Laura Mvula’s over the Moon as she stars at Proms with orchestra

Singer Laura Mvula has told how performing at the Proms with one of the world’s top orchestras is going to be “the biggest show so far of my life”.

Brit Award and Mercury Prize-nominated Mvula has recorded a new version of her debut album Sing to the Moon at Abbey Road with the Metropole Orkest, and they will perform it at the Royal Albert Hall later this month as part of the BBC Proms.

Mvula, 28, said as a teenager she remembers “savouring” the experience of playing Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance in an orchestra in Birmingham where she grew up and said she could never have imagined she would be performing at the Proms. She added: “This is beyond what I could have dreamed of as a 14-year-old, but I always knew I wanted to make music.”

The big opportunity for Mvula, who still lives in Birmingham but is currently flat-hunting in London, comes after she performed three songs from the album last year with the same orchestra at the Urban Classic Prom, and this led to the collaboration.

Speaking at the first full playback of the album, due to be released on Monday, she said she has invited “everybody I know” to the concert, including friend and fellow singer Lianne La Havas and Prince, who she supported on his tour.

She hopes the re-recorded album will bring a new audience to orchestral music and help to break down barriers between genres, and said: “I feel the sky’s the limit really...I’m so proud of it.”