Eliza Doolittle (singer)

Eliza Doolittle
Background information
Birth name Eliza Sophie Caird
Born (1988-04-15) 15 April 1988
Westminster, London, England
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Music
  • songwriter
  • Singer
Instruments Vocals
Years active 2007–present
Labels Parlophone
Website www.elizadoolittle.com

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

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 forty 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 her writing and vocal skills to "You & Me" a single from British Electronic 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. 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 eight siblings. Her parents separated when she was four years old.[9]

Doolittle grew up in Camden Town and attended Channing School For Girls 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.[10] She chose the stage name of Eliza Doolittle, the Pygmalion and My Fair Lady character, because it was her nickname as a child.[11]

Eliza had a brief career on stage playing Young Cosette in Les Misérables in London's West End in 1996-1997.[12] 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.[13]

Musical career

Career beginnings

Before entering the charts, Eliza Doolittle toured the UK everywhere 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,[14] Fearne Cotton and Jo Whiley.

She recorded a song called 'Running For Life' which featured on the soundtrack to the cult British film AdULTHOOD in 2008. Later that year, she performed at Glastonbury on the Pussy Parlour stage, her first festival performance.[15]

2010–13: 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.[16] Her debut single "Skinny Genes" was released on 12 April 2010, reaching #22 in the UK Singles Chart.[17] 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."[18] Doolittle's second release is titled "Pack Up" and was released on 5 July 2010, reaching #5 on the Official UK Singles Chart on 11 July 2010.[19]

Doolittle in August 2011 performing at SkyFest

In March 2011 she performed at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas[20] as well as Coachella in California.[21] 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".[22]

2013–present: In Your Hands

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.[23]

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 invites 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!"[14]

Eliza is currently working on her 3rd studio album.

Discography

Studio albums

Title Album details Chart peak positions Certifications
(sales thresholds)
UK
[24]
BEL (Vl)
[25]
BEL (Wa)
[26]
DEN
[27]
FRA
[28]
IRE
[29]
NL
[30]
Eliza Doolittle 3 46 100 38 101 10 45
In Your Hands[32]
  • Released: 14 October 2013[33]
  • Label: Parlophone
  • Formats: Digital download, CD
25 71
"—" 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 2012
  • Formats: Digital download

Singles

As lead artist

Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications
(sales thresholds)
Album
UK
[24]
BEL (Vl)
[25]
BEL (Wa)
[26]
DEN
[27]
FIN
[34]
GER
[35]
IRE
[29]
NL
[30]
SWI
[36]
"Skinny Genes" 2010 22 42 71[lower-alpha 2] 42 42 90 48 Eliza Doolittle
"Pack Up" 5 10 34 37 16 49 6 8 75
  • UK: Gold
"Rollerblades" 58 61[lower-alpha 3]
"Mr Medicine" 2011 130
"Big When I Was Little" 2013 12 77[lower-alpha 4] In Your Hands
"Let It Rain" 55
"Walking on Water" 123[lower-alpha 5]
"Big City" 2015 Shaun the Sheep Movie
"—" denotes single that did not chart or was not released.
Year Title Peak chart positions Album
UK
[24]
BEL (Vl)
[25]
BEL (Wa)
[26]
FR
[37]
IRE
[29]
SPN
[38]
SWI
[36]
2012 "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"
(as part of The Justice Collective)
1 4 Charity single
2013 "You & Me"
(Disclosure featuring Eliza Doolittle)
10 [lower-alpha 6] 2 30 56 Settle
"The Hype"
(Wookie featuring Eliza Doolittle)
N/A
"—" denotes single that did not chart or was not released.

Music videos

Year Title Director
2008 "Piano Song" -
2010 "Skinny Genes" -
"Skinny Genes 2.0" -
"Pack Up" -
"Rollerblades" -
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (As part of The Justice Collective) -
2011 "Mr. Medicine" -
2013 "Big When I Was Little" -
"Let It Rain" -
"Waste Of Time" -
"You & Me" (Disclosure featuring Eliza Doolittle) -
"The Hype" (Wookie featuring Eliza Doolittle) -
"Walking On Water" -
2014 "In Your Hands" -

Tour

Opening Act For Gary Barlow's Since I Saw You Last UK/Ireland Tour 2014.

