Playing with Prince, touring with Coldplay – singer Lianne La Havas talks about her influences and her Hong Kong debut

Late funk superstar’s work ethic wowed her, while the ‘perfect jazz’ of Brazil she heard on tour with Coldplay infuses her new album, says Briton whose acoustic gig at MO Bar takes her back when it was ‘just me and my guitar’

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Singer Lianne La Havas played MO Bar at the Landark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 5:01pm, 25 Sep 2017Updated: 5:13pm, 25 Sep 2017

Lianne La Havas smells amazing. Arriving at our interview during her first visit to Hong Kong this week, the soul singer greets everyone in the room with a peck on the cheek and dishes out hugs at the end, leaving a sunny coconut-tinged perfume that lingers throughout the rest of the day.

“I would have shaken your hand, but my nails were drying,” the big-haired British singer says with a laugh.

Visiting Asia is like coming to the future. There’s nowhere like it

Lianne La Havas

La Havas is preparing to play an acoustic set at MO Bar in The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, performing her best-loved hits, with a few new tunes from her forthcoming record thrown in.

“I’ve got some songs in the works for my third album. I’ll see what comes out,” the 28-year-old says. “I love acoustic gigs. I feel more exposed because it’s just me, but that’s where I started anyway: doing any open mic evening I could find, just me and my guitar. It kind of feels like me remembering myself,” she says.

Perched on the sofa in one of the hotel’s plush suites, La Havas, a seasoned traveller, wonders why she hadn’t visited Hong Kong sooner. “Visiting Asia is like coming to the future. There’s nowhere like it,” she says, revealing her plan was to simply “eat dim sum and go for a stroll” before jetting away again on Wednesday.