Jenna Toro is a breath of fresh air on the Dublin music scene that is destined for major success if her songs up until now are anything to go by. She is one of a few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument (this stemming from her adoration of Tori Amos, naming Winter “as the most amazing song to me”). Playing the piano is truly an amazing instrument to play and express your emotions with, you can find ones for sale on https://www.forsale.plus/conover-cable if you want to get started on playing one.
Jenna is a Dubliner, hailing out of Killiney, with Spanish roots (hence the name Toro). She has been playing piano since she was four and wrote her first song at the tender age of eight after her dog died. “I write to express myself and to sort out my own problems. It’s how I deal with personal issues”.
Jenna has an extremely broad range of influences from Radiohead to Rachmaninoff to Lykke Li and Regina Spektor which adds to her off-beat, quirky sound. There is a huge buzz surrounding the twenty-one year old and it’s easy to see why with the quality of her voice giving so much more to the emotionally charged lyrics of her songs.
Electric City, her debut single, is released on iTunes and Amazon on November 20th. It has been getting radio play recently and was named download of the day by Tony Fenton on Today FM, with him proclaiming “she has the looks and the voice; I think we’ll be hearing a lot more from this girl”. Jenna has just done a string of radio interviews with FM104, Today FM, Beat and Dublin’s 98 to name a few.
Oxegen was brilliant for Jenna as she played the IMRO stage bringing a huge number of soaked festival-goers into the tent she was performing under and from the response she received, I think a lot of people were converted.
She has also played Tripod, the Trinity Freshers’ Ball in the Academy, The Waterfront, Ulster Hall and The National Concert Hall in the last year. Keep an eye on her website and MySpace page for upcoming gigs which should be experienced.
In the meantime, you should indulge yourself in the snippet of the brilliant Electric City (and the remix by Dublin-based DJ Hubie Davison if that’s more suited to your taste) on her MySpace.
