There’s a small list of artists that can sing, rap, write sophisticated pop songs and perform them with irresistible charisma. The list of female performers that can do all of that is even smaller, and Amanda Blank is skyrocketing to the top of it. Amanda Blank is a woman making listeners take notice of her unique voice, using genres and styles as merely vehicles toward unhindered self-expression.
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“Buy anything with my name on it.”
There’s a small list of artists that can sing, rap, write sophisticated pop songs and perform them with irresistible charisma. The list of female performers that can do all of that is even smaller, and Amanda Blank is skyrocketing to the top of it. Amanda Blank is a woman making listeners take notice of her unique voice, using genres and styles as merely vehicles toward unhindered self-expression.
Philadelphia born and bred, Amanda was raised with her older sisters in a
row house in Germantown by artist ex-hippie parents. She quickly learned
the value of individuality and the need for outspokenness. A quick glimpse
at her interests conveys the dynamic nature of Amanda’s character, ranging
from the radically raw to the sentimentally sweet. From her tastes in music
(My Bloody Valentine, Man Man, Santigold, Antony and the Johnsons) to visual
art (Jayson Musson, Aubrey Beardsley) to fashion (Ny Chorm), she gravitates
from the sensual and shocking to the fun and absurdist.
Blank is part of a loose collective of musicians that include Spank Rock, Santigold, and Diplo. She takes influences as diverse as 90’s R&B, 80’s dance, indie, new wave and brit pop and mixes them into her own type of double-dutch, defiantly taking the rope out of the hands of haters and using it against them. Whether set against a pastiche of club beats or with her stadium rock group Sweatheart, her voice is undeniably her own.
Amanda took the world by storm with her contribution to the track “Bump” from Spank Rock’s 2006 breakout album YoYoYoYoYo. Her verse is a serious exercise in lyrical acrobatics as runs circles around the beat. She’s just as at home collaborating with Ghostface Killah and M.I.A. as she is with Britney Spears on Eli Escobar and Doug Grayson’s remix of hit single “Gimmie More”. Her songs have also appeared on the HBO series’ Life Support and Entourage as well as CBS televisions’ CSI:NY. Blank signed to Downtown Records in 2008 and is releasing her debut, I Love You, on July 14, 2009.
Amanda Blank is poised to take the pretty-people party national.
-URB Magazine
