- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: British female/singer songwriters lead the way at home and abroad
- Date: 19th February 2008
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - JANUARY 14, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS CRITICS CHOICE AWARD WINNER OF THE BRIT AWARDS 2008, ADELE, TALKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) ADELE, SAYING: CRITICS CHOICE AWARD WINNER, SAYING: "Honest songs I guess. We write our own songs, and I think that people can relate to them because they are really honest, which I think it is great when that happens. And I love it when I come across an artist that does that."
- Embargoed: 5th March 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVACLRG9DUKM05RKFE3YZNM00XPI
- Story Text: The UK has always been renowned for its cutting edge music scene.
But, now it has also a large and varied group of female singer-songwriters who have hit the right note both at home and abroad.
In recent years, artists such as Amy Winehouse, KT Tunstall and Lily Allen have broken internationally out of the UK. And, the emerging class of 2008 suggests the trend has only just begun.
This new female 'Brit pack' includes newcomers like 19-year old Adele, Natasha Khan from Bat for Lashes, British X-Factor winner Leona Lewis, Kate Nash and Duffy.
Soul singer Amy Winehouse has risen to rapid prominence by scoring five big wins at the Grammy Awards this year -- the most ever won by a British female artist. The accolades put her alongside the likes of her U.S.
counterparts Norah Jones, Alicia Keys and Beyonce.
This year's Brits -- the annual UK pop music awards -- on February 20 will see Kate Nash, Bat for Lashes, KT Tunstall, Leona Lewis and PJ Harvey all competing for British Female Solo artist. Lewis, who broke the record for Britain's fastest-selling debut album, has also been nominated for British album, British breakthrough act and British single Adele has been named the winner of the inaugural BRIT Awards Critics Choice prize for new acts.
After a decade of knocking on doors that stayed resolutely shut, Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall, who made her debut with 'Eye to the Telescope' in 2004 in the UK (in the U.S in 2006) says she is delighted to see so many diverse female performers emerging.
"It's been very liberating and I think certainly when I was starting out it was all sort of a little bit 'poor me', you know, there was a lot of wrist-slashing writing going on. And the fantastic thing now, is that there are so many girls doing really really diverse stuff like Bat for Lashes, PJ Harvey, Kate Nash, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, it's just all very very different styles and I think that's fantastic. I don't know why, maybe it was all because of Nora Jones, she, just like, kicked it off and it just opened the doors again for people listening to solo females," Tunstall told Reuters Television at the Elle Style Awards in London this month.
Tunstall collected her BRIT Award for best British Female in 2006 while her album had spent a solid year on the U.K. chart and rose to quadruple-platinum (1.2 million shipments).
But, one critic says that some of these newcomers are enjoying success on the back of their predecessors. Alex Miller, the new bands editor for music magazine New Music Express (NME), says the new girls on the block need to thank Winehouse and Allen for blazing a trail.
"I think that rather there being an explicable kind of rise of female talent, I think actually what happened is that England was lucky enough to produce Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, they're two artists of incredible kind of character and talent and after that, record labels went out and tried to replicate the success. I think quite a few of the artists coming through, talented or not, are getting their chances on the back of Amy and Lily's success," said Miller.
The Grammy tally for the 24-year old troubled singer Winehouse included record and song of the year for her signature hit, "Rehab," and best new artist. She also won for best female pop vocal solo performance and best pop vocal album for her breakthrough release, "Back to Black".
Lily Allen nominated for a Grammy award for best alternative music album, scored a big hit with her debut album "Alright, Still..." and plans a follow-up record later in 2008. She debuted her own talk show this week "Lily Allen and Friends", chalking up solid audience figures for the BBC. Allen first burst on to the scene with chart-topping single "Smile" in the summer of 2006.
Jazz and soul-steeped Londoner Adele Adkins has already employed a musical education ranging from Dusty Springfield to Jeff Buckley to become a hot new property for XL Recordings.
On the heels of the limited edition "Hometown Glory" last October, Adele's single "Chasing Pavements" and her first album, "19," hit the streets last month.
Adele says her success is down to her earthy and 'honest' songs which people can relate to.
"Honest songs I guess. We write our own songs, and I think that people can relate to them because they are really honest, which I think it is great when that happens. And I love it when I come across an artist that does that," Adele said at the Brit Awards nominations evening, announcing her as winner of the Critic's Choice Award.
But, Miller -- who calls the music industry 'unimaginative' -- says artists like Adele and Duffy have been carefully calculated, placed out on the market at the right time.
"I feel like XL, her (Adele's) label, noticed a while ago that singer/songwriters are going to make loads of money. They went out and signed three singer/songwriters at once in a desperate attempt to make loads of cash and Adele's proven to be the one who has exploded and made loads of money for them. Duffy's been hanging around for years, the music industry's kind of known about her for a long time, they've just been kind of looking for the right way in which to kind of usher her into the public consciousness,"
Miller said.
But, great things are expected of Amy Ann Duffy, who goes by only her last name. The Welsh soul singer Duffy topped the UK charts on Sunday (February 17), going straight to number one with her release "Mercy", the Official UK Charts Company said.
The 23-year-old newcomer came second in the BBC's Sound of 2008 poll of music critics' and broadcasters' favourite artists in January and has been compared to the 60s singer Dusty Springfield.
U.K. producer du jour Mark Ronson - who won a Grammy for Producer of the Year, Non Classical, for his work with Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse - says he is excited about this new wave of female artists.
"There's almost now it's own genre of British female artists and they are all really exciting. I am not talking about pop singers, I am talking about Adele, Amy Winehouse, Lilly Allen, that is really exciting to see. I think that people are looking to England for the first time for like, not just indie bands and things like that we've had no shortage of," Ronson said at the Brit Awards nominations evening last month.
Twenty-year-old Kate Nash became a pop phenomenon in the United Kingdom when her debut major-label single, "Foundations," spent five weeks at No. 2 in July and August.
In the States, the "Foundations" EP, released in September, peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot Singles Sales chart and Nash played three New York shows in September. Nash U.S. released her quirky piano-pop debut album, "Made of Bricks" (Geffen) in the U.S. last January with a full U.S. tour planned for April and May. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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