Born to songwriting and publishing parents Mikelyn Roderick and Jimmy Varner, Elle Varner spent much of her childhood in studios and green rooms, before learning to play the flute age six. Varner moved on to other instruments including the guitar and piano and enrolled in a number of music programs, notably Wendy Raquel Robinson’s Amazing Grace Conservatory and the highly esteemed Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University. After graduating in 2008, the singer-songwriter signed with MBK/J-RCA Records in October 2009 and was featured in BET’s Music Matters campaign in 2010.
In 2011 Varner released her debut single “Only Wanna Give It to You” featuring rapper J. Cole. The single peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Chart and was followed by her second single “Refill”, of which she earned a Grammy nomination for. Prior to the release her debut, Varner performed alongside The Roots at their Pre-Grammy Jam Session at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, increasing the singer’s exposure.
Varner’s debut studio album “Perfectly Imperfect” arrived on August 7, 2012 and impressively debut at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. The album highlighted the singer’s soul and hip-hop influences and subsequently spawned the singles “I Don’t Care” and “Oh What a Night”. Staying in the charts for 10 weeks, the album boasts a number of producers including Oak & Pop and father Jimmy Varner.
At only 25 years old, Varner has made an incredible mark of her own within the music industry. She is currently signed with Sony and has already released her first studio album, and is currently building her fan base touring and performing in a variety of venues. She is certainly having success in increasing her following, as I’m pretty sure that over half of the audience stayed back to buy a copy of her LP after the show! As well as a beautiful soulful voice and wonderful skills on her acoustic guitar, Varner really knows how to engage and connect with her audience. It was a small venue, and she made it seem as though she was singing to her friends with the casual way she was addressing the audience. It was really touching to see just how grateful she is for her up and coming success as she thanked the audience for their support over and over again.
For the duration of the performance, there was a piano sat in the corner of the stage, that I assumed was for a band member, but no one touched it. For the encore, Varner returned to the stage alone and sat at the piano, and performed a rendition of Stop The Clock which was beautiful. Her charisma and presence is something that is impossible to translate on a recording and really worth witnessing live.