Ashley Hicklin (born 1985) is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer. He co-owns Unified-Songs, a UK based music publishing/management company and has written songs for artists such as

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( ), is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted "the Greatest DJ of All Time" by '' Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, he was ...

Oliver Heldens Olivier J. L. Heldens (born 1 February 1995) is a Dutch DJ and electronic music producer from Rotterdam. He is regarded as a pioneer of the future house genre, propelling it to international attention and scoring numerous chart successes, includ ...

R3hab Fadil El Ghoul ( ar, فضيل الغول; born 2 April 1986), performing under the stage name R3hab (stylized in all caps as R3HAB; pronounced "rehab"), is a Dutch-Moroccan disc jockey and music producer. Ranked at number 12 on the DJ Mag Top 1 ...

Hardwell Robbert van de Corput (; born January 7, 1988), known professionally as Hardwell, is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted the world's number one DJ by ''DJ Mag'' in 2013 and again in 2014. In 2022, he was ranked at number 43 i ...

Timmy Trumpet Timothy Jude Smith (born 9 June 1982), known by his stage name Timmy Trumpet, is an Australian musician, DJ, songwriter and record producer. He has become known internationally for playing the trumpet live and making use of jazz elements in dan ...

Lost Kings Lost Kings are an American DJ duo consisting of Robert Abisi and Nick Shanholtz, based in Los Angeles. The duo gained popularity beginning in 2014 through their official remixes for artists such as Imagine Dragons, Krewella, Halsey, Vance Joy, ...

, Feder,

Duncan Laurence Duncan de Moor (; born 11 April 1994), known professionally as Duncan Laurence, is a Dutch singer and songwriter. He represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with his song "Arcade" and went on to win the competition, giv ...

, and Waylon, including more than ten No.1 chart releases and over twenty Top-10 chart releases.

Biography

Early life

Ashley Hicklin was raised in his parents’ pub on the North-East coast of England in

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town in the Borough of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. Scarborough is located on the North Sea coastline. Historic counties of England, Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town lies between 10 ...

. He first began as a singer-songwriter performing at open mic nights in the pub, at the age of 13.

As a writer

In 2008, the European CEO of

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

Publishing (Peter Ende) saw a live video of Hicklin performing for

BBC 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, 6 ...

. Hicklin signed a deal with

Publishing and in less than six months had co-written several chart hits for other artists across Europe, including

Johan Palm Karl Johan Viktor Palm (born 3 March 1992) is a Swedish singer and former contestant on ''Idol 2008'', where he ended up in fourth place. Palm auditioned with the song "The Drugs Don't Work" and performed several English songs on the show, includ ...

's single

Emma-Lee Emma-Lee is a Canadian pop singer, songwriter and photographer from Toronto, Ontario. She is considered a mezzo-soprano and is a self-taught vocalist. She has written hit songs for other artists in both the pop and country genres. Early lif ...

which reached No. 1 in Sweden. Hicklin went on to collaborate with the teams behind

Lana Del Rey Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent ...

Felix Jaehn Felix Kurt Jähn (born 28 August 1994), known professionally as Felix Jaehn (), is a German DJ and music producer specializing in tropical house. He achieved international success with his remix of Omi's song "Cheerleader", which topped the cha ...

Natasha Bedingfield Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British singer and songwriter. Bedingfield released her debut album, '' Unwritten'', in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed intern ...

, James Morrison,

Hurts Hurts are an English musical duo formed in Manchester in 2009, consisting of singer Theo Hutchcraft and multi-instrumentalist Adam Anderson. They have released five studio albums: ''Happiness'' (2010), ''Exile'' (2013), ''Surrender'' (2015), ' ...

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A membe ...

Sugababes Sugababes are a British girl group composed of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy. The lineup changed three times before returning to the original lineup in 2011. Formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom, Sugababes releas ...

and various other international acts. Hicklin is very active in the dance music scene as a writer and vocalist under the moniker Bright Sparks. Notable releases include the

song On My Way, the

song Summer Air, the Feder song Keep Us Apart, the

song Somebody, the

Klingande Cédric Steinmyller (born 14 May 1990), better known by his stage name Klingande (, literally: ''chiming''), is a French DJ and tropical house producer with a prominent use of the piano and the saxophone. Klingande was originally a duo, until 20 ...

song

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

, the

song Friday and

release

Feather Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier ...

Eurovision Song Contest entries

Hicklin has written the following

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

entries: In 2018, Hicklin wrote two songs for the UK's national selection '' Eurovision: You Decide''. "You", performed by Jaz Ellington and "Astronaut", performed by Liam Tamne.

As a publisher

In 2015, Hicklin co-founded Unified Songs, an independent music publisher and management company based in Edinburgh. They have residential recordings studios where they regularly host songwriting camps.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hicklin, Ashley 1985 births Living people English male singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters English composers Musicians from Scarborough, North Yorkshire People educated at Caistor Grammar School Alumni of Leeds College of Music 21st-century English singers 21st-century clarinetists 21st-century British male singers