The Information on: Macy Gray

What Is She?

Soul's latest darling, Macy Gray (right), has set the music scene alight in 1999 with her stunning debut album, On How Life Is, which achieved rave reviews when it was released in July. Her current single, "I Try", is riding high in the charts and she has recently performed a series of live UK gigs.

What They Say About Her

"The dissonance between the cartoonily cute and the raucously human in Gray's vocals ensures that she doesn't need to prance up and down her scales and arpeggios to make an impression; nor do her records employ a virtual choir of multitracked harmonies. She just sings the tune... If I were compiling a list of the best gigs of 1999, Macy Gray's would be on it," Nicholas Barber, The Independent on Sunday.

"Macy, for all her charms, is part of the herd. She is more interested in giving `good value' than in innovating or breaking rules. And that would be fine - except that, in this mostly awful pop year, she has ended up as our great hope for the future," Sam Taylor, The Observer.

"Unlike the platinum-selling plastic soul queens Whitney, Mariah and Celine, Gray has an earthy quality which makes for a far more dynamic live show," The Scotsman.

Where You Can Hear Her

On How Life Is is released on Epic records.