With a sound somewhere between
Lauryn Hill and
Amy Winehouse, retro-soul singer
Rox was born Roxanne Tataei in London to a Jamaican mother and an Iranian father. It was at church that the young
Rox first fell in love with music. By the age of ten she was touring and performing with the National Youth Music Theatre and in high school she joined her first band, a jazz trio. In 2007 she formed her own band while performing live with DJ/producer
Mark Ronson, and then in 2008 she appeared on the
Nitin Sawhney track “Distant Dreams.” A year later she was supporting
Daniel Merriweather on tour, but it was her performance on the U.K. television program Later…with Jools Holland that created the biggest buzz and had both MTV UK and the BBC declaring her an artist to watch. In 2010 her debut album, Memoirs, and its lead single, “My Baby Left Me,” both appeared on the Rough Trade label. ~ David Jeffries