Eliza Doolittle (singer)

Eliza Sophie Caird (born 15 April 1988),[1] better known by her stage name Eliza (formerly Eliza Doolittle), is an English singer and songwriter from Westminster, London.[2] After performing her music in live venues around London from the age of 15, Eliza signed to Parlophone in 2008.[3]

Eliza
Eliza performing in 2014
Background information
Birth nameEliza Sophie Caird
Born (1988-04-15) 15 April 1988
Westminster, London, England
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • piano
Years active2007–present
LabelsParlophone
Websitewww.elizalovechild.com

Her debut eponymous album was released on 12 July 2010 and went Platinum[4] in the UK. The album, Eliza Doolittle, produced two UK top 40 hits: "Skinny Genes" and "Pack Up", the latter of which peaked within the top five on the UK Singles Chart.[5]

In 2013, Eliza contributed writing and vocals to "You & Me" a single from British electronic music duo Disclosure's number one debut album Settle.[6]

On 7 June 2013, she premiered a single called "Big When I Was Little", which was released in July 2013. It subsequently joined BBC Radio 1's and Radio 2 playlist. It was later included on her second studio album, titled In Your Hands.[7]

Early life

Eliza Doolittle was born in Westminster, London in 1988. She comes from a family with a successful and varied musical background. Her father is John Caird,[8] a stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas who is also an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company; his father was the theologian and principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, G. B. Caird.[9] Her mother is musical theatre actress and model artist Frances Ruffelle,[8] who won a Tony Award for her role of Éponine in the English-language version of Les Misérables. Doolittle is the granddaughter of Sylvia Young,[8] founder of the eponymous theatre school. She has a younger brother. Her parents divorced when she was four years old.[10]

Doolittle grew up in Highgate and attended Channing School For Girls, Bedales School,[11][12][13][14] and Westminster Kingsway College. She was used to being around stages and seeing her mother singing and had always wanted to become a recording artist.[15] She chose the stage name of Eliza Doolittle, the Pygmalion and My Fair Lady character, because it was her nickname as a child.[16]

Eliza had a brief career on stage playing Young Cosette in Les Misérables in London's West End in 1996–1997. Her parents had met and began their relationship during the original production when her father was the co-director and her mother played Eponine. Eliza went on to play the lead role in Lucy Simon's Tony Award-winning musical version of The Secret Garden in 2001, when The Royal Shakespeare Company premiered the show in London.

Musical career

Career beginnings

Before entering the charts, Eliza Doolittle toured the UK with her band. Her first release was an EP featuring the tracks "Rollerblades", "Moneybox", "Police Car" and "Go Home", which came out on 29 November 2009. Tracks from the EP were remixed by Plastic Little ("Rollerblades"), Sam Young and Jamie xx from The xx ("Money Box"). The EP received radio plays from Rob Da Bank, Nick Grimshaw,[17] Fearne Cotton and Jo Whiley.

She recorded a song called 'Running For Life' which featured on the soundtrack of the cult British film AdULTHOOD in 2008. Later that year, she performed at Glastonbury on the Pussy Parlour stage, her first festival performance.[18]

2010–2013: Eliza Doolittle

Doolittle at Skyfest, 2011

In early 2010, she took part in musician Shane MacGowan's charity single "I Put a Spell on You", in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[19] Her debut single "Skinny Genes" was released on 12 April 2010, reaching No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart. She told BBC's Steve Lamacq the song is "a funny scenario if you didn’t like someone, if they were really annoying, but you had a good time under the sheets."[20] Doolittle's second release is titled "Pack Up" and was released on 5 July 2010, reaching No. 5 on the Official UK Singles Chart on 11 July 2010.[21]

Doolittle in August 2011 performing at SkyFest

In March 2011, she performed at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas[22] as well at Coachella in California.[23] In April 2011, Doolittle was touring the UK. On 19 April 2011, Doolittle's self-titled album was released in the United States almost one year from the U.K date.

