Griff (singer)

Griff was born on 21 January 2001 as Sarah Faith Griffiths, and was raised in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.[1] She was born to a Jamaican father and a Chinese mother, as well as having Jamaican grandparents that were part of the "Windrush generation". Griff has stated that she feels "more in touch" with her Chinese ancestry and obtained the nationality, since her mother is a first generation migrant that migrated to England during the Vietnam war.[1] Griff's parents foster children.[2]

Griff stated that her earliest memory of loving music was being gifted an iPod Shuffle with the 2008 Taylor Swift album Fearless downloaded to it,[3] when she was around the age of eight.[4] She then taught herself to record and produce music on her brother's laptop, and used tutorials on YouTube to inform her on techniques.[1] While attending school, Griff kept her musical life private, due to not knowing if her musical career would be successful, and adding "no one likes that person at school who talks about how they want to sing".[1] After finishing her A Levels, she told teachers that she was taking a gap year, rather than informing them on her music ventures.[1] On using the stage name Griff, she stated: "Sarah Griffiths isn't that glamorous, I sound like I have a mortgage and 4 kids, it's very corporate".[4]

On 4 July 2019, it was announced that Griff had been signed to Warner Records.[5] On the same day, Griff released her debut single "Mirror Talk", accompanied by a music video. Annie Mac featured the song on BBC Radio 1 under the New Name playlist.[6] She stated that the writing process for the song took an hour.[1] Griff described the release as a career highlight, since it was released immediately after she had finished her A Level exams.[3] Billboard described the song as an "electrifying debut", and praised her "powerful voice and vulnerable lyrics".[5] The next month, Griff released her follow-up single, "Didn't Break It Enough",[7] accompanied by a music video in which the clothing worn was made by Griff herself.[8][9] She released the single "Paradise" in October 2019,[10] which was followed by the release of Griff's debut extended play, The Mirror Talk, on 15 November 2019.[11] In December 2019, Griff released a cover of the Bangles' 1989 song "Eternal Flame".[12]

On 7 February 2020, Griff released the single "Good Stuff". Despite people thinking the song is about a romantic breakup, she clarified that the subject of the song is about missing children that her family fostered. She stated: "I fall in love with every child that's ever been with us and they kind of become like a brother and sister. But, they always move on. They always get adopted to a more permanent place. You end up missing them. It's like a break up, or whenever anyone leaves your life, you remember the good stuff. It obviously makes you miss them more. And that's why this song is called, 'Good Stuff'".[13] In March 2020, a song titled "I Love You's", that Griff co-wrote, was released by American singer Hailee Steinfeld.[14] This was followed by "Forgive Myself", a song released by Griff on 29 May 2020. The Music Mermaid stated that the song "snaps with little bursts of neon electronica while dabbling in the tender soul that Griff exudes in each performance",[15] while NME described it as an "anthem".[16] In July 2020, Griff was nominated by The Ivors Academy for an Ivor Novello Rising Star Award,[17] and later that month, she released the song "Say It Again".[18] In October 2020, she was part of two collaborative songs; "1,000,000 X Better" with English band Honne,[19] and "Inside Out", a song with German DJ Zedd.[20][21] In January 2021, she released "Black Hole", which NME described as a "dark pop anthem".[22]