Nadine Shah Tickets

Nadine Shah Tour Dates

Whitburn-born singer/songwriter Nadine Shah made a musical splash with a sound that's every bit as exotic as her heritage. Part Norwegian and part Pakistani, she has funnelled the disparate elements of her upbringing into tunes that webzine The Girls Are dubbed "sturm und drang-packed tales of love and loss." Jazz influences melded with droning, dissonant art-rock flourishes have earned her gigs at the Glastonbury Festival, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire and Brudenell Social Club. But whether the venue is intimate or expansive, concert goers who show up for a Nadine Shah tour will soon see why Shah has earned a reputation for delivering intimately intense performances.

Nadine Shah's Background

Nadine Shah's career started with a bang. After her first-ever show, a BBC reviewer wrote, "If all live debuts were as breathtaking as [this] then the walls of the music industry as we know it would crumble to dust, and in their place proud palaces of hope and beauty would spring forth."

Her first two EPs (2012's Aching Bones and 2013's Dreary Town) stirred up further internet buzz, and she gained true professional traction with the release of her full-length debut Love Your Dum And Mad. Fuelled by more than just introspection, many of the songs on that album owed their existence to Shah's personal experience with losing lovers and friends to suicide.

Initially trained as an artist, Shah struggled with getting good marks in school. She eventually learned that she suffered from an anxiety disorder, and after a former boyfriend and an art-school chum killed themselves, she decided to dedicate her art and advocacy to addressing the negative perceptions about mental illness.

She has compared her work to Pakistani ghazals, mournful Middle Eastern songs where love and sorrow are inextricably entwined. The dark vocal intensity of jazz favourite Nina Simone and the uncompromising intensity of Nick Cave are obvious influences, and they make for a striking mix. Producer Ben Hillier (who also helmed efforts by U.K. luminaries such as U2, Depeche Mode, Natalie Imbruglia and Blur), highlighted her melancholy, occasionally grim sound, earning her accolades and critical kudos. Pitchfork praised the album's "unebbing intensity," while The Fly called it a "confident debut."

Nadine Shah's Career Milestones

Fast Food, Shah's sophomore effort, followed less than two years later. Ben Hillier handled production duties yet again, and the end result was a more aggressive, guitar-driven record. Right after its release, she earned The Journal's Performing Artist of the Year Award. Her third album was Holiday Destination.

Notably, Shah's success has resulted in more than merely producing a few albums. She made a guest appearance on atmospheric singer/songwriter Ghostpoet's third release, Shedding Skin, and joined Hillier once more in scoring the music for a theatre version of Get Carter, the crime tale first popularised by Michael Caine in 1971. Additionally, she has participated in various charitable works, including the Not In My Name campaign, an outreach where Muslims decry the atrocities committed by ISIS, and the mental-health charity Campaign Against Living Miserably.

Similar to Nadine Shah

Shah's rich, resonant alto and dramatic style should please fans of Anna Calvi and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.