Lulu Hughes

Canadian singer Lulu Hughes navigates an empowering mix of retro-styled soul, blues-rock, and dance music, all distinguished by her passionate, gospel-inflected vocals. She favored blues-rock on her self-titled debut album, released in 2002 after stints in Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir and in Quebec-area blues groups. She further raised her profile with powerful guest appearances on singles like 2004's "Feel It" by French house specialist Antoine Clamaran. Hughes experimented with vintage soul, dance-pop, disco, and more on 2006's Crazy Mama! before going full-on retro with 2010's Lulu Hughes & the Montreal All City Big Band. With featured spots on more dance tracks keeping her in the public eye, she eventually delivered her next solo album, Built Near the Water, in 2022. "Feel It" enjoyed a resurgence in 2024 with a Jay Vegas remix of the song. Born and raised in Quebec, Louise Hughes is the child of a pair of musicians, and her siblings include singer Rick Hughes and drummer Dan Hughes, both members of long-running metal group Sword. Lulu took a different stylistic route to her career as a musician, first gaining attention for her voice as a member of the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir. In the decade to follow, she played out on the local scene, including earning frequent comparisons to Janis Joplin while fronting her own blues band, Soul What. In the meantime, she was enlisted to sing backup for everyone from Too Many Cooks to Barry White and was a sought-after voice-over talent in advertising campaigns for some of the world's best-known brands. She broke out as a soloist in 1999, when she was cast as Marie-Jeanne in the David Bowie-inspired stage-musical spectacle Starmania, with music labels taking interest by the end of her two-year run with the production. Hughes made her full-length solo debut in 2002 with Lulu Hughes, a mix of uplifting soul and energetic blues-rock for the Musicomptor label. Memorable appearances on Antoine Clamaran's "Release Yourself" in 2002 and "Feel It" in 2004 expanded her fan base into the clubs with the additional help of various extended remixes. Hughes tried her hand at acting over the next few years, earning supporting roles in the dramas La rage de l'ange (2006) and Suzie (2009).Returning to the music studio, Hughes' second album, Crazy Mama!, found her expanding her bluesy sound into classic soul, disco, and other ardent styles. It arrived on Sphère Musique in mid-2006. The singer teamed up again with Clamaran for dance singles including the next year's "Give Some Love (Part 1)" with Mario Ochoa. She then homed in on retro-soul for the collaborative album Lulu Hughes & the Montreal All City Big Band, released in June 2010. She rejoined Clamaran, this time with David Esse, for 2011's "A Deeper Love." After a set of remixes of "Release Yourself" by the likes of Marco Santoro and Leeroy Daevis were bundled together in 2014, the new song "Hallelujah" by Clamaran featuring Hughes appeared in 2016. Hughes eventually returned with her first solo album in 16 years, Built Near the Water (Sphère Musique), in October 2022. It spun familiar music influences through a more mature lens. Jay Vegas issued his own reworking of "Feel It" (Jay Vegas Classic House Mix) in early 2024. That year, she toured with Too Many Cooks.
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