Transatlantic Singer-Songwriter Lucy Woodward Announces New Album
'I Need To Roam' (August 7, GroundUP Music)

Woodward teams up with long-time European ensemble The Rocketeers for a bold, borderless collection
of art-pop, soul, and global grooves.

Lucy Woodward is a live-wire performer whose upcoming album, I Need To Roam (August 7, 2026, GroundUP Music), collides art-pop, soul, and global influences into something razor-sharp and unmistakably hers. Recorded across Rotterdam, rural Virginia, Los Angeles, and India, the all-original collection explores movement—creative, geographic, and emotional. The record features special guest appearances by Grammy-nominated artist Varijashree Venugopal and NPR-favorite troubadour Chris Pierce.

The album arrives with significant international momentum, including a dedicated spotlight episode on the internationally syndicated Paltrocast and a recent four-night residency on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the U.S.

At the center of Woodward's live sound is her longtime band, The Rocketeers—Jelle Roozenburg (guitar), Niek de Bruijn (drums), and Udo Pannekeet (bass). The quartet’s chemistry has been shaped over nine years on prestigious stages including Ronnie Scott's, the Istanbul Jazz Festival, and in recent collaborative concerts with the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra in The Netherlands, with arrangements by Roozenburg and NRJO leader/composer/arranger Louk Boudesteijn.

Raised between London, New York, and the Netherlands to classical musician parents, Woodward's transatlantic upbringing forged the open-mindedness that defines her career. She co-wrote much of I Need To Roam with Roozenburg, leaning into the band's laser-focused pocket that evokes Afrobeat, R&B, and funk.

"I Need To Roam is not about the miles. It's the trip inward," Woodward explains. "It’s about the urge to keep moving, keep growing, keep being open. That spirit weaves itself throughout these songs."

More About The Album

I Need to Roam, the new GroundUP Music release from Lucy Woodward, isn’t a compilation or a greatest-hits LP, but it nonetheless finds the ever-searching singer-songwriter taking stock of her career and digging into her personal history.

Throughout these nine tracks, supported by her groove-smart band of nine years, The Rocketeers, Woodward incorporates the lessons she’s absorbed during her remarkably wide-ranging life in music. That includes her transatlantic upbringing, split between New York City and the Netherlands; her formative years as a top session singer and then a pop-rock siren with a Top 40 single (“Dumb Girls”); her work with Snarky Puppy, Charlie Hunter and other luminaries of jazz, blues and R&B; her immersion into songwriting; and much more. 

I Need to Roam also tells a story of the creative power of connection, elevating Woodward’s profound love for collaborative songwriting and tapping into her outreach work. She co-wrote much of this music with her guitarist Jelle Roozenburg, who began sketching songs only after he’d developed an understanding of Woodward’s gifts and could craft music that accentuates them. She met Roozenburg nine years ago, when he was just 21, and was taken aback by the depth and soul in his playing. “I was looking for a guitar player in Europe, and people were sending me these guys who overplay in arenas,” Woodward recalls. “But then I heard this student playing a blues somewhere and I was like, ‘That’s my dude.’” Woodward was equally struck by bassist Udo Pannekeet and drummer Niek de Bruijn, who, together with Roozenburg, play R&B and funk with a laser-focused pocket that evokes Afrobeat.

Their creative rapport has only deepened, expanding in both its intuitive communication and collaborative empathy, onstage and off. “We’ve just built this relationship,” says Woodward, “which I’ve never really had the time to do with the bands I have based in New York and L.A. This one has had real growth. They’ve watched me evolve as a singer and an artist.”

Todd Wright, one of Woodward’s longest-running collaborators, also contributed deeply to the writing and production. Wright was Woodward’s guitarist in her early years when she was breaking through as a pop artist. “We were on my first tour together running around Japan and New Zealand,” she says, “and basically lived in a van doing shows in the U.S. for over six months. He really knows me.” Fast-forward two decades, and it was his passion that provided the impetus to forge ahead with I Need to Roam. Explains Woodward: “Todd witnessed my entire 20-plus years in the industry, until he one day said to me in the middle of writing a song, ‘You know what? You’ve embraced your pop past and you’ve gained so much knowledge along the way. Let’s put all that into this record.’” That song they were writing was "Wonderland," featuring Indian vocalist Varijashree Venugopal, Woodward's meditation on the sites of adolescence where transformation strikes — good, bad, traumatic, and exhilarating, sometimes all at once — while American blues troubadour Chris Pierce and Het Haarlems Kinderkoor (Haarlem children’s choir, NL) each lend their voice to separate tracks on the album.

Lucy’s writing on I Need to Roam was also inspired by her recent volunteer work in Rwanda, giving singing and songwriting lessons to high-school girls who’d escaped Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The experience allowed her to cherish anew the strength humanity finds in artistic expression. “I heard the girls say, ‘We’re not normally allowed to do this,’” Woodward recalls. “And I said, ‘You are. You’re free now.’” 

