Kira left her home in Copenhagen at 17 to pursue her dream of playing in a rock’n’roll band. For eight years, she journeyed through many foreign lands like a modern-day gypsy. She lived in London and L.A., but her path led her through many parts of the world.
She created a musical world of deeply personal songs, a style all her own – drawing on experiences from her diverse and sometimes complicated relationships, her life on the road, her continuous musical curiosity, and her many collaborations.
Her musical influences are tied together into sprawling cinematic soundscapes, acoustic and electric melodic material, shadows of trip-hoppy David Lynch-inspired locations, highway cruisers, stripped-down folk-inspired hymns, and glimpses of her love for Billie Holiday. She presents all this with her unmistakably intimate and sometimes rough voice that exudes emotional storytelling.
In 2002, Kira released her debut album, HAPPINESS SAVES LIVES, to critical acclaim. The Danish press heralded her as the most remarkable natural talent on the Danish Rock scene in many years.
In the 21 years since then, she’s released 15 studio albums, 3 of them being with her first band (Kira and the Kindred Spirits) – which led to her winning a Danish Music Award and the Gaffa Prize for “Vocalist of the Year” in 2006.
The same year, she also released THE GOSPEL. This side-project, co-written and produced by Tore Johansson (Franz Ferdinand, The Cardigans), would lead to trip-hop legend Tricky discovering and signing her to BROWNPUNK, the label he and Chris Blackwell co-created. She joined Tricky’s band as lead vocalist on his world tour in 2008.
Following this, she released two solo albums with her backing band, The Ghost Riders, the latter being recorded in Iceland and produced by John Parish. She was awarded the Danish Film Academy’s annual Robert Award for “Song of the Year” in 2009. She then released her tribute album to Billie Holiday in 2011, followed by her collaboration with the former SODS guitarist Peter Peter and their joint project Persona, resulting in the album EPIPHANIES OF GRANDEUR in 2012.
In 2013, she released the critically acclaimed WHEN WE WERE GENTLE. Once again produced by John Parish, the Danish press hailed it as the highlight of her career. The album would earn her two Steppeulve Awards (“Album of the Year” and “Vocalist of the Year”) and The Carl Nielsen Prize as “Lyricist of the Year.” In 2014, she released her duo project with the singer Marie Fisker, THE CABIN PROJECT, recorded in the woods of Canada and produced by Mark Howard (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Tom Waits). The album received near-universal critical acclaim.
In 2015, Kira teamed up with producer John Parish and engineer Paul Corkett again to record the critically acclaimed MAY YOUR MIND EXPLODE A BLOSSOM TREE in the legendary Rockfield studio in Wales. The first single from the album, I Celebrate My Life, was released as a remix by Trentemøller, the renowned electronic musical artist and DJ, and became one of the most frequently played singles of the year on P6, the Danish alternative radio station. In 2016, Kira starred in a tribute to country legend Johnny Cash at the Aarhus Theater in a production entitled AMERICAN SPIRIT and composed and recorded her collaboration with Maria Faust in Estonia.