Ina Forsman

An award-winning vocalist and tunesmith from Finland, Ina Forsman makes her home in Helsinki, where her robust and emotive contralto shapes original material that fuses blues, jazz, gospel, and R&B. Her interpretive style echoes the approaches of Rickie Lee Jones, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday, enabling her to move fluidly between a resonant, forceful projection and a nimble, ironic, understated delivery.

Victory at the 2013 Finnish Blues Challenge led directly to her first recording, Ina Forsman, and to her selection as Finland’s representative at the European Blues Challenge in Riga, Latvia. Ruf Records subsequently signed the artist and issued the self-titled debut worldwide in 2016; the album was tracked over seven days in Austin, Texas and met with broad critical approval. Forsman co-produced her second solo album, Been Meaning to Tell You, with Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff at Wire Studios in Austin, releasing it in January 2019.

A performer since childhood, Forsman first attracted the attention of renowned harmonica player Helge Tallqvist when she appeared at fifteen on the inaugural season of The Voice of Finland. Recognizing her potential as a blues singer, Tallqvist became her mentor, helped assemble her earliest band, and featured her in live performances alongside him. The pair cut a joint album in 2013; the following year Forsman again represented Finland at the European Blues Challenge in Riga, which resulted in a tour with Belgian blues artist Guy Verlinde.

Her first solo release appeared on Ruf Records in 2016, recorded in Austin with Kazanoff and the Texas Horns, Tallqvist, and guitarists Derek “Big House” O’Brien and Laura Chavez. The honey-burnt reading of Nina Simone’s “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl” from that set reached global streaming charts and U.S. public radio the same year. Subsequent touring across the United States and Europe with Layla Zoe and Tasha Taylor produced the audio-video package Blues Caravan: Blue Sisters 2016. Forsman supported both projects with dates throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S. In fall 2018 she returned to Wire Studio in Austin, where she recorded Been Meaning to Tell You with Kazanoff, the Texas Horns, guitarist Chavez, and additional session players before resuming an international touring schedule.