Kandace Springs

Spotted by the God of pop and funk himself, Prince said of her, "her voice can melt snow". A few months before his death, the legend had no idea that Kandace Springs would go so far as to melt ice. And turn hearts upside down, notably that of another singer who took her under his wing, Lenny Kravitz, whose opening acts she regularly supports. 

With her suave voice, slightly veiled but always intense, she plays with finesse and elegance. Each of her breaths, each of her outbursts, each of her restraint has the intelligence of pure emotion. There's no doubt that there's something of the sensual Diana Krall in her, but also a hint of Norah Jones, to whom she listened as a child. For Kandace Springs has been bathed in jazz since birth. With her session singer father and pianist mother, you could almost say she was raised alongside the likes of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Roberta Flack.

And if she's inspired, you'll never hear her imitate! With the ardor of her youth, she doesn't want to fit into any mold, any style, any convention. With a background in RnB and hip-hop, she eventually turned to jazz and soul, for "their raw truth". And like her idol Nina Simone, she refuses to let herself be boxed in, saying of the latter: "If she had today's technique at her disposal, no one would be able to dictate to her and lock her into a genre". So, like her, she forged her own path, assimilating a thousand influences and wandering between soul, jazz and pop.

At just 30 years of age, she already has the soul of an artist mature enough to break free from the codes imposed on her. And if, on her latest album, she is able to cover the classics of the great voices that preceded her, it's because she too is entering the very select club of jazz divas.