News

Open Mic UK Winner Birdy Hits Number One In France

• 8th Jun 2012

Things just keep getting better for Open Mic UK winner Birdy, who’s hit the number one spot in France with her spine-tingling version of Skinny Love. It follows the massive European success of her self-titled debut album which made number one in Holland and Belgium and made the top 20 in the UK.

The sixteen year-old Hampshire girl who won Open Mic UK aged just 12 years-old greeted the news with excitement on Twitter saying, ‘Merci Beacoup, Je suis tellement contente!’, translated to ‘thank you very much, I’m so happy!’ Birdy’s version of the Bon Iver classic hit number one in France at the weekend.

It’s been a remarkable 12 months for Birdy with her debut album going Gold in the UK, Platinum in Europe and she's had over 45 million hits on YouTube. With her performances of ‘Shelter’ and her cover of Ed Sheeran’s ‘The A Team’, Open Mic UK winner Birdy was the second most viewed UK musician on YouTube. Birdy was also recently one of the artists who contributed to the Hunger Games’ film soundtrack with her single ‘Just a Game’, along with Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, and Arcade Fire.

Birdy went up against 9,000 hopeful artists in the Open Mic UK national music competition. It’s a process that starts all over again very soon with auditions for this year’s competition starting in August. Birdy swept through the auditions into the regional and area finals to her eventual win at the National Grand Final singing her own song ‘So Be Free’.

Open Mic UK is the largest national music competition for singers and solo artists in the UK. The competition travels across the country every year in search of the UK's best singers, singer/songwriters, rappers and vocalists, and is open to all genres, so whether you’re into R’n’B, Rap, Acoustic, Pop or Classical – Open Mic UK has it all! Acts can perform either covers or original material and they’ll be invited to a live audition in front of the judging panel.

Birdy recently reminisced about the experience of playing in front of a thousand people at the Open Mic UK Grand Final as “such a cool experience” to Radio One. She explained that it showed her what she wanted to do when she was still very young.

After winning Open Mic UK, Birdy recorded her album with Gareth Henderson in River Studios which resulted in her being offered a publishing contract with Good Soldier Songs Ltd, run by Christian Tattersfield, chairman of Warner Bros. Tattersfield was previously responsible for signing artists such as David Gray. Open Mic UK winner Birdy subsequently got signed to Warner.

The question on everyone’s lips is who will follow in Birdy’s footsteps in this year’s Open Mic UK competition which starts in August. Acts who make it past their first audition will go through to the live showcases at some of the UK’s most prestigious venues including Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sheffield City Hall, Birmingham’s LG Arena and Portsmouth Guildhall, following in the footsteps of famous acts such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Katy Perry. These fantastic venues all lead up to acts playing the Grand Final at the UK’s most recognised live music venue, The O2 in London.