Biography

Belgian musician Selah Sue, real names Sanne Greet A. Putseys was born on 3 May 1989 in Leefdaal (province of Vlaams-Brabant), near the provincial capital Leuven.

Her debut album, Selah Sue (2011) was a major success, selling over 720,000 copies in Europe, 320,000 in France alone. In 2011, she has had chart success with the hit singles "Raggamuffin", "Crazy Vibes" and "This World". In 2011, Selah Sue won a European Border Breakers Award.

In January 2012 during the EBBA award ceremony she was presented with the EBBA Public Choice Award. On 28 August 2012, her debut album was also released in the United States, where the album received positive reviews. More than 400,000 downloads were counted in one week. 

At age fifteen she learned to play the acoustic guitar and started to write her own songs as well. When she was seventeen a Belgian producer asked her to sing some demos of his songs, after which Universal offered her a contract. She refused, because she wanted to sing her own songs. At the same time she performed as the youngest and only female artist at the open-song contest Open Mic-avond at Het Depot in Leuven.

Organizer and singer Milow (born Jonathan Vandenbroeck) had noticed her talents and asked her to perform in his supporting programme. Initially, Selah Sue managed to work out her musical career path while studying psychology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. According to her, studying psychology helped her to understand more about human emotions, which also is something that she has to deal with in her musical activities.

Eventually, she continued doing warm-up performances in collaboration with artists such as Jamie Lidell in London and Paris. Furthermore, she played with the Belgian band Novastar at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.

Selah Sue often covers songs of Erykah Badu and The Zutons, but she has assembled a whole range of her own songs. Two of her well-known songs are "Mommy" and "Black Part Love", both of which are carried out acoustically. She says that she is influenced by artists such as Lauryn Hill, M.I.A., Erykah Badu, Nneka, Meshel Ndegeocello, The Fugees