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Universal Motown Readies March 16 U.S. Debut of Rising Star Gin Wigmore

With her piercing, crystal blue eyes and platinum blonde locks, it's hard to ignore Gin Wigmore. Once she opens her mouth though, it's impossible. She has been heralded equally for her unique voice - called "quirky and intoxicating" by Perez Hilton, "arresting, powerful and confident, but decidedly fragile" by ArjanWrites.com, and "raw and emotional" by The Cardinals' Neal Casal - and her stellar songwriting skills, for which she won the US-based International Songwriting Contest when she was just 16 years old, beating out 11,000 songwriters from 77 countries. The song, "Hallelujah," was written in honor of her father who had recently lost his battle with cancer. "Hallelujah" went on to be featured on the hit US TV show, "One Tree Hill."

"Her songwriting is at once diverse, intelligent, melodic, and soulful," says The Cardinals guitarist Neal Casal. Fellow Cardinal Jon Graboff continues: "Gin's songwriting seems to subtly embrace so many different musical forms and lyrically, there's often a maturity and depth that you wouldn't normally associate with someone so young."

Since signing with Universal Motown in 2008, Gin has enjoyed an incredible ride. Not only has Holy Smoke, which is dedicated to her father, debuted #1 in NZ, it's been in the top 5 for the past twenty two weeks climbing back to #1 in the last 3 weeks. Gin has already been profiled on NZ's edition of 20/20, and she spent 11 weeks in the #1 spot on the NZ radio chart with her turn on "Brother," the single by NZ R&B/rap group Smashproof. On top of all that, Gin found herself performing on an arena tour alongside heavy hitters John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow.

The 10 songs on Holy Smoke are a unique hybrid of pop and soul and blues and down-and-dirty rock & roll, often in the same song. Holy Smoke hits stores on March 16.

Late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel" airs on ABC at 12:05 am ET/PT.

Universal Motown
Kimberly Harris, 212-373-0701
Kimberly.Harris@umusic.com