Barb Jungr

Britain’s foremost chansonnier and song stylist, Barb Jungr, is one of the country’s finest interpreters of contemporary song. Always original and inventive, Jungr has drawn comparisons with Nina Simone and Peggy Lee.

Barb Jungr (born 9 May 1954) is an English singer-songwriter, composer and writer, of Czech and German parentage. She is perhaps best known as a chansonnière, or singer of chansons—in the sense of classic, lyric-driven French songs; in the broader sense of European songs in the cabaret style; and in the even broader sense of a diverse range of songs interpreted in this style. A song-stylist incorporating jazz and blues, her approach often includes radical re-readings of known writers as well as original material.
With rave international reviews and two prestigious New York awards (2008 Nightlife Award for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist and Best International Artist 2003 Backstage Award), Barb Jungr is renowned for her unique vocal style, interpretation of song and radical approach to arrangements. Her acclaimed releases on Linn Records and Naim Label, and ‘revelatory’ live performances have brought her to audiences all around the world.

Barb celebrated 2011 touring the UK extensively with a new Bob Dylan collection, performing the show Girl Talk with Mari Wilson and Gwyneth Herbert, and collaborating with Kuljit Bhamra and Simon Wallace on Durga Rising. The album The Man In The Long Black Coat - Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan was released in May 2011 by Linn Records to excellent reviews and she toured throughout the UK and to the USA in autumn 2011, performing for the first time in LA and Austin with return appearances in San Francisco and a 2 week run in New York.

‘One of the best interpreters of Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan anywhere on this angst ridden planet today’ (Village Voice, New York) and ‘one of the best nightclub singers in the world’ (Time Out New York), Jungr is ‘a fearless iconoclast who dives into the deepest waters of popular song to wrest exotic treasure from the ocean floor’ (The New York Times). Her earlier Dylan collection, Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan: Every Grain of Sand (Linn Records 2002), which the Wall Street Journal called ‘the most significant vocal album of the 21st century thus far,’ is now regarded as a cult classic album.

Born and raised Rochdale and Stockport, Barb has worked with many of the finest musicians and composers in the UK (including Mark Anthony Turnage who wrote ‘About Water’ for her to sing at the re-opening of The South Bank with the London Symphonietta), has toured all over the world with the British Council in the 1990s (Malawi, Cameroon, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Cote D’Ivoire, Sudan), appeared in Australia (2006, 2007 and a sellout tour in 2010), toured across Norway and Holland and performs regularly in New York and across the United States (several seasons at The Cafe Carlyle and Metropolitan Room and Joe’s Pub, New York, Catalina’s in LA, Rrazz Room in San Francisco and for Austin Cabaret).

As a writer and lyricist, Barb’s credits include The Jungle Book (Birmingham Stage Company), The Fabulous Flutterbys (The Little Angel Theatre), Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast and Dick Whittington for The Newbury Corn Exchange, and Mabel Stark Tiger Tamer currently in development for Northampton Royal and Derngate.

Barb lives in London.