Get this video and more at MySpace.com Get Your Own! | View SlideshowGood music can be both cathartic and therapeutic. Great music can convey emotions and even create them. Exceptional music does all of the above, and more. Maria’s debut album, the aptly titled My Soul, is everything exceptional music should be: sonically ambitious, lyrically honest and completely fresh.The singer/songwriter’s story starts in Europe. Born in Denmark – her parents are from Denmark and Guyana – she shuttled around Europe (Denmark, London, Holland and Spain) throughout her childhood. Her love affair with entertainment began early on.“I remember going with my parents to see some flamenco dancers when I was five and living in Spain,†she says. “Somehow, I ended up onstage performing with them!â€Though Maria was bitten by the performance bug at so young an age, her parents thought she was destined for the courtroom, not the recording studio. “They really thought I was going to go to law school,†Maria confirms. “I don’t come from a musical family, so they were really unsure about the decisions I was making.â€But Maria was determined. And at just 15, her fate was sealed, when she met Soulshock, one half of the famed production duo Soulshock and Karlin. He signed her to his label, Soulpower, an imprint of EMI Denmark. By the age of 16, she’d left school, and while writing and recording, she used gospel choirs and a girl group as her training ground.“The people I’ve worked with have been extremely instrumental to my career,†says Maria. “Sometimes, a label will think short-term and cut corners, but Soulshock took his time with me. We’ve been working together in some capacity for almost 10 years, and he’s always had a vision for me.†(This vision was shared by DreamWorks Records principal Michael Ostin, who signed Maria to DreamWorks.)Known for their work with Brandy, Whitney Houston, Monica, Jennifer Lopez and Usher, Soulshock and Karlin have long been considered unparalleled in the production and songwriting arenas.My Soul, for which Maria herself served as executive producer, segues seamlessly from rock and R&B to soul and pop. Maria says of stylistic categorization: “Sometimes people want you to fit into a box. But eventually, you realize, as an artist, you have to go with what works for you.I tend towards melancholy and the darker side of things.When I let my influences inspire me – everyone from Tracy Chapman, Sade and Massive Attack to Sting, Mary J. Blige and Bob Marley – it all just fell into place.â€Her love of these diverse artists also helped Maria understand why she was singing. “If you don’t feel this album, then I did something wrong,†she says. “We get so caught up in ‘Does this song work?’ Sometimes we do too much analysis. So I have to remember that I am not going to change the world; I am only going to change the journey I am on. I used to sit in the car and bond with my friends over Mary J. Blige’s albums. I would love someone to feel that way when they listen to My Soul.â€