Bethan Mary Leadley (born 15 December 1995) is an English singer-songwriter, YouTuber, presenter, and actress.

Early life and education

Leadley was born in

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

. She has an older brother, Daniel, who is married to

Hannah Witton Hannah Lisa Witton (born 19 February 1992) is an English-German YouTuber, talk-show host, broadcaster, and author. Witton creates video blogs and informational content which is mostly based around relationships, sex and sexual health; liberation ...

. Leadley attended

Woking High School Woking High School (formerly named Horsell High School) is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in the Horsell area of Woking, Surrey, England. The school has held specialist technology status since 2004, and convert ...

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

followed by

Portsmouth College Portsmouth College is a sixth form college on Tangier Road, Baffins, in the city of Portsmouth, England. Admissions The principal at Portsmouth College is Simon Barrable. The college ilocatedjust off the ''Eastern Road'' which provides an easy w ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

Career

Music and YouTube

Bethan Mary Leadley / musicalbethan (2007–2014)

Leadley began posting videos to her YouTube channel (formerly ''musicalbethan'') in April 2007, although her main channel videos from prior to 2011 have been since deleted. She then started two side channels; ''acousticbethan'' in 2010 and ''justbefon'' in 2012. Her channels have consisted of covers, original songs, vlogs, interviews with the likes of

Union J Union J are an English boy band, consisting of members JJ Hamblett, Jaymi Hensley, George Shelley and Josh Cuthbert. Shelley left the group in 2016 and was replaced by Casey Johnson, who left several months later, Cuthbert left the group ...

and

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and Artists and ...

, and more. Leadley released a single "Day Affair" in collaboration with mental health charity, Time to Change in June 2014.

Bethan Leadley / musicalbethan (2014–2017)

Leadley released her first EP, ''New Kinda New'' as Bethan Leadley under

LAB Records LAB Records (pronounced lab) is an independent record label operating from Manchester, England, and founded by Mark Orr and Nathen McVittie in 2007. The company also has a creative and distribution division, LAB Exposure, as well as a New York-b ...

in November 2014 with producers Jon Gaskin and Ande Mello from

Fort Hope Fort Hope are a British rock band formed in 2013 after the disbandment of electronic rock band My Passion in 2012. The band has released three EPs and released their debut mini-album in May 2014, which peaked at 8 on the UK top Rock and Metal ...

. It was then announced Leadley would set out on her first tour via Kililive in January 2015 with performances in Bristol, Birmingham, London, Nottingham, Manchester and Glasgow. She was accompanied by Box of Light and

Dodie Clark Dorothy Miranda Clark (born 11 April 1995), known mononymously as Dodie (stylised dodie), is an English singer, songwriter, author and YouTuber. Dodie began her career uploading original songs and covers to YouTube. She has over 210 videos, o ...

. Leadley supported

Lucy Spraggan Lucy Honour Ruby Spraggan (born 21 July 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. She auditioned for ''The X Factor (UK series 9), The X Factor'' in 2012, performing her own composition, "Last Night (Lucy Spraggan song), Last Night". On 3 November ...

on tour that May,

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and ev ...

2015, and

The Midnight Beast The Midnight Beast, sometimes abbreviated as TMB, is a British comedy/parody music group from London. They are most famous for their YouTube cover-parody of the 2009 single " TiK ToK" by American pop artist Ke$ha. The group currently has three ...

on tour that September. In September 2015, Leadley uploaded a charity cover of Birdy's "People Help the People" for

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

. Later in November, her second EP, ''Inside Her Head'' was released, this time with a more

pop punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...

sound and delving into personal issues Leadley dealt with growing up. The third track on the EP, "Fall for You", received a nomination for YouTuber song of the Year at the 2016 Summer in the City Awards and the music video featured a number of YouTubers, including

Emma Blackery Emma Louise Blackery (born 11 November 1991) is an English musician, singer, YouTube vlogger, record producer, and author. Active since 2012, Blackery has released EPs, singles, and Vevo music videos. She has toured with Busted, and headline ...

Orla Gartland Orla Joan Gartland (born 3 February 1995) is an Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist from Dublin who gained popularity from posting cover songs on her YouTube account. As of December 2021, her YouTube channel has received over 271k subscribers ...

, Niki and Sammy Albon,

Elyar Elyar Afshari ( az, Elyar Əfşari; born 15 July 1995), better known by his stage name Elyar (previously Elyar Fox) is an English pop singer, musician and songwriter. His debut single "Do It All Over Again" was released in January 2014, peaking ...

