing music together and, due to a welcome touch of serendipity, ended up signing to Canadian producer Tiga’s ‘Turbo’ label.

In 2004 David and Patrick (or Dave 1 and P-Thuggg as they are known) released their debut album entitled ‘She’s In Control’ which cemented their sound and began to get the group noticed. A lot of the buzz surrounding the album followed the release of the song ‘Needy Girl’ which became a club staple around the world and really helped to elevate Chromeo’s presence to the next level.

Live dates with the likes of the UK’s Bloc Party and a slew of remixes helped to fuel the build up to their follow up album ‘Fancy Footwork’ which once again was met with praise from journalists all over. And from then on the successes kept rolling first with third Album ‘Business Casual’ and then into 2014’s ‘White Women’.

‘White Women’ featured the likes of Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Solange Knowles who helped to propel the album to 6 and 11 in the Canadian and US charts respectively. It even did well internationally all going to show that whilst Chromeo’s sound is in no way conventional, its appeal stretches far and wide.