Soulé (singer)


Soulé is an Irish pop singer-songwriter.

Career

Soulé's singing was spotted online by a Dublin musician, Precious, in 2015 and she was invited to feature on a song he was recording at Diffusion Lab, an experimental production house in Dublin. This is the studio in which Soulé has produced all of her music. She released her first single, Love No More, in September 2016. Her music has been described as "fun r'n'b", taking inspiration from the genre in the 1990s.
Her singles, Love No More and Troublemaker, were nominated for the Choice Music Awards' Song of the Year in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Her single, Love Tonight featuring C Cane, was played on each episode of Love Island in 2019. This single was also nominated for the Choice Music Awards' 2019 Song of the Year, reached no.1 on Irish radio and was the biggest song by an Irish female artist that same year. She was named one of RTÉ 2fm's Rising Stars in 2019.
She performed at Eurosonic in 2018, and has featured at Electric Picnic, Longitude, and Forbidden Fruit music festivals in Ireland. She was one of the acts featured at the Love Sensation festival in Royal Hospital Kilmainham, the 2fm Christmas Ball in the 3Arena, and on The Late Late Show in 2019. She regularly performs with Mona-Lxsa. She collaborated with Sorcha Richardson and Elaine Mai on a single, Butterflies, in 2019 as part of the Three Ireland Made by Music campaign.
In 2020, Soulé was part of an Irish collective of female singers and musicians called Irish Women in Harmony, that recorded a version of Dreams in aid of the charity SafeIreland, which deals with domestic abuse which had reportedly risen significantly during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Personal life

Soulé was born Samantha Kay in London. Her mother is Congolese. The family moved to Ireland when Soulé was very young. They settled in Balbriggan, County Dublin when Soulé was around 12. She attended the Loreto school in Balbriggan. She auditioned for The X-Factor in the UK at age 16, but did not progress through to the television show. In her early years she was involved in music and performing arts in the Foróige youth club in the town, and was mentored by Messiah J. She was involved in organising the Nitrogen music festival in the town. She received a degree in Tourism from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Discography