Ayá»
Ayo (born 14 September 1980 in Frechen, Germany, real name Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin ) is a singer who sings mainly partially in English, in live performance in French. Her style is a mix of soul, reggae and folk.
Life
Ayo is the daughter of a Nigerian father and a Romanian Roma. She learned to play several instruments, violin as a child, as a young piano and later guitar. Part of her early childhood was spent in Nigeria. At age 21, she began to travel, then lived for a time in London and later settled in Paris' Quartier des Halles. Here they began producing their debut album Joyful.
The word Ayo, written with dot below the "o " in Yoruba means " joy." The title of their debut album refers to. Ayo no point below the "o" is the name of a board game.
By 2007, Ayo lived in the district of Kerpen Brüggen. Together with musician and producer Patrice Bart-Williams, from whom she is now living separately, she has a son, in 2005, and a daughter, who was born 2010. The end of 2007 the family moved to the United States, the West Village in Manhattan, New York.
Ayo joined in 2002 to the opening act of the English singer Omar. She took on SWR3 New Pop Festival 2007 in Baden-Baden Theatre part. In 2007, the singer a tour of Germany and the United States.
She wrote almost all the songs of her first album Joyful itself Producer of U.S. singer Norah Jones, Jay Newland, produced the twelve tracks on the album. The album was first released in France and Italy in 2006. In France in 2006 it reached platinum status for more than 200,000 copies sold. In France, 374,000 copies were sold and the album reached the highest chart position the 6th Place. The album reached 35th place in the Swiss Charts Their first single Down on My Knees was represented in the charts. In Germany, the album was twelve weeks in the charts with space 40 as the highest placement.
End of September 2008 they released their second album, Gravity at Last. It contains 13 songs that wrote itself ayo and composed. The album was recorded in just five days at Compass Point Studios in Nassau in the Bahamas and co-produced by Jay Newland.
Ayos third album Billie -Eve - named after her daughter - appeared on March 7, 2011 in France. It was partly included in the Sear Sound Studio in New York. Four of the 15 songs on the album ( including It Hurts and Real Love ) were recorded later in Paris. On the album Craig Ross ( guitarist of Lenny Kravitz ), the rapper Saul Williams, Matthieu Chedid and Gail Ann Dorsey ( bass player of David Bowie ) have participated. As the first track from the album I'm Gonna Dance was released as a single and video.
2013 Ayo began recording their fourth album Ticket to the World with producers of their first two albums, Jay Newland. The album was released on March 14, 2014.
Discography
Albums
Singles
- 2007: AYO Live in Monte Carlo ( from PBS)
Awards
- European Border Breakers Awards 2008
- Globe de Cristal 2014 ( category ' Best Female Singer ')