Lady Sovereign

With early airplay blowing up across the country in advance of yesterday’s official impact at Top 40, it sounds like radio definitely loves Def Jam recording artist Lady Sovereign’s “Love Me Or Hate Me,” the first U.S. single from PUBLIC WARNING, the pint-sized 20-year-old’s debut album, arriving in stores October 31st. With over 500 spins a week at Top 40 stations in markets like Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and Tampa going in to its official add date, “Love Me Or Hate Me” is buzzing, drawing top 5 phones in some markets on the heels of Verizon’s ongoing television campaign featuring the track. MTV is feeling the early buzz too, and has added Sov to their exclusive “Discover & Download” program out of the box. “Love Me Or Hate Me” is now available for download at the iTunes Music Store and other digital retail outlets.

Known for championing buzz bands early, ‘The O.C.” has gotten in on the act, commissioning a cover version of the Sex Pistol’s classic “Pretty Vacant” from Sov, which will be included on the latest installment of their compilation series. Both “Pretty Vacant” and “Love Me Or Hate Me” will be used in the upcoming season of ‘The O.C.”

“Love Me Or Hate Me” is the lynchpin behind the exciting multi-million dollar music-based national television, radio, print, and online marketing campaign for Chocolate, the ultimate mobile phone introduced in the U.S. this summer by Verizon Wireless and LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A. During the campaign, the Verizon Wireless V CAST Music online store will have exclusive rights to sell “Love Me Or Hate Me” digitally. The track will also be featured on users’ phone decks where they can hear the song and see Lady Sovereign’s image. The campaign, which runs through November, is the first strategic partnership between Verizon Wireless, LG Mobile Phones, and the Island Def Jam Music Group’s Def Jam Recordings, a division of Universal Music.

A native of North London’s notoriously cut-throat Chalkhill Estates, a rough trade housing development just blocks away from the no-man’s-land near Wembley Stadium, Lady Sovereign (nee Louise Harman) was a teen school dropout when she hooked up with the vital East London grime scene. Adopting to the punk rock DIY ethic, her knack for self-promotion soon proved as effective as her mic skills. She posted her rhymes – including “Random” and “Ch-Ching” – on facepix.com (an early version of MySpace) and the Internet carried them around the world. She still personally manages her own page on MySpace, communicating directly with her 56,000-plus friends, who have logged some 1.6 million music listens.

Lady Sovereign completed a round of successful U.S performances in the late-spring and summer, including the Coachella and Intonation festivals and a national tour in support of The Streets. She returned to headline New York City’s Central Park Summerstage in July, followed by the prestigious Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago’s Grant Park on August 4th, and Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

A week before the release of Public Warning, the U.K.’s hottest new export will begin her first major headlining tour of North America on October 23rd at Club Soda in Montreal. Island Records act Young Love (Dan Keyes), whose self-titled debut album will be released in January, will open the 6-week, 25-city tour, which wraps up December 1st at the Loft in Atlanta. (Please see complete tour itinerary below.)