Róisín Murphy

When Róisín Murphy (born on July 5, 1973 in Wicklow, Ireland) wandered up to producer and bass player Mark Brydon at a party in Sheffield and asked "Do you like my tight sweater?", the chance flirtation suddenly took her life in a new direction. The pair soon started up a relationship and when Mark Brydon coaxed his new beau into the studio to sing over his musical experiments with trip-hop, funk and dance, the electro duo Moloko were born. After four successful albums, the huge 1999 hit single "Sing It Back" and a well-earned reputation for flamboyant stage costumes and soulful electro, the couple's relationship broke down and the band split in 2005. Róisín Murphy lent her vocals to tracks by Handsome Boy Modeling School and house DJ Boris Dlugosch, before recording her debut solo album Ruby Blue (2005) with producer Matthew Herbert. Recruiting a host of different songwriters and producers to work with, second album Overpowered (2007) glittered with glam, eighties-inspired disco and throbbing electroclash beats; but the singles "Overpowered" and "Let Me Know" failed to really take off and she found herself involved in a spat with Calvin Harris when she dropped a song he'd written for her from the record. She went on to collaborate on tracks with Italian DJs Crookers, Tony Christie, DJ Mason and with Fatboy Slim and David Byrne on their 2010 concept album about Emelda Marcos, Here Lies Love. Released in May 2015, her third studio album, Hairless Toys, saw her career take off with the record receiving a Mercury Music Prize nomination, a nomination for Best Irish Album of 2015 at the Choice Music Prize and with Róisín Murphy earning accolades across the critical spectrum. Fourth album Take Her Up to Monto (2016) was positively reviewed although didn't quite stir up the same level of success as Hairless Toys. She released her fifth solo album Róisín Machine in October 2020, which was produced by her long-term collaborator Richard Barratt (a.k.a. Sheffield mainstay Crooked Man and DJ Parrot). It became Murphy's highest-charting album in both Ireland and the UK, debuting at Number 5 and Number 14 respectively. Produced by DJ Koze, her sixth studio album Hit Parade arrived in September 2023 via Ninja Tune but the reception was soured by controversial comments made on Facebook the previous August where she described puberty blockers as "fucked, absolutely desolate" and young trans people as "little mixed-up kids” and “vulnerable." Nonetheless, Hit Parade became Róisín Murphy's highest charting album in the UK to date, denting the upper reaches of the UK Albums Chart at number five while also making it into the top ten in Germany.

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