British Soul Sensation sampled by Jay-Z, Hannah Williams & The Affirmations features on car manufacturer, Nissan’s INFINITI Winter Campaign.
Infiniti, the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Nissan has picked up Hannah Williams & The Affirmations title track ‘50 Foot Woman’ for the launch of their winter campaign with a series of commercials. The campaign started on November 1st and celebrates the brand’s 30th anniversary with the motto “Luxury Should Be Lived In”. ‘50 Foot Woman’ will be aired all across the United States and Canada on TV’s, theatres, radio stations and the web. Hannah Williams turned heads worldwide when the hip-hop superstar Jay- Z sampled her heart-stopping vocals on her song 'Late Nights & Heartbreak' for the title track, ‘4.44’ on his 2017 album. The new album ‘50 Foot Woman’ released October 18th on the Milan based imprint Record Kicks captures all of the visceral power of the band's increasingly legendary live performances with shades of classic Soul and Psychedelic soul. Born in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, Williams' father was a musically gifted minister, and her mother let her join the church choir at the age of six. Hannah could read music before she could properly read words, and when she discovered soul by listening with her mum to Motown and Bill Withers, there was no turning back.
After a 2012 debut with her previous band the Tastemakers, it was 2016's Late Nights & Heartbreak that announced the arrival of Hannah Williams and the Affirmations. But little did she know that Jay-Z was listening. One day, at her then-day job running the music department at the University of Winchester, he sent her a text asking her to call him. Once she'd established that it wasn't a wind-up, and summoned the courage to call him, she learned that JayZ's producer, No I.D., had played him Hannah's track to inspire his response to Beyoncé's Lemonade, on which she sang of his infidelities.
What followed was a year of the band's widest-ever touring including an invitation to perform at Central Park Summer Stage NY, Toronto Jazz Festival and Brooklyn Bowl NY and expanded audiences in continental Europe where she and the Affirmations had already made a mark. Then came the burning determination to make the record of their lives. The captivating ‘50 Foot Woman’ is that album, produced by Shawn Lee, a respected presence on the funk/soul scene whose credits include Amy Winehouse, Lana Del Rey and Alicia Keys. Lee has released five solo albums as Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra on San Francisco label Ubiquity Records and is also one half of the cool melodic pop duo Young Gun Silver Fox.
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