Holly Ffion Humberstone (b1999)

Holly Humberstone is a British musician from Grantham and is one of four sisters. Both of her parents are medics. She was a pupil at KGGS before studying at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

In 2021, she signed a recording contract with Interscope and Polydor Records. Her first EP following the signings, The Walls Are Way Too Thin, was released on 12 November 2021. Humberstone won the Brit Award for Rising Star at the 2022 Brit Awards.

She was formerly a violinist for the Lincolnshire Youth Symphony Orchestra and was first spotted by a manager whilst performing on her local BBC Music Introducing radio show.

Humberstone started writing songs at a young age. She has discussed growing up in a small town, stating there was “no music scene growing up in rural Lincolnshire, so I just really did my own thing” in an interview with The Telegraph.

Holly cites Damien Rice, Ben Howard, Phoebe Bridgers, and HAIM as musical inspirations. Rice’s debut album is considered by Humberstone to be her ‘first favourite album’.

She performed at Glastonbury Festival 2019 on the BBC Introducing stage.

Her debut single “Deep End”, was released on 30 January 2020 and her second , “Falling Asleep at the Wheel”, in  March, while her third, “Overkill”, was released on  June.

On 30 July 2020, she released a cover of “Fake Plastic Trees” by the English rock band Radiohead. Her debut EP, also titled Falling Asleep at the Wheel, was released on 14 August, which contained her three previous singles, alongside the tracks “Vanilla”, “Drop Dead” and “Livewire”.

In March 2021, ahead of the release of her single “Haunted House” and her second EP, Humberstone signed with Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and Darkroom/Interscope Records in the United States. She also signed a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group.

Humberstone was the opening act for Girl in Red’s Make It Go Quiet Tour of North America in March 2022, and was also the opening act for the second half of the North American leg of Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour Tour.

She also performed on the Future Sounds stage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2022 in Coventry. Sleep Tight, her second single from the forthcoming debut studio album, was released on 29 April 2022.

On 25 June 2022 she performed on the John Peel stage at Glastonbury. Since then she performed as an opening act for the George Ezra Concert in Finsbury Park, London, on Sunday 17 July.

At the start of lockdown, the 20-year-old moved back home to Lincolnshire with her three sisters and her parents, who are both NHS doctors.

One of her sisters even helped out her career by filming the video to her single Overkill.

Taking an old VHS camera, she made Holly run through the local forest at dusk with her guitar in hand, creating a video that’s a bit like the Blair Witch Project.

Things moved fast for Holly after she went from playing small venues to arenas as the support act on Lewis Capaldi’s European tour.

Even though her parents are both doctors, their interest in the arts meant they encouraged Holly to take up music and be creative.

She says TV was banned in the house so instead she would make up songs and music on her piano from poetry books.

“It makes us sound really strict but it was actually fun.

“I’ve been grateful to be in the countryside. Lincolnshire has so much space and it’s been such a nice place to lock down and isolate.”