THERE'S SOMETHING About MARY
SINGER-SONGWRITER MARY LAMBERT TALKS TO LOUISE CAROLIN ABOUT OVERCOMING ABUSE AND MENTAL ILLNESS, AND FINDING FAME AND LOVE
PHOTOGRAPHER CHRISTA HOLKA
STYLIST MAX ALLEN
SPECIAL THANKS TO PALAIS FLOWERS (PALAISFLOWERS.COM)
MARY WEARS WHITE VEST, EVANS FRESH FLOWER CORSAGE PALAIS FLOWERS
Mary Lambert’s enjoying herself. It’s a rainy morning in London, where she’s in the middle of a whistlestop press tour to promote the UK release of her album, Heart On My Sleeve, and she’s been prodded out of bed by two PRs and a makeup artist, after a late night in the bar, to take part in DIVA’s cover shoot.
If it was me, I’d be hella grumpy. But this is Mary and she’s giving it everything, posing and smiling for the camera, joking and singing along with Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald on her laptop. To say she lights up the dim makeshift studio we’ve created in this curtained hotel suite is an understatement. She’s giving the photographer’s flash a run for its money.
MARY WEARS BLUE TOP VIVIEN OF HOLLOWAY, JEANS EVANS,
FRESH FLOWER CORSAGE PALAIS FLOWERS
This is the second time I’ve interviewed Mary for DIVA. The last time, she was still barely known; a charismatic spoken-word performer and classically-trained composer, her sweet, soaring vocal hook on rap-artist Macklemore’s progay hit Same Love may have given us earworms but most listeners still couldn’t picture, let alone name, the woman who wrote and sang it.
Now – following two Grammy nominations, stage appearances with the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah and Madonna, a record deal with Capitol, which released her EP Welcome To The Age Of My Body (2013) and the US version of Heart On My Sleeve (2014), and a huge hit with the single Secrets, which reached number one in the US dance chart – Mary Lambert is a name to conjure with on both sides of the Atlantic.