Imelda May performing for Chanel in Vegas tonight

Imelda May is state side! She is performing 5 songs tonight for Chanel in Las Vegas. And then headed to Lexington, Kentucky for a few days. She will also make an appearance in the greatest city in the world… Yup, New York, New York!

Bono performs with Imelda May in Dublin

Imelda and Bono tear it up as audience dances recession away

Sunday December 18 2011

Looking like an Old Testament preacher on a festive jolly, Guggi was sitting next to me on Friday night at The 02 in Dublin. The artist smiled quixotically at me when I told him what was about to happen next was the worst-kept secret in Ireland.

Then, seconds later, Guggi’s best friend, a messianic fella by the name of Bono, joined headliner Imelda May and her band onstage for an audacious version of Desire by his band U2 (the rumour that Larry Mullen was to play drums proved unfounded).

The 12,000 crowd went mental. Harry Crosbie, who owns the venue, had told me earlier in the bar that tonight “we would be witnessing a magical piece of rock ‘n’ roll history — it was 23 years ago that U2 filmed music for the movie Desire in this building”.

When Bono and Imelda did another duet together — a suitably festive and out-of-kilter version of Phil Spector’s Christmas: Baby Please Come Home — everyone, including Guggi beside me and doubtless Harry elsewhere, was up on their feet dancing the recession away.

But this was Imelda May’s night. It is some achievement that the beautiful belle from the Liberties in Dublin sold out Friday and again last night at the country’s biggest venue. Wearing a tight-fitting silver dress that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Marilyn Monroe, she held the audience in thrall for a good two hours with her sassy blend of retro cool, surf guitars and rockabilly with a razor’s edge.

The music throughout, courtesy of Imelda’s bewitching voice, was evocative of what you’d hear in a David Lynch film. I could see why Rolling Stone described her as exuding “the dangerous allure of a Fifties pulp pin-up, the kind with race-car red lips and a dagger in her boot”.

A bluesy rendition of Spoonful by the Chicago bluesman Hubert Sumlin (who only died on December 4) was followed by Psycho, Tear It Up and Big Bad Handsome Man, with her own big bad handsome man, husband Darrel Higham, on guitar beside her.

“The music he plays, the way he moves me and sways,” she sang. “Rocks me to the core/When he sings in my ear/He makes me shiver and leer/Leaves me wanting more and more.”

It was the sentiment of the audience watching her perform, too. She has bona fide star quality; the authenticity of her music emphasises that star quality.

Ireland’s First Lady of Rockabilly isn’t anything you could remotely call manufactured. She isn’t pretending to be Wanda Jackson or Patsy Cline or Billie Holiday. She only knows how to be one thing and that’s herself.

She charms the crowd almost as much with her raw Dublin girl lingo as she does with her songs that have charmed everyone from Jools Holland to Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck to Van Morrison.

Imelda will be making steps (with a dagger in her boot or not) to the Forum in Waterford tomorrow, the INEC in Killarney on Thursday and the Big Top in Limerick on Friday.

Impossibly hip Irish band The Last Tycoon are the (very) special guests on the last two shows.

“We’re delighted to be asked to open for Imelda again,” Tycoons frontman Stephen Fanning told me — he and his band flew specially from their base in Berlin for the gigs.

“We played with her in Berlin last May and after seeing us, she invited us on the rest of her German tour, which was amazing. She’s been really supportive of us and her fans were great to us as well,” Stephen said, before adding that the hotly tipped group have their own headline show in the Workman’s Club in Dublin on December 28 with a new album on the way in 2012.

Now that will be mayhem.

– Barry Egan / Irish Independent

Imelda May on the Late Late Show

Set your DVR, tomorrow night Imelda May will be on the Late Late Show with Craig Fuergson. The show airs on CBS at 12:35 AM EST, or 11:35 PM CST. So east coasters, set the DVR for Saturday, 12:35 AM!

Imelda May – Over The Rainbow

Need an Imelda fix today? I do!

Here’s a clip of Imelda May performing in Chicago where she sang Over The Rainbow which was written in Chicago. This clip was sent in to us with the caption, moved to tears!

Video: Imelda May in Nashville

Imelda May on Nashville radio

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F1192736&player_type=artwork&color=00abff
Imelda May – NSN highlights 10-9-11 by Lightning100

3rd and Lindsley was packed and rockin’ on 10-9-11 for our Nashville Sunday Night broadcast headlined by hot new Irish singer/songwriter/musician Imelda May. She won Ireland’s 2009 Meteor Award (their equivalent to the Grammy) for Best Female Artist. In 2010 she performed on the Grammys with Jeff Beck. Her new album Mayhem shows off her unique fusion of musical genres such as surf, blues and rockabilly. This is her time to break big in America. The audio highlight reel above from our show gives you the live performance of “Mayhem,” the single you’ve been hearing on Lightning 100, plus a great rockabilly treatment of “Train Kept A’ Rollin’” and the live “Sneaky Freak,” one of the other many great songs on Mayhem.

Imelda May on The Tonight Show Video

http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/widget/widget.html?vid=1361723

Imelda May made her third appearance this year on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Imelda May on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Imelda May & Megan, NYC

Set your DVRs tonight! Imelda is on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno which airs on NBC, 11:35 PM EST. Imelda told our source she will be performing, Inside Out!

Imelda May – Baby, I Love You

During Imelda’s encore at the Bowery Ballroom, she covered The Ronettes,
Baby I Love You. Imelda, this is why we love you, Baby!

Imelda May – The Elvis Medley

Imelda May performed a SOLD OUT concert at The Bowery Ballroom Saturday night in NYC.