Emma Smith

British jazz singer Emma Smith gained
experience as a teenager touring with The String of Pearls Orchestra, a group
that specialized in the music of Glenn Miller. She went on to become the first
jazz vocalist to receive a scholarship to the Purcell School of Music. In 2009
she performed as Eartha Kitt and Rosemary Clooney in a BBC program about Billy
Strayhorn. In 2012 she became part of the nostalgic, close-harmony vocal group
The Puppini Sisters, and released her first album, The Huntress, which
earned strong reviews that often noted her mature sound was unexpected from a
performer in their early 20s. She became a regular at jazz clubs and festivals,
and performed with artists as varied as Seal, Robbie Williams, and Michael Buble.
The BBC hired her as a presenter for a weekly radio program dedicated to jazz. She
enjoyed a viral sensation when “I Found a Place In My Heart”, a soulful,
Motown-inflected song she recorded with Dom James, was used to score a Range
Rover advertisement and sent many clamoring for the full song to be released as
a single.