Peyroux was born in Athens, Georgia USA in 1974. Her family was in academia, and she has described her parents as “hippies”. Her father moved the family to Brooklyn when Peyroux was six, so he could pursue a career in acting. She grew up in New York City and southern California, and when her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to Paris.
Peyroux started singing at the age of fifteen, when she discovered street musicians in the Latin Quarter in Paris. Seven years later she released her first album Dreamland, in 1996, and gained widespread attention. Time called it “the most exciting, involving vocal performance by a new singer this year”. Peyroux soon found herself opening for Sarah McLachlan and Cesaria Evora, and made appearances at jazz festivals and on the Lilith Fair tour. Over the following six years Peyroux would be found busking in Paris, performing occasionally in clubs in the U.S., and generally living a low-key existence. She continued to contribute to works by other artists, but rarely appeared in clubs under her own name.
In an age where celebrities are expected to indulge all of the public curiousities, Peyroux eschews publicity and keeps a low profile. She has dropped “out of sight” for extended periods of time, as when she spent several years busking after the release of her first record.
On July 12th, 2007, she was awarded Best International Jazz Artist at the BBC Jazz Awards
