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Michelle Gurevich (Chinawoman)
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May 13, 20:00
Sixteen Tons 
 "Resistance to the charming magic of Chinawoman is in vain… she doesn’t resemble anyone living and is so remote from the world that one desires to believe recklessly: she exists" (Felix Sandalov, writer for Billboard Magazine). Michelle Gurevich was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Russian immigrants and was raised with Russian as her first language. Her father was an engineer in Soviet Leningrad and her mother a Kirov ballerina (the subject of Chinawoman's "Russian Ballerina"). Gurevich originally wanted to become a filmmaker and worked ten years in the industry before turning to music. "I eventually tried to write a song and found it was not only cheaper, but much easier to get a good result. Maneuvering between grandiose retro motifs and a surprising sincerity, Michelle Gurevich’s songs are tragicomic, melody-driven, sentimental and suspended in shadowy glamour.
Maneuvering between grandiose retro motifs and a surprising sincerity, Michelle Gurevich’s songs are tragicomic, melody-driven, sentimental and suspended in shadowy glamour. Having released 3 albums under the moniker of Chinawoman, she now continues as Michelle Gurevich with her 4th and latest release – New Decadence. Produced in the same manner as her previous releases, she combines dark realism with humour in smoky and intimate ballads delivered with cutting and fatalistic lyrics.
Her story began when her bedroom-produced debut album Party Girl, by some fateful unknown hand was delivered to the land of her forefathers, and soon made its way blaring from the yachts of Russian billionaires and as the ringtones of mothers all over the Ukraine. The daughter of a Kirov ballerina and an engineer from Leningrad, Michelle grew up listening to her parents’ collection of Soviet and 70’s European records. Her music has drawn comparisons to Nico and Leonard Cohen, Soviet era singing stars such as early Alla Pugacheva, with a voice akin to Tanita Tikaram. Decadent, dramatic and earnest, vintage keyboards and synth strings offer the solitary rendition of a grand experience, and a voice always upfront delivers motifs familiar yet impossible to pinpoint from the great soup of European chanson.
With shows regularly selling out in cities like Istanbul, Moscow, Berlin and Athens, Michelle has established a niche that includes the East European diaspora, the Berlin queer scene and their grandmothers, and those with a taste for the melodramatic balladry of Aznavour, Zeki Müren and Lucio Dalla. While her concerts include more live aspects and a line-up of musicians, her albums have all been recorded in the same bedroom manner, 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.
More info
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