KAREN DAVID TO SHOWCASE AT GLASTONBURY
(16 June 2005)

Karen David, the singer/songwriter/actress, will be showcasing her unique style at the Brasian One Night Stand at Glastonbury this summer. She also has a UK single release forthcoming and is starring in the new Batman Begins movie as well as working on the new Provoke film. The gamine songstress, with the looks of Audrey Hepburn and the sultriness of Lolita, is 3/4 Asian and 1/4 Chinese and was brought up in Canada. She has already packed more into the first twenty-five years than most people manage in a lifetime.

Born in Shillong at the foot of the Himalayas in North East India to a half Chinese mother and a father from Madras, she emigrated to Toronto, Canada with her parents when only a year old.

Her father, anxious that his children had broadest possible horizons, encouraged them to read newspapers from an early age. Six year-old Karen picked up the local newspaper one day and saw an ad for children to appear with Bill Cosby in a TV commercial for Jell-O. Though the ad asked for parents to call, a curious Karen picked up the phone herself and demanded to speak to the producer. Intrigued he took the call and chatted to youngster, but insisted on also speaking to her father. Karen's hitherto unrealised ambitions were beginning to become a reality " she had landed her first role.

Bitten by the bug, Karen persuaded her parents to allow her to enrol in a new performing arts school just opened in Toronto. At seventeen she won a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College Of Music in Boston to study jazz and gospel. She began to discover a talent for songwriting , her first efforts were in partnership with keyboard player, fellow Torontian and future brother-in-law Rob Wells.

In 1997, Karen moved to London to study at The Guildford School School of Acting. She arrived at Heathrow on the day of Princess Diana's funeral, walking into the arrivals hall as the minutes silence started. " You could have heard a pin drop," she says. "It was a poignant introduction to my new home."

She soon landed an audition for the forthcoming production of Mama Mia so impressing Benny, who accompanied her on piano, for a rendition of "I Have A Dream" that she was offered a part on the spot. The part led to meeting with that legend of Indian music A R Rahman who was developing Bombay Dreams. He asked Karen to do all the song demos, which led to performing in workshops and a sold-out US tour.

Throughout this time she doggedly pursued her songwriting ambitions and in 1999 was voted best unsigned artist in a showcase held by the giant US performing right organisation BMI. In 2000 she was signed by Hit & Run, the publishing company which is part of EMI Music. This led to an introduction to a new songwriting partner Stuart Crichton and a distinctive writing style began to develop. Together with Jony Rockstar the pair came up with "Me VS Me" which would become the title track of her album. In November 2002 A R Rahman invited her to his studio in Madras where they collaborated on two tracks "Carry Me Home" and Shillong Shillong".

Karen had spent six months in a development deal with the New York office of Sony Music, but changes in the company meant that it was proving difficult to progress. BMG Records heard about her and flew in their top people from Germany to see her perform. Karen was offered a major international deal immediately. Her first single for the label, "It's Me You're Talking To" was top 20 in the German and Austrian airplay charts over the Christmas period last year, when corporate politics struck again. In the first week of January a complete overhaul of the company from the President down, left Karen without an A&R department and much of this year has been spent fighting to get free of BMG and obtain the return of her music.

During this tumultuous and often difficult time Karen has been fortunate to be able to foucus on her acting career. She landed a featured role in the recently released and well received independently produced British romantic comedy "Bollywood Queen" and a featured role in Holby City. "I played an anorexic pregnant English girl who was having a difficult birth," she says. " I spent a whole day screaming and shouting. I was wearing a bump with a fake baby in it, which I had to push out at the climactic moment. I'm well prepared for the real thing, though I won't have to imagine the pain." Karen also recently played a court reporter in the new Batman movie, "The Intimidation Game" set for release next year. Last month she finished work on a new British film "Take Three Girls" in which she plays one of the leads alongside Charlie Brooks from Eastenders and Caroline Chikezie of Footballers Wives and As If. Karen is currently filming a lead roll in "Topbuzzer" MTV Europe's first sitcom, written by Johnny Vaughan, which starts airing at the end of November 2004.

Music remains a vital part of Karen's life and she has continued to write new songs " EMI Music her publishers have been heavily involved in making the connection to some top producers. She has put together a band of highly respected musicians and is building a solid following from her gigging around the London up and coming scene. Karen is currently in discussion with several record labels but, having been burned twice by the corporate politics, she's taking her time and making sure that her next move is the right one. The album when it is released in 2005 will have been a long journey. It's a vibrant collection of largely self penned material; it reflects both Karen's feisty personna and explores her diverse cultural heritage. Pop music of the highest order: at times reflective, introspective even, but with enough jaunty hook-packed songs to ensure that Karen David will be no stranger to the singles charts. In short this beautiful and gifted artist is anything but disposable.