Vanessa Brown, alternately known as
V.V. Brown, is an English songwriter and performer who stepped out in 2005 with a co-writing credit on
the Pussycat Dolls' PCD ("I Don't Need a Man," a collaboration with
Rich Harrison,
Kara DioGuardi, and
Nicole Scherzinger). That year, she also released her debut single, a bouncy, contemporary pop/R&B hybrid titled "Whipped," which appeared on the soundtrack for the television series Las Vegas. After co-writing
the Sugababes' Top 20 U.K. single "Denial,"
Brown underwent a slight makeover as a solo artist -- by fusing early R&B with new wave energy -- and changed her performing alias to
V.V. Brown. On the Island label in the U.K., she released the 2008 single "Crying Blood," a preface to July 2009's
Travelling Like the Light, which reached number 30 on the U.K. album chart. It was issued in the U.S. via Capitol the following year and peaked at number 179 on the Billboard 200. She recorded
Lollipops & Politics, intended for a 2012 -- and then a 2013 -- release date, but it was scrapped in favor of the completely different
Samson & Delilah, a darker and more electronic-oriented set recorded with
the Invisible's
Dave Okumu (a contributor to
Róisín Murphy's
Overpowered and
Jessie Ware's
Devotion) and Pierre-Marie "STAL" Maulini (onetime touring member of
M83). The album was released on
Brown's YOY label in October 2013.
Glitch, led by the uptempo electro-pop single "Shift," was issued through the same outlet two years later. ~ Andy Kellman