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The girl next door, a celebrated Jazz Diva, an insightful poetic singer/songwriter or the occasional rock 'n roll brat - Lauren Gifford does not have to play any of these roles, she IS all of that and more at all times.
Her father's great love for Jazz legends like Billie Holiday or Dave Brubeck provided a musical atmosphere that fostered the development of Gifford's wonderfully independent talent. Later, endless hours of James Taylor and David Foster helped to round out and widen her musical scope.
Though often compared to Sarah McLachlan or Natalie Merchant, Lauren Gifford developed her very own unique style of singing with a voice that's "captivating and pure" (fan comment). Her reckless and extravagant piano playing leaves the most demanding critics breathless.
"Sitting Pretty", Lauren Gifford's debut release, was her first bold step into the limelight of musical fame. After a record breaking on-air visit with Dallas' very own superstar schock-jock Russ Martin her website was stormed by more than 11,000 visitors registering more than 20,000 song downloads within the following weeks. The CD release was celebrated with a sensational concert at the legendary Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas drawing visitors form around the country, all the way to LA and the revealing of a 16 ft. Billboard that graced a major Dallas freeway for the better part of the year.
More than 500 live performances later (Dallas, Boston and Florida), Gifford has her sights on bigger and bolder goals. With her production/artist development team Edith Letz and Oliver Letz and with voice coach Tom McKinney (Destiny's Child, Beyonce) she is preparing new material for the recording of her sophmore album in late 2006. Growing interest by major record companies as well as TV and radio stations suggest the dawn of another very exciting year for Lauren Gifford.
2006 Highlights:
Visit www.laurengifford.com and check out the News section.
* 18,291 visitors (12,942 unique visitors)
* 140,174 pages viewed
* 8,482 song downloads
* 26.45 gigabytes of data transferred
Highlights and milestones in 2004:
** Lauren Gifford's song "Never Look Back" is included in the "Don't Mess With Texas Music Vol.2" sampler next to contributions by The Crusaders, Pat Green, Los Lonely Boys, Clint Black, The Vaughan Brothers, Beyonce, Steve Miller, Bonnie Raitt, George Strait, Eric Clapton and more benefitting music education in Texas schools.
** Lauren Gifford's song "Sleepwalker" is featured as a download for donation on Clear Channel's HelpCureBreastCancer website
** Lauren Gifford opened the Mix102.9 radio station's Christmas at the Hard Rock featuring Tears For Fears.
Quote Curt Smith (Tears For Fears) when being introduced to Lauren at the after show party: "Oh yeah, you are the girl with the Voice!"
** Lauren Gifford was invited to perform a concert at Bose® Corporation headquarters in Boston which was video taped in HDTV for a client demonstration DVD.
