2016 was their year: IMANY conquered with her song "Don't Be So Shy" - in the remix version of the two DJs Filatov & Karas - the single charts all over Europe (number one also in Germany!). ; and in August, the Paris-based singer released "The Wrong Kind Of War", her acclaimed new album.
The charismatic soul diva with Franco-comic roots is now seamlessly following up on these successes. Best proof: three ECHO nominations as well as completely sold out shows in May. The expectations for her live encores in November are correspondingly high: at the two concerts in Mainz and Stuttgart, the grandiose singer will once again redefine contemporary soul. A must for every music connoisseur.
IMANY is an exceptional artist. And that in all respects. While many female artists seek quick success, the beauty, born in 1979 in Martigues, France, takes her time.
She dabbles in various art forms; lives in New York, advances to become a top model, is part of the glamour scene - and yet all that is not enough for IMANY. True to her stage name, which stands for "trust" and "sincerity", she dares to make a new start in Paris in 2009 - as a singer and songwriter.
As risky as this career shift may seem, it has paid off. IMANY already earned rave reviews for their 2010 debut album "The Shape Of A Broken Heart". FOCUS recognized that "the striking warm soul" went straight to the soul, Cosmopolitan compared her "deep soul voice" to a "warm summer wind" and Elle raved about a "wonderful soul-folk debut".
Since then, Nadia Mladjao, IMANY's real name, has grafted the soundtrack to 2014's "French Women - What Women Really Want," performed more than 400 acclaimed concerts and sold around half a million albums.
More than that, the singing beauty has already found her own sound, her very own style, over the course of her fledgling music career: Sounds that resist pigeonholing and are located somewhere on the borderline between soul, folk, blues and pop.
With her latest work, IMANY takes the next step towards becoming an even more complex artist. Even the album title suggests that she doesn't shy away from explosive topics. How much she could refine her storytelling, however, is especially evident in great love songs like "I Long For You" and the wonderful inventory of her own state of mind "I'm Not Sick But I'm Not Well", where she even reminds of songwriting prince Bob Dylan. What a gifted singer IMANY is becomes especially clear on blues and jazz-infused tracks like the touching "I Used To Cry".
Here, the young artist is very much in the tradition of icons like Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington.
.Other highlights include "The Rising Tide," which appeals to environmental awareness, the harsh media critique of "Save Our Soul" and - as a light-hearted counterpoint - "Don't Be So Shy," which has become a summer hit, in its glorious original version. According to IMANY, the many concert tours have had a great influence on the sound: "Playing live has given us a lot of new impulses", she says. This can be verified in November 2017 at two exclusive concerts in Mainz and Stuttgart. Once again it becomes clear: How good that IMANY has swapped the catwalk for the stage boards.
