Born December 23, 1978 Canadian singer-songwriter and producer Jen-Bea Englishman is better known as Esthero.
Though she remained active following the moderate success of the debut album, featuring on tracks by such artists as Nelly Furtado and The Black Eyed Peas, it would take over 7 years for a proper follow-up to be released (due to a confluence of factors that included a lengthy creative process, the closure of the WORK record label and marketing delays) in the form of 2005's Wikked Lil Grrrls, an album that crossed genre boundaries with its heavy debt to jazz and hip-hop. The album was preceded in 2004 by a pair of EPs, The O.G. Bitch Remixes (with the title song reaching Number 1 on the Billboard Dance Chart) and We R In Need of a Musical Revolution, which served as a preview of the full length album.
Since the release of Wikked Lil Grrrls, Esthero has devoted an increasing amount of time to songwriting and production, with her work featuring on albums by Brandy, Dangerous Muse and Kanye West (most prominently on West's single Love Lockdown).
She is currently working on songs with producers State of Emergency and Chin Injeti that may serve as the basis of a future album, tentatively entitled Songs in the Key of Jenny-Bea.
Official Websites
www.nearlycivilized.com
MySpace
From Wikipedia:Esthero (born Jenny-Bea Englishman, December 23, 1978 in Stratford, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who currently lives in Los Angeles, California. The name Esthero, pronounced /?s?t?ro?/ es-STAIR-oh, refers both to the singer and formerly to the two-person team of herself and producer Doc. She claims to have got the name by combining the name of the heroine (Esther) and last line ("If I am to be the hero, then I cannot fly from darkness.") of the movie from Sylvia Plath's novel, 'The Bell Jar'.
Esthero's sound characteristically features her voice over a mix of mellow bass lines, jazzy trumpets, Spanish guitar and hip-hop. She is sometimes compared to artists Björk, Portishead and Sade. Later female artists who count Esthero among their influences include Res, Fergie and fellow Canadian Nelly Furtado.
Esthero's brother, Jason Englishman, is also a musician.