Mysie cried when she learnt about her grandfather’s past. Until a few years ago, the genre-melding indie-soul singer had been unaware of Israel Magembe’s work. How wonderful it must have been, then, to discover that he is credited with introducing Congolese jazz and blues to Uganda’s music scene in the Fifties. “It was magical,” she says, sitting in her dressing room at London’s Royal Festival Hall, post-soundcheck for her performance supporting Corinne Bailey Rae. “I cried because it was the final affirmation that this is what I was meant to be doing. This is the legacy.”
The 26-year-old has inherited her grandfather’s knack for weaving together a panoply of international influences. Born Lizbet Sempa, in south London, Mysie was raised by her parents to the strains of Alicia Keys, Chaka Khan and Sade. In her own work, sultry pop hooks mingle with guitar strums; sun-drenched Latin rhythms flirt with jubilant Afropop. She first released music under her real name. But she soon felt trapped by her industry’s pigeonholing of Black female artists, and started afresh with a moniker borrowed from her middle name, Margaery.
