Vanessa Forero was born to a wild Colombian mother and an English scientist & organist father. Raised in a Yorkshire city, she absorbed roof-raising gospel from the church where she was the main pianist between age 13 – 30, and on the other side, absorbing the classical & orchestral records from her Dad's collection.
In 2004, Forero started to compose music professionally for film and television worldwide. She scored music for major channels and brands including Audi, Apple, Google, Adidas, Cadbury's + more, winning awards for 'best score', recording with the Liverpool Philharmonic & with music broadcasts across most majoy channels. Scoring suited her synesthetic brain - where senses blend from tasting visuals to smelling tones - but, while she loved blending sight & sound, the solitary nature of the composer lifestyle began to take its toll. She began to write songs as a break from the weight of an orchestral score, allowing her to explore the soundtrack to her own life as opposed to writing one for others. This pivoted her towards the warmer world of live music in community.
In 2024, Forero was ultimately thrown into the spotlight after Ben Fogle visited her self-built Colombian treehouse for his New Lives in the Wild programme. This showcased Vanessa and her mother Marina Chapman’s remarkable story of kidnap and survival in the Colombian jungle as told in the book The Girl With No Name, which they co-wrote. This went onto become the National Geographic documentary: Woman Raised By Monkeys, for which Forero scored its soundtrack.
The success of the shows dragged her out of her solo living and into performing joyful, sellout shows of her own music & touring with her trio - from the backs of Colombian bars to Abbey Road studios. She has produced her own records (playing all instruments herself) & worked with grammy award mixers: Christian Castagno (Iggy Pop, Arcade Fire) & Richard Blair (Peter Gabriel).
With new music, a new book and a feature film in development, Vanessa Forero is an artist whose story and sound continue to captivate. translating unseen magic