In 2013, Doolittle collaborated with Disclosure on the track "You & Me" from their debut album, Settle.[6] Early that year, she began recording new material for her second album. In an interview with Elle magazine in April 2013, she stated "I'm definitely showing more of myself than I ever have before. I feel like on my last album, I hadn't experienced very much of anything really, and it's been three years or more since then and I have felt and seen things I hadn't before, and I know things I didn't know before. In a way I have answers to questions, but then those answers open up a thousand other questions. I guess I've gone through things that so many people go through at the age I am. I've written almost every day about my every thought and emotion and the album is made up of the songs that mean the most to me".[24]

2013–present: In Your Hands and A Real Romantic

On 7 June 2013, she premiered a new single called "Big When I Was Little", which was released in July 2013. It subsequently joined BBC Radio 1's playlist, and features on her second studio album. On 17 June 2013 the video for the single premiered on her YouTube channel.[25]

Eliza and UK garage artist Wookie wrote a song called 'The Hype' in 2013. Wookie also contributed a remix to her 'In Your Hands' album for her track 'Walking on Water'.

She also featured on 'YNSP' a track from hip hop artist Vic Mensa's INNANETAPE mixtape produced by DJ Dahi.

She had a cameo role as a nightclub singer in The Great Train Robbery, a drama series on BBC One in December 2013.

In 2014, Eliza was invited by Burt Bacharach to sing with him at Henley Festival in the Summer of 2014. She said "I’ve wanted to sing one of his songs since I first heard his music and to be able to do it with him in his show gives me a feeling I can't even describe!"

On 12 December 2018, her most recent album A Real Romantic was released.

Discography

Studio albums

Title Album details Chart peak positions Certifications
(sales thresholds)
UK
[26]
BEL (Fl)
[27]
BEL (Wa)
[28]
DEN
[29]
FRA
[30]
IRE
[31]
NL
[32]
Eliza Doolittle 346100381011045
In Your Hands[34]
  • Released: 14 October 2013[35]
  • Label: Parlophone
  • Formats: Digital download, CD
2571
A Real Romantic[36]
  • Released: 12 December 2018
  • Label: Eliza
  • Formats: Digital download, streaming
"—" denotes album that did not chart or was not released.

Extended plays

Title EP details
Eliza Doolittle
  • Released: 29 November 2009
  • Formats: Digital download
Christmas[lower-alpha 1]
  • Released: December 2013
  • Formats: Digital download

As lead artist

List of singles as lead artist
Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications
(sales thresholds)
Album
UK
[26]
BEL
[27]
DEN
[29]
FIN
[37]
GER
[38]
IRE
[31]
NLD
[32]
SWI
[39]
"Skinny Genes" 2010 224242429048 Eliza Doolittle
"Pack Up" 5103716496875
"Rollerblades" 5861
"Mr Medicine" 2011 130
"Big When I Was Little" 2013 1277 In Your Hands
"Let It Rain" 55
"Walking On Water"
"Wide Eyed Fool" 2017 A Real Romantic
"Wasn't Looking"
"Livid" 2018
"Alone & Unafraid"
"All Night"

Promotional singles

List of promotional singles
Title Year Peak chart positions Album
BEL
[27]
"Walking on Water" 2013 64 In Your Hands
"Big City" 2015 Shaun the Sheep Movie
"Alone & Unafraid" 2018 A Real Romantic
Title Year Peak chart positions Album
UK
[26]
BEL
[27]
FRA
[40]
IRE
[31]
SPN
[41]
SWI
[39]
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"
(as part of The Justice Collective)
2012 14 Charity single
"You & Me"
(Disclosure featuring Eliza Doolittle)
2013 104123056 Settle
"The Hype"
(Wookie featuring Eliza Doolittle)
N/A
"—" denotes single that did not chart or was not released.

Music videos

Title Year Director
"Piano Song" 2008
"Skinny Genes" 2010
"Skinny Genes 2.0"
"Pack Up"
"Rollerblades"
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (As part of The Justice Collective)
"Mr. Medicine" 2011
"Big When I Was Little" 2013
"Let It Rain"
"Waste of Time"
"You & Me" (Disclosure featuring Eliza Doolittle)
"The Hype" (Wookie featuring Eliza Doolittle)
"Walking on Water"
"In Your Hands" 2014
"Wide Eyed Fool" 2017 Charlie Robins
"Wasn't Looking"
"Livid" 2018 Eliza
"Alone & Unafraid"