, the Mandeville Sisters, and more. In 2015 and 2016, Leadley made appearances on YouTube channel CokeTV presented by

, including a duet with Clark, "Gold Star for Me". In February 2016, Leadley signed with Kililive backed talent agency Free Focus. That same year, she supported

The Rocket Summer The Rocket Summer is the solo-project of Bryce Avary, a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and record producer based in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas. He writes and produces every song on his records, and plays every instrument on them. H ...

on the acoustic stage at Slam Dunk Festival 2016.

Leadley (2017–present)

Shifting her main focus towards music and her genre, she rebranded to ''Leadley'' with single "All of You" to debut the new moniker in August 2017. The song was co-written by Iain Mahanty and the music video was directed by Mandy Celine. A self-titled EP followed in November 2018 featuring

and Lucy Moon as back-up vocals and co-writing by Stefan Abingdon. The first single off this EP was "Like I Did", released in July 2018 with a music video in September directed by Abingdon and filmed at the Old Joinery in

Greenwich, London Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Gree ...

. The second was "Never Knew Love", which was released in August and its music video in November. It was filmed by her boyfriend,

. She then in December filmed the music video for his song, "Mango", in return. Both were filmed on their holiday in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

. Leadley's next single, "Chic", along with its music video directed by Mandy Celine, had a 9 August 2019 release. Leadley supported

Tessa Violet Tessa Violet Williams, previously known as Meekakitty, is a singer-songwriter, video blogger, actress, music video director, and former model. Originally a vlogger, over the years Tessa Violet's online content became devoted to her musical care ...

on the UK and Europe legs of her ‘I Like (The Idea Of) Tour’ in October and November 2019. When she got home, she released singles "Money" and “23”, which she had debuted live on tour. In 2020, she released "Nightmare" and "Summer Lovin'". The cover for the former features art by digital artist Laura Brouwers (Cyarin/Cyarine). In March 2022, Leadley released her fourth EP overall and second under the Leadley moniker ''Dark Pop'', containing "23", "Nightmare", her 2021 single "Sinner", and 2022 single "I'm Not That Girl (Anymore)". This was followed by "New Shoes" and "Crush". In summer 2022, Leadley supported Kid Rain and was part of the Climate Live, Edgbaston Stadium, and

Reading Pride Reading Pride is an annual LGBT+ event held in Reading, Berkshire, England, that serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities of Reading and the Thames Valley. History Reading Pride was formed in 2003. 2006 saw the introdu ...

line-ups.

Television and film

Since 2015, Leadley has worked for

4Music 4Music is a British music television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. The original incarnation was launched on 15 August 2008, and until 29 June 2022, showed a mix of music and entertainment programming. It ...

presenting ''The UK Music Video Chart'', which airs on Saturdays at 5pm. In 2016, she was given a second gig on the network, ''What's Upfront'' on Mondays at 6pm. The shows are broadcast on 4Music,

Box Hits Box Hits (formerly Smash Hits) was a British commercial television channel owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel broadcast general pop music in shows such as Chartbusters, which was recent music and Pop Domination, which sh ...

, and The Box. Leadley also hosted TransmitterTV's coverage of the 2015

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

. Leadley starred as the main character, Chloe Murdoch, in 2016 independent horror film, ''The Darkest Dawn'' (originally titled ''Hungerford 2'').

Artistry

Between her ventures, Leadley describes music as her "first love". Although she has been writing lyrics from as young as 8, she wrote her first full song, "Then I Go", shortly after her parents' divorce when she was 13 or 14. Leadley cites that writing music has helped her through difficult times and much of her music is based on real life experiences, either her own or those of her friends. As she has moved from folk/acoustic to pop punk to pop in terms of her sound, Leadley has stated that her inspirations have changed over time.

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success i ...

's '' O'', which her father used to play in the car, made her "fall in love with songwriting to begin with.”

Personal life

Leadly has been in a relationship with the singer

since February 2017. They officially moved in together in December 2020, and are currently based in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

YouTube music

Original songs and covers uploaded on YouTube. This is a

dynamic list In computer science, a linked list is a linear collection of data elements whose order is not given by their physical placement in memory. Instead, each element points to the next. It is a data structure consisting of a collection of nodes whi ...

as many videos, particularly from prior to 2010, may no longer be available.

Original songs

Covers

As featured artist

Music videos

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

{{reflist

External links

Bethan Leadley on IMDb
Living people 1995 births 21st-century English women singers 21st-century English singers English women singer-songwriters English YouTubers Music YouTubers People educated at Portsmouth College People from Crawley YouTube channels launched in 2007 20th-century English women 20th-century English people