BlackBook feature

There's a small Roisin feature on the website of BlackBook magazine, with a picture by Pieter Henket that we haven't seen before:


The New Dance Floor Queen: Roll over Madge, tell Kylie the news. A breakout star thirteen years in the making, Roísín Murphy has finally arrived.

Teasing the cheering, sweaty throngs at a Manhattan nightclub on her first-ever U.S. solo gig, Irish singer Roísín Murphy coyly referred to the long wait her diehard fans have had to endure: “I was beginning to wonder how long we could keep going like this, New York, but I’m here now.” It was the only understatement of the night -- she really has arrived. Murphy emerged sporting a blinding silver space-age glitter sheath and android-like eye band, after all, and the intoxicating songs on her impending second solo album Overpowered are anything but quiet. The former singer for acclaimed ’90s electronica duo Moloko has already become an underground dance sensation the world over, and she is more than primed for the big time with this new collection of bubbly disco, brassy pop and elastic funk workouts that gets its mojo from Murphy’s burnished blue-eyed soul singing.

The London-based fashion icon, already a muse to designer Vivienne Westwood, toys with identity with the mere change of coat and hat in concert. One minute she’s a space-oddity disco diva, the next, a bad-ass biker babe, clad in a fringed black leather jacket and cap. It’s an exploration she playfully delves into in her videos. “Ziggy Stardust on the streets of Sheffield” was a catchphrase that stuck in her mind when crafting her most recent vignettes, she explains over a flute of rosé champagne at the Grace hotel in New York. “I found that such a liberating idea that I ran with it,” says Murphy, the picture of modern elegance in leather thigh-high boots, dark skinny jeans and a pleated black Fendi sweater. “My grandmother had a fish ’n’ chips shop. Those are other parts of me that I live all the time. I’m a very down-to-earth, normal person. But I also have a really expressive, creative, flamboyant side.” Did we mention what she wore for her set closer? It was a black-and-white checkered stuffed animal deer waistcoat, with matching antlers headband.

Thanks to Deak!