"Tracye Eileen's performance at the JazzHall Hamburg was a breathtaking highlight of our celebration of 30 years of partnership between Hamburg and Chicago. Together with outstanding musicians from Hamburg, she delivered an unforgettable evening of jazz and soul that captivated our audience and brought the spirit of both cities to life.“

Tilmon Oberbeck, Director of Music

JallHall Hamburg

Hamburg, Germany - 2025

 

Chicago-born and now Paris-based, Tracye Eileen is a Jazz/Soul R&B vocalist who has built her career between the US and European scenes. For years she worked as a performing and recording artist in Chicago, including a long-running residency at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Her fourth album became a breakthrough, earning a Top 10 Album of 2022 mention and drawing strong reviews from across the globe, particularly from European countries. That response made clear that the direction she was taking in her music connected strongly with listeners there.  A visit to jazzahead! in Bremen shortly afterwards helped crystallise where she wanted to go artistically. Hearing what was happening on European stages—and in particular the prominent Afro-influenced currents in and around Paris—she recognised a sound world that matched the evolution she had been hearing in her own work. Rather than viewing Europe simply as a more supportive market,she began to see it as a place where themusical language she was reaching for was already alive and developing.  On that basis, moving to Paris became the natural next step: a way to place herself inside the very currents that were inspiring her, and to let her writing, arranging, and band sound grow in that environment. Forever Girl, her fifth studio album and first created entirely from this new base, is the direct outcome of that decision.

​

New Album – Forever Girl (November 2026)

At the centre of the album is the title track, “Forever Girl”. Tracye sees it as a

haunting, elegant declaration of love as something enduring—unshaken by time, distance, or change. The song speaks to the duality of love for another person, but also the love for oneself: the inner steadiness that remains when life circumstances, geography, and relationships are in motion.

That idea of a “forever girl” runs through the record. It reflects a woman who has lived, changed cities and careers, and yet still recognises herself. The songs explore devotion, choice, and spiritual certainty in several forms—romantic, familial, and personal—always from the standpoint of someone who chooses love deliberately, rather than treating it as something naïve or accidental. in this sense, Forever Girl is not only about reinvention but also about clarity. The move to Paris, the decision to lean more openly into her African heritage, and the aim to create music that can live comfortably on any stage all emerge from the same place: a stable core identity meeting an expanded world.