That notion, and the inspiration Woodward draws from it, resonate throughout I Need to Roam. The album’s second single, “Roam,” finds the singer longing for the freedom of self-discovery. Not surprisingly, its blend of exploratory art-pop, soul and global influences came together with a spirit of spontaneity. Woodward had taken some flamenco singing lessons during the pandemic, and began to improvise as her partner, the multi-instrumentalist/composer Louk Boudesteijn, started to play the rhythm part of the song on guitar, kick-starting the writing process for the album. 

“I Need To Roam is not about the miles. It's the trip inward — from the kid I was, to the person I am now. It’s about the urge to keep moving, keep growing, keep being open,” Woodward says. “That spirit weaves itself throughout these songs.”

Lucy Woodward Artist Bio


To explore the catalog of singer and songwriter Lucy Woodward is to discover how versatility and originality can not only coexist but thrive together. Or, to say it more directly: Lucy Woodward can sing anything while always sounding like herself.

On 2026’s I Need to Roam (also GroundUP Music), her most fully realized project to date, she showcases astonishing musicianship within songs that hit with the infectious impact of a great pop single. It’s easy to tally off the styles that Woodward’s music blends — from art pop, soul, and rock to jazz, blues and global music. But that blend is so seamless it’s difficult to actually describe it. 


For another taste of her range, reach back to her beginnings as a recording artist, to the smart, fun pop-rock of her commercial breakthrough, 2003’s While You Can, which boasts the Top 40 hit “Dumb Girls.” You’d also need to check out 2010’s Hooked!, a delightfully retro-forward collection bolstered by her New York band and helmed largely by David Bowie producer Tony Visconti. On 2016’s Til They Bang on the Door, Woodward enlisted Snarky Puppy’s Michael League as well as Henry Hey (Forq, Rudder, David Bowie) as co-producers. She has also proven a consummate guest and collaborator — with artists including Snarky Puppy and guitar wizard Charlie Hunter — where her unforgettable presence is always in service of the song and the group. And then there’s the extraordinary scope of Stories From the Dust, a singer-songwriter project released in 2024. Written and recorded during the pandemic with Grammy-winning producer and co-writer David Garza, Stories is a paean to womanhood featuring heartrending ballads, hard-grooving bangers and everything in between. “I couldn’t stay in one genre forever,” she says. “I admire people who do, and may even be a little envious. But I’d bore myself to death trying.”

And then there is Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers' self-titled 2024 album (GroundUP Music), which blends the quartet's genre-blurring agility with an 18-piece multicultural jazz orchestra — repertoire Woodward brought to three concerts with the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra in the Netherlands in late 2025 and early 2026, arranged by Louk Boudesteijn and her/NRJO’s guitarist Jelle Roozenburg.

The breadth of her expression might seem surprising, even staggering, until you hear Woodward describe the adaptability she had to develop as a child. Born in London to two classical musicians, she grew up between vastly different temperaments: an English father—a composer and conductor—who radiated patience and spirituality, and an American mother—an opera singer, musicologist, bellydancer, and teacher—who took her along on peace marches in junior high, instilling encouragement and curiosity. After a move to Amsterdam for her father’s work and her parents’ eventual separation, Woodward relocated to New York with her mother and brother at age five, spending summers in the Netherlands.


Until she was 12, the family lived just north of New York City. But a move to the Bronx exposed her to the daily triumphs and trials of city life — and Woodward, whose extended family hails from NYC, fell in love. She sang wherever she could, with whomever she could, from choirs to school musicals to girl groups. Ultimately, her upbringing was unconventional, disruptive, maybe even a bit traumatic. But in the transatlantic back and forth, Woodward forged the open-mindedness she’d tap throughout her career.

“There was always the intoxicating rhythms of Greek music or some Puccini aria playing in the background as I did my homework,” Woodward says. “I went to high school in the Bronx, and my friends’ families played salsa at every BBQ. I grew up surrounded by a huge mix of cultures. How could that not shape how I hear and create music?” 


Woodward had the good fortune to be precocious in both her talent and her boldness. She was accepted early into the Manhattan School of Music at 16, but dropped out after a year because she knew she wanted to sing music beyond straight-ahead jazz. In her late teens and early 20s, she worked like a go-to midcareer vocalist cobbling together a living: cover bands, wedding gigs and jingles. She did demos for renowned artists, expanding her vocal technique by faithfully impersonating indefinable singers like Björk or the popstar du jour. Woodward has also sung on recordings/live with legends such as Rod Stewart, Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand, Chaka Khan, Carole King and Joe Cocker.

