Soul music as we know it today is rooted deep into African American culture, but since its conception in the 1950s, the sounds of blues mixed with gospel has spread far and wide, reaching and influencing people in the furthermost corners of the world. One such person was a young Joy Denalane, a little girl born in the heart of Berlin to a South African father and a German mother.

Having grown up surrounded by her parents’ love of music, it was inevitable that Joy would eventually venture out into the industry herself. Leaving school at 16, Joy moved out of her family home to pursue her dreams, but it wasn’t until 1999 that she received her first big break. After collaborating with local hip hop group Freundeskreis on the track ‘Mit Dir’, Joy found herself thrust into the limelight as the single became a top 10 hit in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the summer of 1999. Her first taste of success was made even sweeter by the fact that she had found love with the group’s frontman, Max Herre, and the couple went on to marry soon after.

The success of the collaboration gave Joy’s solo career a real boost, and in 2002 she released her debut album, ‘Mamani’ to much critical acclaim. Five years on, and the now 34-year-old mother of two is taking her much-anticipated sophomore release ‘Born & Raised’ abroad. Her sultry vocals have gained her the title ‘Queen of German Soul’, and with critics already comparing her to the legendary Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, you know they must be onto a good thing.

The Situation caught up with Joy Denalane to find out more about Germany’s ‘First Lady of Soul’…

Your debut solo album ‘Mamani’ was released in 2002 – what have you been up to in between that release and your new album, ‘Born & Raised’?

Well, I’ve been touring, and then I got pregnant again, I had my second baby, and then I started writing for my current album.

You’ve been around on the German music scene for a while, but this is your first English-language album – is this something you’ve always wanted to do? What made you decide to do this now?

It’s more the opposite really! I mean people know me mostly from the first record of course, which was Mamani, which was mostly German speaking but everything I did before that record had always been in English! So it was an exception for me to record that record in German. That was a passionate sort of work because I wasn’t used to that but I thought it was a very interesting project because around that time I had been working with a lot of German-speaking artists, and it was interesting to use the soul music and the German language together.

Apart from the different language, how does Born & Raised compare to Mamani? What’s changed vocally?

Well I’m probably a better singer because I’ve been performing so much, so I think that is a difference. Maybe just a little growth, and more direct than the first record.

You’ve got a culturally diverse background - what were your musical influences growing up?

My dad was my first musical influence and he was really into soul records, R&B records, funk records. Of course I also would listen to what was going on in the charts and when I was a teenager I would listen to hip-hop from my brothers; they came back with the first hip-hop record. So then I started diving into the hip-hop, and that was fun because at school I was the only one with the older brothers who were into hip hop, so I sort of brought it to my school.

Which more contemporary artists have you taken your inspiration from for your new album?

A lot, of course Mary, Tweet, Lauryn Hill, A. Keys, Faith Evans of course, she’s one of my favourite singers… there’s just so many… Beyoncé, I love Beyoncé!

You work on a lot of your music with your husband Max – how have you found working so closely to him? Did you encounter any big creative differences on Born & Raised?

We’ve been working together since the first record, and it was funny because after the first record, both of us decided never to work with each other again! We were so close because we would have discussions about certain things musically, and then all of a sudden they would turn into personal discussions, so we were really, really inexperienced working together so closely and then also with the first record people who were working around us were drawn into our discussions. So after that we decided it’s not working, we would rather stay together as a couple than be tired and having all these complications. But then for some reason, I don’t know, something happened in between the time of the first record this one, we had worked together on certain projects and also we grew as personalities and as a couple. Then we found a balance between work and private life, so for the second album it was truly perfect, you know, it if we disagreed it was clear it was my record and I would decide what to do and whatnot. And that was really peaceful and connected and I’d probably do it again.

You’ve been compared to Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige so early on in your career – how do you feel about these comparisons?

It’s an honour, of course. Mary J. Blige really changed the whole music of hip hop R&B, I mean, she’s the Queen of Hip Hop Soul – she invented a whole new genre and I have so much respect for her. She’s one of the greatest soul singers of all time, so whilst I’m honouring, I’m just trying to be myself.

Do you feel more pressured to prove yourself every time you perform?

No, not at all, I can give you a clear no!

How did you get involved Common for the remix of ‘Go’?

That was actually done in a very official way. My management got a phone call from the record company who were looking for someone to do the vocals on the song for a recording record for release in Germany and so they thought I’d be good for that. They suggested me to the record company and we met and decided to do it together. It was cool, you know, he’s a very humble man, very down to earth and very open minded, so we talked about it and decided to do it.

What about the collaborations on your own album? How did you get the hook ups with Raekwon and Lupe Fiasco?

I decided to have Raekwon on my record because the sample that I use is on ‘Heaven Or Hell’ is the sample he used for one of his songs and we came across it back in the day, you know, when Wu Tang was really, really big? And I always loved the song and sample, and I said one day I’m gonna use it because I love the song so much. It didn’t work for my first record because the concept was so different musically, but it was very clear that for the album ‘Born & Raised’ it was the right sample to use. And since [Raekwon] made it his own I had to get him to honour, sort of, my version, and to give me the ‘OK’ and that was really my mission. I asked a friend of mine who knows him to get in touch with him for me. Then I went to New York to meet him and he was really touched because the version he did was a real classic, only people who are really, really into hip hop would know it because it was a really old school joint. So he didn’t expect a girl from Germany to come to New York and show him this new version!

With Lupe Fiasco it was way different; I’m on MySpace.com at least once a day and he’s part of this MySpace phenomena. A friend of mine called and said there was somebody I should check out, so he sent me the links and then I called my business manager and was like, ‘I really would love to work with him, can you hook it up?’ He just got in touch with Lupe’s management and it all went down so fast and all of a sudden I was on the phone with him and we talked about it, and he just wrote the verse, sent it back to me, asked me if I liked it… It was so fun; one verse and it was all done, so that’s how it worked out.

Germany isn’t really known for its soul music – how do you hope your raised profile will help other similar artists in your home country?

I might have open doors for soul and R&B because it was really non-existent in Germany. Of course, we have heard all the stuff coming from outside from the States, the UK, but soul music out of Germany was something that just didn’t really exist before then, so I might have open doors for them, but we have great artists in Germany, and they might take advantage of that, which is really great.

Joy Denalane's sophomore album 'Born & Raised' is out now. For more information, please visit: www.myspace.com/joydenalanemusic or www.joydenalane.com.