James Newman (musician)

As a child, Newman became interested in music, and he wrote and produced songs with his younger brother John. In his 20s, he established himself as a songwriter in London, and in 2013 he co-wrote Rudimental and Ella Eyre's hit "Waiting All Night".[2] The song topped the UK Singles Chart. Newman won the "Brit Award for British Single of the Year" during the 2014 Brit Awards for co-writing "Waiting All Night" with Jonny Harris.[2]

Later James co-wrote with his brother John Newman and with Calvin Harris the latter's song "Blame" featuring vocals by John. The song, a huge international hit, has topped the UK singles chart, in addition to peaking in Scotland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Mexico. It reached number 19 on Billboard Hot 100 and topped the US Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

Newman was also a co-composer of a number of songs including "Let 'Em Talk" on Kesha's 2017 album Rainbow and "Coping" for Toni Braxton on her 2018 album Sex & Cigarettes.

Newman was a featured vocalist on several songs including the 2018 hit "Therapy" by Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren. The song charted in the Netherlands, Belgium and on the US Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. The same year he was featured on the song "Lights Go Down", a song by the Norwegian music producer and DJ Matoma in his album One in a Million. In 2019, he was featured on the Armin van Buuren song "High on Your Love".

On 27 February 2020, the BBC announced that Newman would represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He was to participate with the song "My Last Breath" which Newman co-wrote with Adam Argyle, Ed Drewett and Iain James. As one of the five major countries in the competition, the UK directly qualified for the final on Saturday 16 May 2020. The co-writer of "My Last Breath", Iain James, had previously worked on Azerbaijan's winning song for Eurovision Song Contest 2011 titled "Running Scared" sung by Ell & Nikki. However, the event was later cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak. It is currently unknown if Newman will represent the UK at the 2021 contest.

On 17 July 2020, Newman released his debut EP called, The Things We Do. Which includes the singles "My Last Breath", "Enough" and "Better Man".

James Newman was born in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales. When Newman was six years old, his father left the family, leaving the mother Jackie, to take care of James and his younger brother John all by herself, working as a receptionist.[4]

John later became a well-known singer, songwriter, musician and record producer[5] best known for the track "Love Me Again" a 2013 number one hit on the UK Singles Chart, as well as for co-writing and singing on Rudimental's 2012 singles "Feel the Love", another number one hit and "Not Giving In" and for being featured in the Calvin Harris single "Blame" which also topped the UK charts.

• James Newman at AllMusic