In 2003 she signed with Atlantic Records, who released While You Can and set into motion a heady, whirlwind period Woodward refers to as “my early pop years.” It overflowed with experiences ready-made for a biopic. There was, of course, “Dumb Girls,” plus “(There’s Gotta Be) More to Life,” a Top 5 hit she co-wrote for Stacie Orrico, earning her two BMI Awards. Woodward toured the world, played the Tonight Show and saw herself on MTV and VH1. But everything wasn’t so much fun. To name one example of many, the powers that be demanded she lose 20 pounds, in a hurry. “You tell yourself, ‘They’re putting a million dollars into your project; they’re launching you. You can lose a few pounds, right?’” Woodward reflects. “It’s damaging. And when it all goes away, you’re like, ‘What did I do it for? And what do I do now?’”

If you’re Lucy Woodward, then the next 15 years will bring one adventure after another. Lucy hasn’t looked back since, and hasn’t turned her back on singing precisely what she wants and how she wants, with musicians she considers family.

In 2012 she fronted Pink Martini on tour, stepping in for China Forbes when the virtuosically multilingual singer needed emergency surgery. (Woodward was required to learn five languages in five days.) A friendship with Michael League — who played bass in Woodward’s early New York-based band — led to tours opening for Snarky Puppy. Those 21st-century fusion champions weren’t yet a phenomenon, and over the course of some beautifully scrappy tours, Woodward was able to crystallize what she truly loved about a life in music. “It was nine people in a touring van, four people in a hotel room. And it was heaven to me,” she says. Snarky also opened up Woodward’s creative horizons, inspiring her to look beyond pop songform to odd time signatures and techniques that were “a little more jazz nerdy.” Exhibiting rare comfort at the helm of a large ensemble, Woodward has performed her songs with the best jazz orchestras throughout Europe, including the Frankfurt, WDR and Danish Radio Big Bands.


Woodward would go on to record with Snarky Puppy, performing “Too Hot To Last” on the band’s Grammy-winning 2013 release, Family Dinner, Vol. 1. Around this time, Woodward says, “the blues also came back into my spirit,” and that soulful reawakening defined her work with the groove-minded guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter. Like League and Snarky Puppy, Hunter empowered Woodward to cast aside the confines of pop singing. His advice: “Just tell the story. Just sing.” Woodward and Hunter released two co-billed albums: Music!Music!Music!, in 2019, and, two years later, I’m a Stranger Here. The former, wrote All About Jazz, cements “the revelatory impression [that the two musicians] leave upon attendees of their concerts.” 

Indeed, Woodward is a born performer unafraid to take chances in front of an audience. She never stops evolving, and it’s onstage and in the studio where she evolves in the most meaningful ways. “There’s always more to learn as a singer, a writer, a woman, a human,” she says. “Sometimes I can’t believe I still make music with such joy and enthusiasm. Many times I’ve wanted to quit the business, but then what? I sing. This is what I do. This is where I thrive.”

Other links from collaborative projects

Snarky Puppy feat. Lucy Woodward “Family Dinner”

Charlie Hunter & Lucy Woodward “Stranger Blues”

New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra & Lucy Woodward Bimhuis TV

Frankfurt Radio Big Band (Jim McNeely arranger/conductor) feat. Lucy Woodward
HRT Jazz Orchestra feat. Lucy Woodward, Croatia, HR


VIDEOS & MUSIC LINKS

I Need To Roam (Full Album)

Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers - LIVE montage (unlisted)

Yes - Official Music Video

Roam - Official Music Video LIVE 

Always  - Official Music Video

SELECT PRESS QUOTES

“Drama leaped from the stage. Her social engagement was evident; she addressed current events and relationships without beating around the bush…From that perspective, her personality became elusive and enveloped in magic.” - JAZZNU

“Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers with NRJO bring the Bimhuis to a frenzy.” - JAZZISM

“…combines beauty and complexity without any need for compromise between these two traits...the combination of grit and finesse one finds in Woodward’s music is quite rare.”
- ALL ABOUT JAZZ 

“…Lucy Woodward is pure creative magic!”
- SIR ROD STEWART CBE

“...wholly fearless.”
- DAILY MAIL UK 

“Lucy is a deep, soulful vocalist who is as versatile and virtuosic as she is passionate.” - MICHAEL LEAGUE (Snarky Puppy bandleader) 

“What a voice...”
- RUSSELL CROWE (Twitter) 

“Lucy's exceptional vocal talents shine in the blend with the colorful and imaginative orchestral writing…A pleasure that grows with each listen, not to be missed. Album of the week.”
- ALL ABOUT JAZZ

GUEST FEATURES INCLUDE

New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, NL
Jong Metropole, NL
Danish Radio Big Band, DK
Frankfurt Radio Big Band, DE
WDR Big Band, DE
HRT Jazz Orchestra, HR
Orchestra Jazz Siciliana, IT
Odense Jazz Orchestra, DK
Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, CH