LAURA JANSEN

Laura Jansen

Laura Jansen is a singer/songwriter who accompanies herself on piano. Her major influences are Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris. The singer starts her career in the United States, builds a fan base through websites like MySpace and Twitter and has her break in the Netherlands in 2009 with the help ...
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Instruments

piano, ukulele, zang

Mentioned in the biography of

2013   Armin van Buuren

Biography Laura Jansen

Laura Jansen is a singer/songwriter who accompanies herself on piano. Her major influences are Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris. The singer starts her career in the United States, builds a fan base through websites like MySpace and Twitter and has her break in the Netherlands in 2009 with the help of songwriter and fan John Ewbank. Her debut album Bells is released by Universal in September 2009.

1977 - 2000

Laura Jansen (Breda, 4 March 1977) is the daughter of a Dutch father and an American mother. She spends her youth in various European and American cities and attends high school in Oegstgeest. With the Tilburg cover band Blow Your Mind she sings at parties and weddings. Jansen studies political science for a year and a half, but eventually opts for a career in music. She studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory for a couple of years, and in 2000 she applies to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

2001 - 2008

After her graduation in Boston Jansen moves to Nashville, where she lives for two years, and eventually settles down in Los Angeles in 2005. She has a monthly gig at the Hotel Café club in Hollywood, a meeting place for musicians like Sara Bareilles, John Mayer, Jason Mraz and Joshua Radin. She makes use of websites like Facebook, MySpace, Hyves and Twitter to build a fan base. A participant in the Canadian Idols talent competition reaches the final with a song by Laura Jansen. Her songs are also featured in the MTV series Newport Harbor and The Real World. Through the website of the MillieBean Music label she has her first EP released, Trauma (2007), produced by Rob Giles. Jansen tours the States with Joshua Radin for six weeks, and the two are asked to perform at the wedding of the American comedian and actress Ellen DeGeneres to Portia de Rossi on 16 August 2008.

2009

In March the singer performs at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The EP Single Girls is released by MillieBean Music, and is produced by Bill Lefler. Butterfly Boucher and Cary Brothers are featured as guest vocalists. Songwriter John Ewbank is impressed by the singer's talents. He helps Jansen to get a guest spot on the popular cultural TV talk show De Wereld Draait Door on 12 May. Later that month she signs with Universal Records. Her debut album Bells (referring to the church bells in Nashville) is a combination of the two American EPs. The CD presentation is at the upstairs hall of the Amsterdam Paradiso on 4 September. In November Jansen is support to Novastar at the Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall, and she tours Europe as support to the American singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons. In December the singer has a short Dutch tour of six concerts, including the Eindhoven Effenaar, the Amsterdam Melkweg and the Groningen Oosterpoort. The set list includes her own songs, a song by Sesame Street's Cookie Monster (played on ukulele) and her hit single Use Somebody, a Kings Of Leon cover.

John Ewbank

2010

In January Laura Jansen performs at the Groningen Noorderslag festival. In mid April she starts out on a Dutch club tour, for the first time with a full band. In the spring she puts in some important TV appearances: during the second live show of the talent show X Factor, during the award ceremony for 3FM Awards in April, and in the season finale of singer/comedian Paul de Leeuw's show, with whom she performs Use Somebody as a duet. On 31 May she sings a duet with Gary Lightbody at a Snow Patrol concert at the Heineken Music Hall. The single Wicked World is the title song of the TV series Floor Faber, aired by the channel Net 5.

Paul de Leeuw

Photos Laura Jansen

Audio/Video Laura Jansen

Video Laura Jansen