The female version of Leonard Cohen - Canadian Michelle Gurevich - returns to the Baltics with new music and 2020 album "Ecstasy in the Shadow of Ecstasy". Maneuvering between grandiose retro motifs and a surprising sincerity, Michelle Gurevich’s songs are tragicomic, melody-driven, sentimental and suspended in shadowy glamour.
21.03. & 22.03. Lithuania, Vilnius, St. Catherine's Church
24.03. Estonia, Tallinn, Sveta Baar
25.03. Latvia, Cēsis, Vidzeme Concert Hall "Cēsis"
Born in Canada, she began her career under the pseudonym Chinawoman. The talented girl's career began in the bedroom, where she recorded her first album "Party Girl" and chose the pseudonym Chinawoman. By the way, it was received very critically by music listeners, after several strong comments about the fact that there is nothing Chinese in it, Michelle decided to introduce herself on stage under her real name.
The daughter of a Kirov ballerina from Odessa and an engineer from Leningrad, Michelle grew up listening to her parents’ collection of Soviet and 70’s European records. Decadent, dramatic and earnest, vintage keyboards and synth strings offer the solitary rendition of a grand experience, and a voice always upfront delivers motifs familiar yet impossible to pinpoint from the great soup of European chanson.
With shows regularly selling out in cities like Istanbul, Berlin, Warsaw and Athens, Michelle has established a niche that includes the East European diaspora, the Berlin queer scene, and those with a taste for the melodramatic balladry of Charles Aznavour, Zeki Müren and Nikolai Slichenko.
The new collection of songs is about the charm of life, romance, discovered and undiscovered roads. Decadent, dramatic and at the same time sincere, vintage harmonies of keys and synthesizers combine with unrecognizable motifs of European chanson in Michelle's voice. Her songs are tragicomic, melodious, sentimental, combining humor and the darkness of realism.
While her concerts include more live aspects and a line-up of musicians, she continues to produce music in her bedroom, maintaining an intimacy and singleness of expression – from her bedroom to yours. A genre based partly on elements of melody and style, but moreso, a signature fatalist-celebratory approach to songwriting.
The performer with a rich, shamanic voice is often compared to Canadian music legend Leonard Cohen.
"What I create is quite sentimental. For some reason, sentimentality often has a negative connotation in people's minds, but I'm just always looking for sensitive points", said Michelle Gurevich, a music creator and performer who will visit Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia in spring.
