So sad to read that on Duran Duran's webpage. She died last week of a heart attack.



We would like to express our sadness upon hearing about the death of our dear friend Lamya Al-Mugheiry.

She joined Duran Duran as a singer for our tour of the Wedding Album in 1993 and continued to appear on stage with us well into the 1990s. During that time she gained our respect and affection. As well as performing and recording with us, she worked with such greats as David Bowie and James Brown. You may also recognise her as the voice of Soul II Soul’s Vol. II. She
released her solo album “Learning From Falling” in 2002.

I can honestly say that hers was one of the best voices I’ve ever heard. Working with her was always easy because she had such a finely developed ear for music and the vocal capability, in both range and timbre, to match it. She was the lovely beautiful girl who brought her very individual formula of Eastern Exotique to a stage of white Anglo-Saxon rockers.

We remember her with love in our hearts.

Simon Le Bon

RIP

Oh my God!

I was wondering what happened to her after her debut album on J Records. I liked her cd.

Wow, that's just sad.

I didn't know she sung backup for D2, but I remember her solo release, well her first single. She looks young. That's terrible!

musicman said:

i was actually just thinking to myself about a month ago what ever happened to her/ how old was she? i thought she was younger? a heart attack, wow this is so sad. she hada lot of potential. i remember some people comparing her to kate bush.

She was only 35!


R&B singer Lamya (pronounced "lamb-ya", born Lamya Al-Mugheiry), former background vocalist for Duran Duran's "Wedding Album" and "Thank You", unexpectedly passed away on 8th January 2009 in Oman, according to a message published on her MySpace page.

Lamya was born in Oman and raised in London and Egypt. A very talented voice with a five octave vocal range trained as an Opera singer, she was compared to Björk and Kate Bush for style and vocal abilities.

After watching an interview with Madonna, Lamya moved soon to New York City to pursue a musical career. After going from dance club to dance club and asking to sing, she caught her first break at just 17 years old.

In 1991, Lamya sang lead vocals on "Break 4 Love" by DJ Vaughn Mason, and it led to singing for Soul II Soul. From there, she joined Duran Duran in 1993, touring and recording with the band, and also performing with David Bowie and James Brown.

In 2002, Lamya released her first album, Learning From Falling, which she produced and composed using poems she had written since age 11. A remix of her song "Empires" hit #1 on the Billobard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2002.

Her second album, ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’, was scheduled for release in 2009.

Lamya with Duran Duran:
DURAN DURAN aka The Wedding Album (1993) - backing vocals on "Love Voodoo"
MTV Unplugged: Duran Duran (1993) - backing vocals
No Ordinary Tour (1993-94) - backing vocals
THANK YOU (1995) - backing vocals on "White Lines", "I Wanna Take You Higher" and "Drive By"
Sanremo festival 1995 - also playbacking bass guitar in place of missing John Taylor for "White Lines

Was very fortunate enough to see Duran Duran on the unplugged tour as the Wedding Album came out, they played someshows here in NYC, including a 2 show night at the Academy which no longer exists, and she was a major part of the show, and the arrangements.

Blender's review gave her album 3 stars.

Lamya
Learning From Falling

(J Records)
Release Date: 7/30/2002

Soul II Soul/Duran Duran backing singer would like to be the Kenyan Björk. Who wouldn’t, really?
Reviewed by Steve Lowe

After helping Alicia Keys update the soul-diva formula, J Records head Clive Davis turns his gaze to another genre: the kooky singer-songwriter. As a Kenyan-born Londoner of Omani descent, Lamya al-Mugheiry, 28, scores high on the exotic meter. For her debut, big-name producers including Nellee Hooper (Madonna, U2) match Lamya’s nectary voice and poetic pretensions — “Bring me men to match my mountains,” she implores on “Empires” — with eastern influences, sounding like Massive Attack on vacation in India. But the sitar flourishes in “Splitting Atoms” are muted by Learning’s adult sheen, which lands this unusual record in an awkward middle ground between Björk and, say, Oleta Adams.

Condolences. Someone please post a picture. I saw Duran Duran recently and wonder who she is and maybe saw her from the past.

OMG!!!

Are you kidding me?

This Lamya?

http://www.youtube.com/wa...ZwmpRlhURE


That's very sad -- she was hot & very talented!
[Edited 1/17/09 17:10pm]

FormerlyKnownAs said:

Yes.

dancerella said:

I always liked her song Black Mona Lisa.

sooooo sad. man!!!!!

OMG NOOOOO!



I LOOOOOVE Lamya.

Talk about Underrated artists!

R.I.P.

I only just played that Empires song the other day. So sad.

Sad to hear... 'Judas Kiss' was about John Taylor from Duran Duran.

Oh my GOD! Are you joking! I love her...I was listening to her album just today

I always hoped she'd come out with another, since I love every song on her debut
what a shock! Life can be so unpredictable

RIP

very sad...did she sing on 'come undone' and also soul 2 soul's 'a dreams a dream' ???

peppeken said:

Lamya sang "Love Come Through", my absolute favorite song from Soul II Soul Vol. II. I assumed she was a much older woman. The second Soul II Soul album came out in 1990. That was an amazing 19 years ago! Lamya couldn't have been more than 18 when she recorded that song. "A Dream's A Dream" was sung by Victoria Wilson James.

OMG! WHAT?!



LOVED LOVED LOVED Learning from Falling

I wanna be Eeeeaast of anywhere,
take me out of the everywhere into the here
Sublime to ride reside up high in wide open big sky country
sweet space to satisfy me.

I am incredibly saddened by this news. Her music brought such color so a few of my personal mixes and I'm thankful she shared her voice with the world because she is memorialized in such a beautiful and personal way.

Rest in peace girl.

therevolutionwillnotbe said:

wow! I had no idea she sang that song and yes that is one of my faves on that disc. so so sad. damn

I am so so bummed over this. gosh.

I had no idea who she was but WOW she was so young. May she rest in peace.

peppeken said:

On the Duran Duran "Wedding" album in 1993, she sang backup on "Love Voodoo", not "Come Undone".

She did do the backing vocals for their tour for that album though.