Freya Ridings

Biographie

Auteure, compositrice et chanteuse anglaise originaire de Londres, Freya Ridings (née le 19 avril 1994) est la fille du comédien et musicien Richard Ridings, qui lui apprend à jouer de la guitare. Après ses études, elle se lance dans une carrière musicale et enregistre en 2017 deux singles, « Blackout » et « Maps », avant un premier album en public la même année : Live at St. Pancras Old Church. Partie en tournée avec Tears for Fears et Lewis Capaldi, Freya Ridings fait ensuite paraître le titre « Lost Without You », qui se classe n°9 au Royaume-Uni. Avant une participation à l'émission Love Island, la chanteuse sort un deuxième album en public, Live at Omeara (mars 2018) et le single « Ultraviolet ». En 2019, les titres « You Mean the World to Me » (n°57) et « Castles » (n°52) préludent à la sortie de son premier album studio, Freya Ridings (juillet 2019).

Songwriter Freya Ridings had her career changing moment in 2018 when she received new that her torch song 'Lost Without You' had been used to soundtrack an emotional moment during the hit reality TV series 'Love Island', and within a few months the track notched up more than 47 million streams on Spotify and reached number nine in the UK Singles Chart.

Growing up in a creative and musical household in Palmer's Green, North London, she is the daughter of writer Cathy Jensen Ridings and actor Richard Ridings who found fame playing the voice of Daddy Pig in children's TV show 'Peppa Pig', and was first introduced to music through their Carole King, James Taylor and Elton John records. Following a camping trip where tunes were played around the log fire, Ridings wrote her first song at the age of nine, but she struggled with dyslexia at school and was taught at home for a time, before her dad started taking her to open-mic nights at local pubs.

From the ages of 16 to 18 she attended the BRIT School. A school friend who was interning at Good Soldier Songs helped her land a record deal with the small independent label, enabling Ridings to develop her soul-baring piano ballads gradually, before releasing her first live album 'Live at St. Pancras Old Church' in 2017. She also grew as a performer thanks to support slots on tour with Ray Lamontagne and Tears for Fears, but it was 'Love Island' that brought her to mainstream attention and led to her tracks being played on Radio 1. 'Love Island' also featured her singles 'Blackout' and 'Maps' (originally by Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and she collaborated with producer MJ Cole on haunting, electro-soul lament 'Waking Up' and performed at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards Show, before releasing EP 'You Mean the World to Me' and her self-titled debut studio album in 2019.

Artist biography compiled by BDS/West 10. All rights reserved