Grace Davies

Grace Davies is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter hailing from the rural Lancashire village of Langho. Her creativity and drive became apparent when she was just three years old; she danced and acted her way through primary school and hasn’t looked back! Grace first realised she had a talent for singing during her primary school’s auditions for the musical ‘Oliver!’ – her performance bagged her the iconic role of Nancy. Growing up, the Davies household was filled with music as Grace sang along to the family favourites: Earth, Wind and Fire, ELO, Roxy Music and Simply Red. “From the age of 11, music took a hold of me.” Grace enthuses. “Whether it’s in the shower, in the car, or performing on stage - I just love to sing!” Her voice has a rich, smoky tone with a wide range; not surprising from someone who sites their influences as Carmen McRae, Etta James, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Grace found plenty of occasions to perform across the country, and at 16 taught herself the piano to enable her to write the songs which had started to spill out of her busy brain! Her songwriting was heavily influenced by modern writers Ben Howard, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sande and Mumford & Sons; artists that inspired Grace’s clever lyrics. Her style has a quirky individuality, which perfectly reflects her down-to-earth personality and edgy 'tell it like it is' sense of humour. She explains: “I find the writing process lots of fun. Usually I start a song by messing around with piano chords then I generally scat a load of gibberish over the top which I find helps to set the vocal metre. I’m quite an impulsive writer. Lyrics generally stem from stories I write to myself about recent events. This helps me trap all of the emotions on the page so I can turn these feelings and stories into songs”. Constantly overwhelmed by requests for original material, Grace realised she needed to record and release her music on a wider scale. This milestone was reached in 2015 when she took to the studio to write, record and independently release her debut EP ‘My Kingdom’, with the final master being completed at the prestigious Abbey Road Studios. Her determination and persistence is paying off, and she was recently named one of Lancashire Life magazine’s “Rising Stars” of 2015/16. She has also been the darling of Soundcloud; recently trending on the website for over a month with her incredible cover of Adele’s ‘Hello’ racking up 50 million plays! Grace regularly appears in the regional press; has featured on national radio shows (including BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio One); become a staple fixture on BBC Radio Lancashire as well as becoming a ‘BBC Introducing’ artist (‘My Kingdom’ was chosen as one of the Top 40 tracks of 2014 for ‘BBC Introducing’ Lancashire) and even performed on live TV for ‘Talk Lancashire’. She has also headlined a number of summer festivals and relishes the opportunity to bring her music to new audiences. Grace has already undertaken numerous collaborations; most recently with House DJ-producer LiTek. They co-wrote a ‘Deep Future House’ track, (Drop That), on which Grace also features, released on Get Twisted Records/Sony Columbia. The track was well received at BBC Radio One obtaining repeated plays by Dance anthems guru ‘Danny Howard’ who also remixed the track.. Grace is also the featured artist on a Retter LeBlanc track released by new European start-up label Scoop Recordings - (Retter LeBlanc feat. Grace Davies – Things We Lost In The Fire). This year has seen Grace writing and recording new tracks whilst continuing to develop her voice and sound. With a wealth of material at the ready, the outlook is busy - and most definitely bright. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.