BBC Strictly Come Dancing: Who is Lady Blackbird as singer ...

Strictly Come Dancing fans are in for a treat tonight as the 'Grace Jones of jazz', Lady Blackbird, is set to grace the ballroom for a special performance during Sunday's pre-recorded results show. In addition to Lady Blackbird's performance, the professionals are set to perform a Beetlejuice-inspired routine.

Lady Blackbird, whose real name is Marley Munroe, has been releasing music professionally since she was 12. The American singer-songwriter was signed to a Christian record label until she was 18, when she decided to not renew her contract.

The 39-year-old then signed her next record deal in 2014, releasing two pop-soul singles before leaving relatively soon after due to creative differences. Munroe, now going by Lady Blackbird, got her big break in 2020, with the release of Nobody's Sweetheart and the interpretation of the 1966 song, Blackbird, by Nina Simone.

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Blackbird was released in May 2020, coinciding with the murder of George Floyd by white police officer, Derek Chauvin. Despite having being recorded a year earlier, the song brought a sombre contemporary context to the song about Black womanhood in the United States.

Her debut album, Black Acid Soul, which Blackbird has performed on The Graham Norton Show, The Jonathan Ross Show and Radio 2's Piano Room, peaked at number 6 on the UK Albums Chart as well as entering the Official Jazz Chart at number 1.

Released last month, Blackbird's latest album, Slang Spirituals, is said to not only embody the freewheeling, emotive Lady Blackbird sound but taps into deeply vulnerable lyrics that recount the singer’s challenging ascent to musical stardom.

Across 11 tracks, Lady Blackbird puts her sweeping, cinematic vocal power to use on everything from the soulful orchestral fanfares of Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled) to the finger-picking folk storytelling of Man On A Boat, euphoric gospel empowerment of Like A Woman and the seven-minute psychedelic soul instrumental of When The Game Is Played On You.

Lady Blackbird will be touring the new album Slang Spirituals in Europe and the UK through 2024 and into 2025. Strictly Come Dancing's Week Six Results Show airs from 7.20pm tonight (October 27) on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.