FLORA CASH : Lleshaj & Randall
Minneapolis-native Cole Randall uploaded his music to Soundcloud in 2012 and caught the attention of Sweden-based Shpresa Lleshaj. The pair soon began playing music together, forming a relationship that would eventually blossom into marriage.
OVERVIEW
Lleshaj, an Albanian originally from Kosovo and whose family had fled to Sweden while she was a child to escape war and conflict in the region, was living in Stockholm when she met Randall, from Minneapolis, on SoundCloud in 2012. Lleshaj began commenting on the tracks Randall had posted and the two discovered they appreciated each other’s music.After meeting in person in Minneapolis, they began working together in Sweden as Flora Cash.The duo has said that they’ve never revealed the origin or meaning of their band name to anyone.
MUSIC
They released their debut EP, Mighty Fine, on December 12, 2012. Their second EP, Made It For You, came out on June 13, 2013. That year Lleshaj and Randall also got married. They released a third EP, I Will Be There, on September 20, 2014. A few singles followed.Then, after signing with Swedish label Icons Creating Evil Art in 2015,they released, Can Summer Love Last Forever?, in March 2016. The seven-song mini-LP earned them nominations for two GAFFA awards, as Swedish Artist of the Year and Swedish Newcomer of the Year.
They released their debut full-length album Nothing Lasts Forever (And It’s Fine) in April 2017. Earmilk gave the album 9 out of 10 stars and called it, “as delicate and fragile as the core values the two write for, truth, beauty and living for the moment in a modern world where everything is taken for granted.” Highlighted by “You’re Somebody Else” a track from their debut full-length album that achieved its initial success after being used in a viral Movistar commercial in Mexico promoting safety for young people meeting each other online. And praised by Elmore Magazine as “a blissful masterpiece…Every emotion possible seems to be present in this album, with perfectly simple lyric generating a feeling of euphoria in each track. It sends you off into a trance that makes you feel lost in space and at peace.”
In 2020, the pair released Baby, It’s Okay, their second full length album on RCA Records.
AWARDS
In July 2018, Flora Cash signed to Sony Music‘s RCA Records.After debuting on Pandora Radio’s Predictions chart in August 2018 and retaining the No. 4 spot into September, “You’re Somebody Else”, reached the Top 10 on both Billboard‘s Alternative Songs and Adult Alternative Songs airplay charts that November.
The song reached the number one position on American radio on both the Mediabase Adult Alternative and Alternative radio formats.On August 9, 2018, they made their American television debut, performing “You’re Somebody Else” on The Late Late Show with James Corden.To date, the track has garnered over 200 million streams on Spotify and the lyric video has been viewed over 125 million times on YouTube.The track was certified Platinum Record in the US by RIAA in 2021. It was also certified Gold in Australia, Norway and Sweden,and Silver in the UK.