  1. Back Packing
  2. Skinny Genes
  3. Rollerblades
  4. Big When I Was Little
  5. You and Me (Disclosure Feat. Eliza Doolittle)
  6. In Your Hands
  7. Mr Medicine
  8. Walking On Water
  9. Pack Up
  10. Let it Rain

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".
  2. "Skinny Genes" did not enter the Ultratop 40, but peaked at number 31 on the wallonie Ultratip chart.
  3. "Rollerblades" did not enter the Ultratop 50, but peaked at number 11 on the Flemish Ultratip chart.
  4. "Big When I Was Little" did not enter the Ultratop 50, but peaked at number 27 on the Flemish Ultratip chart.
  5. "Walking on Water" did not enter the Ultratop 50, but peaked at number 73 on the Flemish Ultratip chart.
  6. "You & Me" did not enter the Ultratop 50, but peaked at number 7 on the Flemish Ultratip chart.

Sources

  1. "Eliza Doolittle Biography". Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  2. "Bite The Ballot on Twitter". Twitter. 10 January 2015.
  3. http://palace.co, Palace -. "News | Eliza Doolittle | Parlophone records". www.parlophone.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  4. "Eliza Doolittle is in the studio working on her third studio album". AXS. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  5. "Eliza Doolittle at BBC Music". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
  6. 1 2 music, Guardian (2014-04-14). "Disclosure - You and Me featuring Eliza Doolittle: video premiere". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  7. "Eliza Doolittle announces new album title - Music News". Digital Spy. 2013-07-31. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
  8. 1 2 3 Savage, Mark (13 July 2010). "Talking Shop: Eliza Doolittle". BBC News. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  9. "Radio 1 Programmes - The Chris Moyles Show, Wednesday - with Eliza Doolittle". BBC. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-13.
  10. "Interview: Eliza Doolittle". 5 July 2010. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  11. "VIP track: Eliza Doolittle". 4music.com. 9 May 2010. Archived from the original on 11 May 2010. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  12. "The chart star who owes her life to the original Les Miserables show". Mail Online. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  13. "Eliza Doolittle is the leader of a very well-dressed pack at Secret Garden Party". Mail Online. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  14. "Radio 1 - Nick Grimshaw - Tracklistings". BBC. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
  15. Running For Life, 2008-06-24, retrieved 2016-10-12
  16. "Shane MacGowan and Friends "I Put a Spell On You" (Haiti Charity Song) (Video)". Prefix magazine. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
  17. "Eliza Doolittle displays toned figure in a skimpy mismatched bikini". Mail Online. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  18. "Skinny Genes". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  19. Praxis Media. "Radio1 Rodos Greece ::: UK Forthcoming Singles ::: Charts, DJ Promos, Dance, Lyrics, Free Mp3 Samples Downloads". Radio1.gr. Retrieved 2010-12-03.
  20. "SXSW 2011: the best pictures from day eight". the Guardian. 2011-03-19. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  21. "Eliza Doolittle Talks To Us About Style, Kanye And Coachella | Idolator". Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com. 2011-04-19. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  22. "Eliza in Wonderland: Eliza Doolittle Stars in Palladium's New Campaign". Elle.com. 11 April 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  23. "Big When I Was Little". YouTube.com. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
  24. 1 2 3 Peak positions in the United Kingdom:
  25. 1 2 3 "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". ultratop.be/nl/. Hung Medien.
  26. 1 2 3 "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". ultratop.be/fr/. Hung Medien.
  27. 1 2 "Discography Eliza Doolittle". danishcharts.com/. Hung Medien.
  28. "Discography Eliza Doolittle". lescharts.com/. Hung Medien.
  29. 1 2 3 "Discography Eliza Doolittle". irish-charts.com/. Hung Medien.
  30. 1 2 "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". dutchcharts.nl/. Hung Medien.
  31. 1 2 Archived 24 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  32. Eliza Doolittle announces new album title - Music News - Digital Spy
  33. "iTunes - Music - In Your Hands by Eliza Doolittle". Itunes.apple.com. 2013-10-11. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
  34. "Discography Eliza Doolittle". finnishcharts.com/. Hung Medien.
  35. "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". charts.de/. Hung Medien.
  36. 1 2 "Discografie Eliza Doolittle". hitparade.ch/. Hung Medien.
  37. "DISCOGRAPHIE ELIZA DOOLITTLE". lescharts.com.
  38. "DISCOGRAPHY ELIZA DOOLITTLE". spanishcharts.com.
  39. "Eliza is on tour with Gary Barlow | News". Eliza Doolittle. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
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