Tanita Tikaram (born August 12, 1969) is a pop/folk singer/songwriter. Her style is based on her husky voice, acoustic guitar and quirky, poetic lyrics. Her 1988 debut album, Ancient Heart, released when she was just 19 years old, became an international hit and led to a world tour. But her successive releases failed to meet with much commercial success and she has since faded into obscurity. She worked with a new producer and a more pop music-oriented style for her attempted 1998 comeback The Cappuccino Songs.
She remains best known for the enigmatic hits "Twist In My Sobriety" and "Good Tradition" from her debut album. "Twist In My Sobriety" was accompanied by an award-winning black and white video, set in rural South America, and directed by Gerard de Thame.
Tikaram was born in Münster, Germany as the daughter of a Malaysian mother and a British army officer of Indian-Fijian ancestry, and later moved with her family to Basingstoke, England. She is the sister of actor Ramon Tikaram.
In 2005 Tanita released her latest album, Sentimental. The album was warmly received by critics and fans.
Tanita Tikaram is back with a collection of beguiling and rewarding new songs, entitled, 'Sentimental', released in the Spring of 2005 on Naïve Records.
'Sentimental' is Tanita's sixth studio album and her first record since 1998's, 'Cappuccino Songs'. The album features 10 new songs and a unique vocal collaboration with Nick Lowe who sings on two of the tracks.
Articulate and engagingly self deprecating, Tanita's aims for the new album were very simple: "I wanted to get back to things I had forgotten, fundamental ideas about keeping things simple and interesting and looking at how the voice sits with other instruments", says Tanita, "Ideas I felt I lost but which maybe I just knew naturally when I was seventeen."
Sentimental', is in some ways a musical departure but also part of a natural process. "It is a departure from my last album in terms of the way it was developed and recorded but in many ways I think it is part of a natural development in my songwriting, I hope the more mature I become, the simpler the songs become", she explains.
'Sentimental' is characterised by Tanita's laid back, rich and husky voice, at times a whisper at other times an evocative jazz croon. The delivery is perfectly in keeping with the conversational, live approach that perfectly suits these songs.
As Tanita explains "I was aiming for a warmth and sonority which is not aggressive. I was fiddling with computers and loops but it wasn't working for me. I wanted that live feel- I just think it is so important to look at how the voice fits with the other instruments in a band and work from there"
