Madison Cunningham (born October 14, 1996) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. ''
Rolling Stone'' described her music as "a new spin on West Coast folk-rock, with classical tendencies, electric guitars, jazz-school chord changes and alt-rock strut all living under the same roof". Her 2019 album,
''Who Are You Now'', was nominated for the
best Americana album
The Grammy Award for Best Americana Album is an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Americana music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors ...
in the
62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Her 2022 album ''
Revealer'' won the Grammy for
Best Folk Album in 2023.
Life and career
Madison Cunningham was born in
Escondido,
California, and later moved to
Costa Mesa, where she grew up.
She is the daughter of a pastor at a local church, and she has four sisters.
Influenced by her father, Cunningham started playing guitar when she was seven years old, performing in the church. As a teenager, she met producer Tyler Chester, with whom she made the self-released
worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...
album ''Authenticity'' (2014), which she later removed from streaming platforms as she felt it was no longer relatable. About her faith, Cunningham said, "Christianity looks different to me all the time. The phrase that I use with my husband is 'I’m becoming more and more of an agnostic every day.'"
[url=https://tidal.com/magazine/article/madison-cunningham/1-86629]
After graduating from high school, Cunningham discovered many influences, such as
the Beatles,
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 ...
and
Bob Dylan.
Other inspirations include
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) ...
,
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She has released five albums from 1996 to 2020, which have all reached the top 20 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart. Apple has received numerous awards an ...
,
Juana Molina and
Jeff Buckley.
In 2017, Cunningham joined the cast of
American Public Media's show ''
Live from Here'', presented by
Chris Thile, of whom she became a frequent collaborator.
She also toured with multi-instrumentalist
Andrew Bird, being credited for vocals in his 2019 album, ''
My Finest Work Yet.''
''
Who Are You Now'', released on August 16, 2019, earned her a Grammy nomination in the following year for best Americana album.
In 2020, Cunningham released her third EP, ''Wednesday'',
covering songs by
Tom Waits,
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) ...
,
John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...
and the Beatles. She is currently based in
Los Angeles.
On August 3, 2022, the artist made an appearance at
NPR's
Tiny Desk
Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of ''All Songs Considered'' host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C.
The first Tiny Desk Concert came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music editor Stephen Thom ...
, playing four songs from her upcoming studio album ''Revealer''. NPR music contributor Jewly Hight states that Madison was an "audacious guide, steering us toward exploration with the shrewd parts she played on three different guitars over the course of four songs".
On September 9, 2022, Cunningham released ''
Revealer'', her third studio album. ''
Consequences editorial coordinator Paolo Ragusa writes about it: "With each song on ''Revealer'', Cunningham is proving that she can satisfy and surprise her audience all at once, and it’s one of the most delightful albums released so far in 2022."
Discography
Studio albums
* ''Authenticity'' (2014)
* ''
Who Are You Now'' (2019)
* ''
Revealer'' (2022)
Extended plays
* ''Love, Lose Remember'' (2017)
* ''For the Sake of the Rhyme'' (2019)
* ''Wednesday'' (2020)
Singles
* "Beauty into Clichés" (2018)
* "All at Once (Solo Version)" (2018)
* "All at Once" (2018)
* "Last Boat to Freedom" (2018)
* "Last Boat to Freedom (Piano Version)" (2018)
* "Location" (2018)
* "Location (Solo Version)" (2018)
* "Pin It Down" (2019)
* "Something to Believe In" (2019)
* "Trouble Found Me" (2019)
* "No One Else to Blame" (2020)
* "Giraffe" (2020)
* "Coming Back" (2020)
* "No Surprises" (2020)
* "In My Life" (2020)
* "The Age of Worry" (2020)
* "Wednesday" (2020)
* "Broken Harvest" (2021)
* "Anywhere" (2022)
* "Hospital" (2022)
* "In from Japan" (2022)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Madison
American folk singers
Singer-songwriters from California
Musicians from Orange County, California
People from Costa Mesa, California
American women singer-songwriters
21st-century American women singers
Americana musicians
Living people
1996 births
21st-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century women guitarists
21st-century American women guitarists
Grammy Award winners
People from Escondido, California