POP FANS CONTINUE TO TAKE A‘SHINE’ TO LOLA SPRIGGS!
TWO-TIME HOLLYWOOD MUSIC IN MEDIA AWARD (HMMA)
NOMINEE RETURNS TO THE CHARTS WITH
‘YOUR ONE AND ONLY,’ THE #1
MOST ADDED TRACK ON THE FMQB AC40 CHART
ITS FIRST WEEK OF RELEASE—AHEAD OF BRUNO MARS, KATY PERRY AND LADY GAGA!
***
The Song Is One of Three Fresh Tracks On The
Ottawa Based Singer/Songwriter’s New Album Shine,
Which Also Includes Her Previous Hit “Nobody But You,”
Nominated For Best Adult Contemporary/AAA Song At
The 2010 HMMAs
Her name is Lola, but she’s not a showgirl—yet her fans are clamoring for her to hit the road so they can hear her perform her hot new, easy grooving, super romantic pop single “Your One and Only.”
Lola Spriggs’ (www.lolaspriggs.com) latest track blew away today’s biggest pop superstars the week it was released, becoming the #1 Most Added radio cut on the FMQB AC40 Chart, ahead of Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne, Kid Rock, Seal and even a comeback song from ‘80s pop star Julian Lennon.
It’s hardly surprising, considering the Shine—the name of her latest full length album—that indie pop fans continue to take to the Ottawa based singer/songwriter. In addition to “Your One and Only” and two other new tracks, the collection includes “Nobody But You” (which reached #11 on the FMQB AC40 Chart in 2010) and “I Wanna Love You.”
Both songs were nominated for Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMAs)—“Nobody But You” for Best Adult Contemporary/AAA Song and “I Wanna Love You” for Best Pop Song. The latter earned a prominent mention in Peter Simpson’s Big Beat List: 10 Local Songs from 2010, which was published in the Ottawa Citizen. Simpson praised the track’s effervescence and wrote that it could make the “Ottawa area single mom a pop star.”
Everyone’s feeling the same way about the new tunes on Shine, which show a lighter, high-spirited side of her artistry while also tapping into a diverse array of influences. While “Your One and Only” is infectious dreamy pop fare, it includes a few country accents in the production by Spriggs’ longtime collaborator Marcus Kane (Snow, Joey Boy, Glenn Lewis). “Lola La Lo” is pure dance floor dynamite, while the holiday themed “One Wish” is a cup of magical musical Christmas cheer, on par with Mariah Carey’s classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
Before she begins touring Canada and the U.S. in 2012, Spriggs will have launch party for Shine at The Velvet Room (62 York Street in Ottawa) on December 21– timing it so that she can spread the Christmas spirit to her fans with a live performance of “One Wish.” “That song reminds me of all the happy Christmases I had as a child,” she says. “It’s always been my favorite holiday and the song is a pure celebration.”
Fans who have been following Spriggs’ career since the release of her 2004 debut EP Expressed have noticed a unique evolution in musical styles as Spriggs’ has explored the many genres that intrigue her. After her mainstream retro-rock flavored follow-up Lifescrapes, she returned in 2008 with Barefoot, which had a darker and heavier rock flavor to it. Spriggs explains that this project marked a transition point for her—and since then she’s worked through her dark emotional issues and emerged (happily!) with the more optimistic spirit of her more recent recordings.
“My focus on pop/AC came from being in a comfortable place with myself and the world around me,” she says. It’s a happy ending to a long and sometimes very challenging story, but what matters is that I’m here to sing and tell the tale. My genre has changed somewhat since I started recording and performing. My early stuff was earthy and edgy, but now I’m writing more contemporary and lighter songs and having way more fun. I think as a new artist, I was caught up in the whole search for finding some deep purpose and meaning in life, so I wrote from a place of struggles and hurt. But I realized I don’t always have to do that.
“I can make music that’s light, uplifting and fun as well,” she says. “Early on, I saw songwriting as therapeutic, but I think I’ve had enough therapy. I’ve accepted my past, moved on to a better place and found that with the shift, everything has changed—from my mood to style of music and even the way I dress. A perfect example is “Lola La Lo.” I always wanted to do a dance song, and the story Marcus and I tell in the lyrics captures this change of heart. When the song starts, everything’s gone wrong—she’s lost her job and run out of gas. Then she sees a cute boy in a Corvette, he winks at her, there’s an instant chemistry, and she gets in the car and drives off with her dream guy. It’s the perfect fairy tale.”
