Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho (born 9 August 2000), known professionally as Arlo Parks, is a British singer and songwriter. Her debut studio album, ''

Collapsed in Sunbeams ''Collapsed in Sunbeams'' is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks, released via Transgressive Records on 29 January 2021. The album received widespread acclaim, with many music critics praising Parks' versatility and vu ...

'', was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and peaked at number three on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. It earned her nominations for Album of the Year,

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

and Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2021 Brit Awards. It won the 2021 Hyundai

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

for Best Album.

Early life

Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho was born on 9 August 2000, and raised in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North London ...

. She is of half

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

, quarter

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

ian and quarter French ancestry. Her mother was born in Paris. Marinho learned to speak French before she learned English.

Career

2018–2019: ''Super Sad Generation'' and ''Sophie''

Parks chose her stage name as a distinctive personal pseudonym, inspired by

King Krule Archy Ivan Marshall (born 24 August 1994), also known by his stage name King Krule, among other names, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, rapper and record producer. He began recording music in 2010 under the moniker Zoo Kid. The fol ...

and

Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...

. In 2018, she began uploading demos to

BBC Music Introducing BBC Music ''Introducing'' is BBC Radio's platform supporting unsigned, undiscovered, and under-the-radar UK music talent. It gives artists the opportunity to be played on Local BBC Radio and nationally on BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, ...

. This caught the attention of radio presenters across the UK who distributed these demos to Ali Raymond of Beatnik Creative, who soon began managing Parks. She made her solo debut when she released the song "Cola" through Beatnik Records in November 2018, and announced the release of her debut EP, ''Super Sad Generation''. She told ''Line of Best Fit'' that the song is "a reminder that betrayal is inevitable when it comes to pretty people that think flowers fix everything." Olivia Swash wrote that the vocals on the song "flourish thanks to arks'creative writing background, with her delicate tone taking centre stage against the gently plodding guitars and soft crackle of vinyl." By November 2019, the song had amassed over three million streams on Spotify. Following the release of "Cola", Parks signed to

Transgressive Records Transgressive Records is an independent record label based in London, formed in 2004. Its founders, Tim Dellow and Toby L, first met at a Bloc Party gig organised by Toby's Rockfeedback website. The label's debut release was "1am" by the Subwa ...

. She released the title track of her upcoming EP, ''Super Sad Generation'', in January 2019. Robin Murray told '' Clash'' that the song portrays an "astute, nuanced creative control that also utilises word-play that speaks of youthful emotions spinning out of control." Her third single, "Romantic Garbage", was released in March 2019, before the release of the full four-track EP, ''Super Sad Generation'' in early April 2019. The EP was recorded in her home in South West London and an

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...

in the

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

district of London with producer and co-writer Gianluca Buccellati. Parks performed her first-ever gig at The Great Escape in Brighton in May 2019, then went on to perform on the

stage at

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

in late June 2019, as well as at

Latitude Festival The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006 and has been held every year since, apart from 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 ...

in July 2019. She embarked on her first tour supporting Jordan Rakei on the UK leg of his tour in September 2019. Throughout the last half of 2019 Parks released the songs "George", "Second Guessing", "Sophie", and "Angel's Song" ahead of her second EP, ''Sophie''. Sean Kerwick told ''

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

'' that the five-track EP "oozes with the hang-ups of heartbreak and mortality; a topic that seems to overshadow many gen-Z musicians."

2020–present: ''Collapsed in Sunbeams''

Arlo Parks - 7th Street Entry - 10-3-2021 - 51554188158

Parks embarked on her first headlining tour of Europe in February and March 2020, but could not complete it due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In May 2020, Parks released the singles "Eugene" and " Black Dog", which were well received during the

COVID-19 lockdown Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countrie ...

, the latter of which became

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

Tune of the Week Tune may refer to: Music * Tune (folk music), a piece of short instrumental music, usually with repeating sections, and often played a number of times * Melody * Song * Tune-family People * David Tune (born 1954), Australian public servant * ...

. Parks made the front cover of ''NME'' in late July 2020. She won the AIM Independent Music Award for One to Watch in 2020 in August 2020, after losing the same award to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

a year before. Parks and Moses Boyd made the front cover of ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' for the publication's indie takeover special following the AIM Awards ceremony. Parks released her debut album, ''

'', on 29 January 2021. On 12 February 2021, Parks was the music act on The Graham Norton Show singing ' Caroline'. On 19 February 2021, Parks was the main guest of Jools Holland on his BBC programme '' Later...''. On 11 May, Parks won the Breakthrough Artist Award at the 2021 Brit Awards. On 9 September, the album ''Collapsed in Sunbeams'' won the Hyundai Mercury Prize for Album of the Year. Presenting the award, judge Annie MacManus said: "We chose an artist with a singular voice who uses lyrics of remarkable beauty … and connects deeply with her generation as she does so". Following her Collapsed in Sunbeams tour, Parks has performed as the 2022 opening act for Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Clairo. On 25 June 2022, Parks performed a 53-minute set on The Park Stage at

2022, before joining

Phoebe Bridgers Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has released two solo albums, ''Stranger in the Alps'' (2017) and ''Punisher'' (2020), both of which received critical acclaim ...

later in the day to perform "

Graceland Too Graceland Too was a tourist attraction and shrine dedicated to American singer Elvis Presley. It was located in Holly Springs, Mississippi, forty miles south of the original Graceland, to which it had no affiliation. Graceland Too was operated o ...

". During Glastonbury, Parks was selected as a guest for the CBeebies Bedtime Story, reading Once Upon a Rhythm by James Carter. In September 2022, she cancelled her tour dates in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, citing mental health concerns.

Personal life

Parks is openly bisexual and is based in London. She was educated at

Latymer Upper School (Slowly Therefore Surely) , established = , closed = , sister_school = Godolphin and Latymer School , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , head_label = H ...

in Hammersmith and completed her

A Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

s in early 2019 at

Ashbourne College Ashbourne College is a private school and sixth form located in Kensington, London, England. Ashbourne was founded in 1981 by its current principal Michael Kirby. The college offers A-level and GCSE courses in a coeducational environment and it ...

. In the autobiographical text on her

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

profile, Parks claimed that she spent most of secondary school "feeling like that black kid who couldn't dance for shit, listening to too much emo music and crushing on some girl in her Spanish class." Parks' partner is the singer Ashnikko. Parks has named

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

and

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

as among her influences.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Promotional singles

Guest appearances

Music videos

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* – official site * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Arlo 2000 births Living people 21st-century Black British women singers 21st-century British poets 21st-century English women writers People from Hammersmith Singers from London English people of Nigerian descent English people of Chadian descent English people of French descent English women pop singers English women singer-songwriters British indie pop musicians Bedroom pop musicians Brit Award winners English women poets Bisexual musicians LGBT musicians from England LGBT singers from the United Kingdom LGBT Black British people 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people