Popping Up: Becky Hill
Popping Up is our recurring look at new artists making noise on the music landscape. Because, hey — Madonna and Britney were once unknown, too.
Twenty-year-old soulstress Becky Hill has developed the work ethic of a warrior. In 2012, she went on singing competition The Voice UK, where she was under the guidance of UK heavy-hitter Jessie J and made it all the way to the semi-finals.
Now, having graduated from the show, the Brit has become a tour-de-force in her homeland’s thriving dance music scene, providing smoky vocal assists on the likes of Wilkinson’s “Afterglow,” Rudimental’s “Powerless,” and Dutch beatsmith Oliver Heldens‘ smash hit “Gecko (Overdrive)”.
As she gears up for the release of her debut album, Becky jumped on the phone with Idolator to talk about her time on the show, working with her longtime pal and fellow 20-year-old music prodigy MNEK, and her inspirations behind the upcoming record. Find out all there is to know about the rising diva after the jump.
WHERE SHE WAS BORN: Becky grew up in the small town of Bewdley, Worcestershire. She lived there until she was 18.
HOW YOU MIGHT KNOW HER: After getting her start on The Voice UK, Becky Hill featured on Oliver Helden’s “Gecko (Overdrive)” this year, which went number one on the UK Singles Charts.
GOING NUMBER ONE WITH “GECKO”: “Yeah, it was a whirlwind really,” she says. “I was in L.A. at the time, so I had a 10-hour flight to get back to the UK, which was a bit of a buzz kill. But yeah, it felt amazing. I felt really lucky.”
WHAT SHE LEARNED FROM BEING ON THE VOICE UK: “It taught me to be nice to the right people,” Becky says. “Truthfully, I’m a genuine person. I like to be as nice as I can to everyone that I can. But I think The Voice really honed that in because there were a couple of people that weren’t nice to the right people, got edited really badly and came across badly on the show.”
The show also gave Becky her go-getter drive. “The Voice pushes you out in front of so many people, and then when you don’t win it, it leaves you hanging out to dry.” she said. “So, there was very much a massive pressure to be savvy with my contacts, reach out to as many people as I could and get my name out there.”
COLLABORATING WITH RUDIMENTAL ON “POWERLESS”: “I was in a writing session with MNEK, and MNEK’s studio is next to Rudimental’s,” she says. “I was walking up the stairs and Kesi [Dryden] from Rudimental introduced himself and said that he heard me on The Voice, was a massive fan, and wanted to work with me, which was really humbling because I was such a fan. So, we got into the studio a couple of weeks later, and we wrote the rest of ‘Powerless.’ It was started by Hannah Symons, and I wrote the rest of it.”
ON HER FIRST SOLO TRACK “CAUTION TO THE WIND”: Produced by Two Inch Punch, the man behind Jessie Ware’s Tough Love LP and Sam Smith’s “Money On My Mind,” “Caution To The Wind” resulted from Becky’s writer’s block and her eventual exploration of idioms. “I think I’ve got 13 to 14 idioms in the whole song,” she says. “When I look back, and I think about what the words mean, it’s very much about my whole journey into the industry, and how difficult I’ve found it. How amazing I found it, but how difficult as well.”
THE DIFFICULT MOMENTS: Starting her career at 17, Becky was forced to grow up very quickly. “I find it difficult in making the transition from being a teenager to an adult,” Becky admits. “I also find it difficult living in a place where I’ve never been before. I live in London now, and I’ve found that very difficult. I live on my own… My family is not in London. They’re three hours out in the country, and all of my friends are out in the country as well. So, literally, I’ve got a great little crew down south, who are really comforting. I think that’s the hardest thing for me, moving away from everything I’ve ever known into a place I’ve never been before. It’s kind of non-stop all of the time.”
ON HER LATEST SINGLE “LOSING”: Becky’s latest hazy MNEK-produced number “Losing” was about being finished with love. “It was about a guy who I was really quite close to over about three to four months, and then he just stopped speaking to me,” she says. “MNEK knew him, so, I went in and kind of poured my heart out to MNEK, who I had just met. Then, we happened to write a song about being done with relationships and all the rest of it.”
WORKING WITH MNEK (Uzoechi Emenike): “I love working with Uzo. I love being around him, I love talking to him, and I love working with him. He is my best friend, and I’m very blessed to have met someone [like him],” she says. “Because when I met Uzo, we were both very lost in the industry. I didn’t know anybody, and he had been in the industry for years but hadn’t formed any sort of a little crew. It was very much floating around until we found each other, and there we were. It quite nice to meet somebody who could just relate to me and vice versa so well.”
HER UPCOMING ALBUM: Recruiting the likes of MNEK, Two Inch Punch and Shift K3Y, Becky has been working on her album for the past year. “In my mind, it’s pretty much done. So, we’re probably going to be releasing it in the first half of next year.”
INSPIRATIONS BEHIND THE ALBUM: Becky was listening to an eclectic mix of artists from Passion Pit and Ellie Goulding to Bon Iver and Ben Howard. “I’ve also kind of rediscovered Lauryn Hill, and the Black Eyed Peas.”
Have you already discovered Becky Hill? Let us know in the comments below.
Get an eyeful of even more pop music coverage, from artist interviews to exclusive performances, on Idolator’s YouTube channel.