Tour

Doolittle toured as the opening act for Paloma Faith's Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful Tour and Gary Barlow's Since I Saw You Last Tour in 2014.[42]

Filmography

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2013 The Great Train Robbery Night-Club Singer Episode: "A Robber's Tale"
2014 Home and Away Herself Episode #1.5932

References

Footnotes

  1. Free download including "The Gift of Giving", "Xmas in Bed" and "Last Christmas".

Sources

  1. "Eliza Biography". Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  2. "Bite The Ballot on Twitter". Twitter. 10 January 2015.
  3. "News | Eliza Doolittle | Parlophone records". Parlophone.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  4. "Eliza Doolittle is in the studio working on her third studio album". AXS. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  5. "Eliza Doolittle at BBC Music". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  6. music, The Guardian (14 April 2014). "Disclosure – You and Me featuring Eliza Doolittle: video premiere". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  7. "Eliza Doolittle announces new album title – Music News". Digital Spy. 31 July 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  8. Savage, Mark (13 July 2010). "Talking Shop: Eliza Doolittle". BBC News. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  9. Chadwick, Henry, "George Bradford Caird, 1917-1984: A Memoir" in The Glory of Christ in the New Testament: Studies in Christology in Memory of George Bradford Caird, ed. L. D. Hurst and N. T. Wright (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987; reprinted Wipf and Stock, 2006), xvii-xxii
  10. "Radio 1 Programmes – The Chris Moyles Show, Wednesday – with Eliza Doolittle". BBC. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  11. Duerden, Nick. "Some might say, I look more like my father". Thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  12. Price, Simon (23 February 2014). "How my research into pop's posh takeover was hijacked". Theguardian.com.
  13. "Our fair lady: Why America is falling in love with Eliza Doolittle". The Independent. 27 February 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  14. "Bedales Rock Show | Bedales School". Webcache.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  15. "Interview: Eliza Doolittle". 5 July 2010. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  16. "VIP track: Eliza Doolittle". 4music.com. 9 May 2010. Archived from the original on 11 May 2010. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  17. "Radio 1 – Nick Grimshaw – Tracklistings". BBC. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  18. Running For Life, 24 June 2008, retrieved 12 October 2016
  19. "Shane MacGowan and Friends "I Put a Spell on You" (Haiti Charity Song) (Video)". Prefix magazine. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  20. "Skinny Genes". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
  21. Praxis Media. "Radio1 Rodos Greece ::: UK Forthcoming Singles ::: Charts, DJ Promos, Dance, Lyrics, Free Mp3 Samples Downloads". Radio1.gr. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  22. "SXSW 2011: the best pictures from day eight". The Guardian. 19 March 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  23. "Eliza Doolittle Talks To Us About Style, Kanye And Coachella | Idolator". Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  24. "Eliza in Wonderland: Eliza Doolittle Stars in Palladium's New Campaign". Elle.com. 11 April 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  25. "Big When I Was Little". YouTube.com. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  26. Peak positions in the United Kingdom:
  27. "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". ultratop.be/nl/. Hung Medien.
  28. "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". ultratop.be/fr/. Hung Medien.
  29. "Discography Eliza Doolittle". danishcharts.dk. Hung Medien.
  30. "Discography Eliza Doolittle". lescharts.com/. Hung Medien.
  31. "Discography Eliza Doolittle". irish-charts.com/. Hung Medien.
  32. "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". dutchcharts.nl/. Hung Medien.
  33. "British certifications – Eliza Doolittle". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 4 September 2020. Type Eliza Doolittle in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  34. Eliza Doolittle announces new album title – Music News - Digital Spy
  35. "iTunes – Music – In Your Hands by Eliza Doolittle". Itunes.apple.com. 11 October 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  36. Eliza Doolittle unleashes new studio collection A Real Romantic | Hamada Mania Music Blog Hamada Mania
  37. "Discography Eliza Doolittle". finnishcharts.com/. Hung Medien.
  38. "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". charts.de/. Hung Medien.
  39. "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". hitparade.ch/. Hung Medien.
  40. "Discographie Eliza Doolittle". lescharts.com.
  41. "Discography Eliza Doolittle". spanishcharts.com.
  42. "Eliza is on tour with Gary Barlow". Eliza Doolittle. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
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