Curated playlist

21st-century English singer-songwriters

David BowieDavid Bowie died two days after releasing his final album. He planned Blackstar as a parting gift while privately dying.
Keith RichardsKeith Richards, guitarist of the Rolling Stones, began his musical life by stretching toward an instrument he could not reach. His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore "Gus" Dupree, toured Britain with a jazz big band called Gus Dupree…
AdeleA friend posted Adele's three-song class demo on Myspace, and a record label phoned.
George MichaelGeorge Michael refused to appear in his own music videos, so five supermodels lip-synced in his place.
Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney traded a trumpet for a guitar and wrote his first song on it. His father had given him the trumpet.
Ed SheeranEd Sheeran bought a thirty-pound guitar two days after hearing Eric Clapton. He was eleven years old.
Kate BushKate Bush's second UK number one came 44 years after her first. That gap beat Tom Jones's record of 42 years.
Roger WatersThe Dark Side of the Moon, with lyrics written entirely by Roger Waters, spent 736 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, a run that lasted until July 1988. Waters is an English singer-songwriter, musician and political activist,…
Peter GabrielOn the 19th of June 1971, Peter Gabriel took a running jump off a stage and expected the audience to catch him. They moved aside instead. He landed on the floor and broke his ankle, then performed the next several Genesis shows with a…
Mick JaggerMick Jagger was carrying records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters on Platform Two of Dartford railway station on the 17th of October 1961. The man he met there was Keith Richards. The records revealed a shared passion for rhythm and blues,…
Dua LipaIn the week beginning the 15th of May 2020, Dua Lipa's album Future Nostalgia sat at number one on the UK chart with only 7,317 sales. No chart-topping album this century has sold fewer copies in a single week. That modest number belongs…
Charli XCXCharli XCX once drew about 37,000 RSVPs to a single club set in Brooklyn, and only 400 of those people were allowed inside. The set was called PARTYGIRL, and it took place on the 22nd of February 2024. It was her second Boiler Room set…
M.I.A. (rapper)M.I.A. arrived in London as an eleven-year-old refugee speaking no English. She later became a Grammy and Oscar nominee.
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison mortgaged his home to save Monty Python's Life of Brian. EMI Films had pulled its funding in 1978.
Sting (musician)Sting, the English musician and actor born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, once disowned his own first name on camera. In the 1985 documentary Bring On the Night, a journalist addressed him as Gordon. He answered, "My children call me Sting,…
Phil CollinsPhil Collins is the only artist who performed at both Live Aid concerts on the 13th of July 1985. He crossed between London and Philadelphia by helicopters and a Concorde to do it. Born Philip David Charles Collins, he went on to sell an…
RayeAt the 2024 Brit Awards, the British singer-songwriter Raye won six trophies in one night, more than any artist had ever taken home from a single ceremony. One of them made her the first woman to be named Songwriter of the Year. Raye was…
Brian MayBrian May climbed onto the roof of Buckingham Palace on the 3rd of June 2002 and played a guitar solo of "God Save the Queen." It was part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations for Elizabeth II. May, born in 1947, is the lead guitarist of the…
Zayn MalikZayn Malik was 17 years old and did not want to go to his X Factor audition in Manchester. On the morning of the tryout in 2010, nerves had won, and he wanted to stay in bed. His mother got him up and talked him into going. Years later he…
Robert PlantRobert Plant, the English singer born on the 20th of August 1948, first rehearsed stardom behind the curtains of his family home at Christmas. He was ten years old, and he was trying to be Elvis. Decades later, on the Denton talk show in…
Nicholas GalitzineNicholas Galitzine, the English actor whose surname is pronounced GAL-it-seen, once ate food worth 4000 calories every single day. The reason was a role that demands an outsized physique: He-Man, hero of the live action film Masters of the…
Jeff LynneJeff Lynne helped finish John Lennon's demo "Free as a Bird" for the Beatles. George Harrison asked him to join in 1994.
Robert Smith (musician)On the 14th of October 2024, Robert Smith of the Cure said he plans to retire in 2029. His reasoning was tidy. He turns 70 that year, and 2029 marks 50 years since the band's first album, Three Imaginary Boys. Smith added a caveat: he has…
Rita OraRita Ora broke a 30-year-old record in 2018, when her single "Let You Love Me" became her thirteenth top-ten song in the UK. No British female solo artist had reached that number before her. Shirley Bassey and Petula Clark had jointly held…
Lily AllenIn the months before her debut album, almost nobody outside her record label's A&R department knew who Lily Allen was. Even so, 500 limited edition 7-inch vinyl copies of her song "LDN" were rush-released, and they resold for as much as…