Aaradhna Sells Out New York's Iconic Apollo Theater

Auckland solo singer Aaradhna is picking up steam in the US, having just played to a full house at New York's iconic Apollo Theater.

Tickets for the show inside the venue's upper level stage, Apollo Music Café, went on sale last December and promptly sold out before the performance last week. Even though the intimate sound stage only has a capacity of 180 (compared to 1, 526 in the main stage), the sell out makes the singer the first New Zealand/Polynesian artist ever to sell out a show within the venue.

The infamous Apollo has previously played host to many seminal artists including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, and is widely regarded as the home of soul.

The sales feat is a good start to the year for the Porirua-born, Los Angeles-based singer, as she prepares for the release of her new record Under The Blue Moon. Her fourth album, and the follow-up to her breakthrough album, Treble & Reverb, was recorded with Brooklyn based producers Truth & Soul Records (Aloe Blacc, Adele, Amy Winehouse).

Treble & Reverb hit #1 in the NZ chart and landed her two NZ Music Awards in 2013 on top of a deal with Universal subsidiary Republic Records. It also managed to shake up the US charts, peaking at #23 on the R&B/Soul Charts.