Just off tour with Taylor Swift, upcoming dates with Sabrina Carpenter, and her long-awaited debut finally out in the world - Griff is having a banner year.
Words: Ali Shutler.
But it's easy to see why she was feeling the pressure. After releasing a string of singles, Griff became a comforting voice during lockdown with her emotionally-driven pop ballads before she won the BRIT Rising Star Award in 2021. Her performance at the ceremony was her second-ever live gig, as she shared a stage with the likes of Elton John, Olivia Rodrigo and The Weeknd. A summer of festival main stages followed, as 'Black Hole' became a viral smash while debut mixtape 'One Foot In Front Of The Other' crashed into the top five of the UK Albums Chart. A handful of remixes and collabs followed, but Griff spent a majority of the next two years opening shows for massive artists. Her first proper tour was a three-month run supporting Dua Lipa on her Future Nostalgia arena tour before she took to stadiums with Ed Sheeran and Coldplay. All the while, no new music was being released. "I guess my career has been pretty upside down so far," says Griff. "Every single step has felt like being thrown into the deep end in the most amazing way."
"There were so many moments where we could have gone and chased that tail, but I knew it wouldn't be a fruitful process for me," Griff continues, having always prioritised new and interesting over safe and comfortable. "It would have been so easy for my team or whoever to tell me what my debut album needed to be, but I had to find my own gut in all of it," she adds.
