WOMAD

Josephine Oniyama

From United Kingdom

2001 BiographyIf you’re young, female and black and you write songs of exceptional quality and emotional depth, at least one journalist is bound to call you ‘a British Tracy Chapman’. That’s exactly the epithet recently used by the Times to describe the 18-year-old Mancunian songstress Josephine Oniyama. Although Josephine has been writing songs since the age of thirteen it’s only in the last few years that her fame has begun to spread. It seems that wherever she performs, in simple voice and guitar mode, critics and audiences end up falling over each other and heaping effusive praise on young Josephine’s head. Her debut album, ‘A Smaller Version of the Real Thing’ is due out sometime soon on Manchester’s Ugly Man label. This is a rare opportunity to get close to a songwriter of rare talent, just before she boards the gravy train of international success. Biography by Andy Morgan, June 2001