Emma Stevens

Emma Nadine Stevens (born 4 May 1986) is an English singer-songwriter based in Guildford, Surrey.

From the age of about 10, Stevens had orchestra and piano lessons at Charterhouse, and attended stage school at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in 1999.

Her songwriting began around age 12 or 13 when she took up the guitar properly: "I'd write a lot of melodies on the piano then too. I started writing poetry as well – I got a poem published in a national competition – and I started combining them with melodies".

Stevens's first appearance on stage was at the age of 13 at a local venue in Guildford.

"I was terrified but I remember loving being on stage and singing my songs as I do now".

From 2006 to 2007, Stevens attended the Academy of Contemporary Music and graduated with a diploma in Guitar and Contemporary Performance.

This is also where she met her guitarist Sam Whiting.

While still at ACM, Stevens and friend Charlotte "Charlie" Hewson formed Wildstar (described as "an acoustic/pop duo with a mix of harmony and mellow rock") with Hewson on lead vocals and Stevens on guitar and backing vocals.

The duo played a combination of covers and original tracks including "Fine Day", "Looking For Love" and "Footprints".

After graduating from ACM, Stevens worked as a session musician playing guitar and piano for groups such as Fin, H-Boogie and Ronit & The Aramingos.

She met her first manager, Bob James, and started collaborating with writers across multiple genres.

Her work included writing and performing on Britain's Got Talent finalist Andrew Muir's debut album (still unreleased); she co-wrote "Can't Say That It's Over", "Don't Let Me Go" and "You Don't Seem to Understand Me" for the album in 2009.

Soon after, she wrote a song called "Wowowow" for Korean boy-band SHINee, which appeared on their second album Lucifer in 2010.

The song sold 100,000 copies in its first week as a single.

Performing in the band Shooting Lead Rabbits (described as "a three-piece, retro, art house, alternative, folk rock band" ) led to a European tour in 2010 and a distribution deal with FNAC.

The band's self-titled and only album release features Stevens on backing vocals on four of the tracks.

During songwriting sessions in Los Angeles with Charlie Midnight, with his encouragement, Stevens began to seriously consider a future solo career.

Other collaborations have included Sharon Vaughn, Eric Shermehorn, Andy Goldmark, Wayne Rodriguez, Mimoza Blinsson, Adam Kagan, Will Simms, Russ Ballard and John Beck.

In 2011, she toured with British rock band Fin, supporting Incubus, Mona, The Kooks and Feeder, regularly performing for crowds of 20,000.

Earlier, in November 2011, Stevens had started collaborating with songwriter/producer Pete Woodroffe (best known for his work with Def Leppard) who would eventually co-write 14 of the tracks and produce all four EPs and the album.

In early 2012, Stevens' mother was diagnosed with cancer.

Along with Charlie Midnight, her mother had been strongly encouraging her to embark on a solo career – "she was my biggest supporter and believer in me and would say, ‘You’ve got the potential to do it yourself.’ So I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do it!’".

Two weeks before her mother died on 26 March 2012, they sat down together and decided that the first album would be released initially as a series of four EPs.

Tina Stevens designed the cover artwork that would be used, in four sections, for each of the EPs.

Placed together, the four pieces form the entire cover of the full album, Enchanted.

In August 2012, Stevens was picked up by the BBC Introducing series for new and unsigned artists.

On 19 August 2012 she performed four songs live on air with band members Sam Whiting, Belinda Webb and Emma Hughes.

The first single, "A Place Called You", was released on 28 October 2012 and received its first national airplay on BBC Radio 2's Weekend Wogan show on 2 September 2012.

The single is one of her most successful songs, with over 3 million streams on Spotify.

Stevens toured extensively during the remainder of 2012, promoting the Heart on Hand EP.

She achieved mainstream success with her single "Riptide" from her first album Enchanted, which was featured as iTunes Single of the Week in October 2013 and had over 150,000 downloads.

She describes her music as "sparkly folk pop".

Born to parents Toby and Tina Stevens in Guildford in England, she has one younger sister, Ellen.

Stevens grew up in Shalford just outside Guildford, where she lived until the age of 17.

She attended Shalford First School, St Theresa's in Effingham and St Peter's in Merrow where she studied GCSE Music.

Stevens watched her mother play Spanish acoustic guitar at the age of two or three and made up "useless melodies".

Spotting this early talent, her parents sent her to cello and piano lessons from the age of six.

She later joined the

Surrey Youth Orchestra.

In an interview in December 2013, she declared Woodroffe as her "Ultimate Hero".