La Roux Details

La Roux are an English electropop duo formed in 2008 in London, United Kingdom. The band consists of Elly Jackson (born 12 March 1988; singer and keyboardist) and Ben Langmaid (co-writer and co-producer). Their music is largely influenced by 80s pop music including Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, The Human League, Heaven 17, Yazoo and Prince.

The name La Roux (pronounced lah-roo) is reported to be chosen when Elly found it in a book of baby names. La Roux comes from the mix of the French masculine word for “redhead” and the feminine article for “the”, referring to Jackson’s distinctive hairstyle. In 2006 Jackson and Langmaid were introduced by a mutual friend. Their first project was named Automan and they wrote largely acoustic music. In 15 December 2008, La Roux released their first single “Quicksand” on Kitsuné Music label, reaching just #129 on UK. This single was followed on 29 June 2009 by their debut album La Roux, on Polydor label.

The album peaked at #2 on UK albums chart, #158 on US charts, and it sold over 500,000 copies worldwide. La Roux’ second single “In for the Kill” was released on 16 March 2009. This single debuted at #11 on the UK singles chart and peaked at #2. The dubstep producer Skream made two remixes of this track: “In for the Kill (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey remix)” and “In For The Kill (That Doesn’t Sound Like Skream’s Remix)”. Lifelike also made a remix entitled “In For The Kill (Lifelike Remix)”. “Bulletproof” was released on 22 June 2009 and debuted at #1 on the UK singles chart and peaked at #8 on the US charts. This single was ranked #25 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 25 Best Songs of 2009.