Michelle Gurevich | Vilnius

Michelle’s 7th bedroom produced album – It Was the Moment – will not disappoint those anticipating a new soundtrack for their darkness and saudade. It may even be her most vulnerable and expressive work yet, not unsurprising as it was written and produced during a period of grief and mental instability. There’s a new level of emotional surrender in these songs, confirming her place in the lineage of dramatic chansonniers. Themes include a fatalistic submission to passion, the ephemeral nature of encounters, the loss of mother and home, the end of days, and losing one’s mind in both the best and worst ways possible. Michelle offers her entire palette of sound here, from dark Lynchian realism, to elegant humor, to queen of epic melodrama.

With shows regularly selling out in cities like Istanbul, Berlin, Warsaw and Athens, Michelle has established a niche that includes the East-European diaspora, the Berlin queer scene, and those with a taste for the melodramatic balladry of Charles Aznavour, Zeki Müren and Nikolai Slichenko. While her concerts include more live aspects and a line-up of musicians, she continues to self-produce and release her own albums, maintaining an intimacy and singleness of expression – from her bedroom to yours. A genre based partly on elements of melody and style, but moreso, a signature fatalist-celebratory approach to songwriting.