Sing to the Moon : In 2013, during an interview with Blues and Soul magazine, Mvula revealed that the inspiration behind her song Sing to the Moon came from a biography of the American jazz singerAdelaide Hall titled Underneath a Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall. Quote: Mvula: "Well, the actual song Sing to the Moon came from a time when I was reading a book called 'Underneath a Harlem Moon', which is a biography of a jazz singer called Adelaide Hall, which is basically all about how she kind of was overlooked, or probably didn’t get the recognition she perhaps deserved. Plus it also talks about how she’d had a hard time growing up because her sister - who she was very close to - had died tragically of an illness... So anyway, there's a point in the story where she describes her close relationship with her father… which I think kind of resonated with me, where she talks about the conversations she had with him and how he used to say to her randomly 'Sing to the moon and the stars will shine'. Which kind of became her thing really that she just took with her everywhere. … And I don't know why, but for some reason it just struck some kind of chord with me - you know, it was just something I seemed to connect with at that time. And so because of that, it then became a saying that I liked to use myself. So yeah, because it's become something I personally like to express, I just thought Sing to the Moon would also make a good title for the album as a whole."
History
Singles
Several of the album's singles were released before the album came out in March 2013. "She" was released as the lead single from the album on 29 October 2012. It was released both as a standalone single and as part of the She EP which contained three other songs. "She" was re-released on 16 August 2013 as an EP containing a new "2013 Edit" of the song and five other remixes. "Green Garden" was released as the second single from the album on 22 February 2013. The song peaked at number thirty-one on the UK Singles Chart. It has also charted in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands. "That's Alright" was released as the third single in March 2013.
Release
Sing to the Moon was released on 1 March 2013 by RCA Victor. The album debuted at number nine on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 18,954 copies. The individual song "Sing to the Moon" was sampled by rapper XXXTentacion and used in his song "Vice City".
Reception
Critical
The album met with a largely positive reception, receiving a perfect score from The Independent, and 3.5/5 from Rolling Stone. AllMusic stated the album is "rooted in decades-old forms of gospel, jazz, R&B, and, most deeply, orchestral pop. Almost all of the material is as serious and as refined as it is majestic, with vocal showcases and hushed-belted-hushed-belted dynamics galore."
Commercial
The album debuted at number nine on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 18,954 copies. In the United States, the album first entered the R&B Albums chart at No. 19 for chart dated May 4, 2013, and it reached No. 8 on the chart a month later. It also peaked at No. 173 on the Billboard 200. The album has sold 32,000 copies in the US as of April 2016.
Track listing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Release history
Orchestral version
In March 2014, Mvula re-recorded an orchestral version of her debut albumSing to the Moon in collaboration with all 52 members of the Metropole Orchestra. Conducted by Jules Buckley, the orchestral version of Sing to the Moon was recorded over two days and saw its release on 23 June 2014 as a high quality download via Bowers & Wilkins' Society of Sound. The album was released to the public on 11 August 2014.
