Holly Lapsley Fletcher (born 7 August 1996), known by the stage name Låpsley, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and producer. Her debut album ''

Long Way Home Long Way Home may refer to: Film and television * ''A Long Way Home'' (1981 film), an American television film directed by Robert Markowitz * ''The Long Way Home'' (1985 film), starring Richard Moir *''The Long Way Home'', a 1989 documentary direct ...

'' was released on 4 March 2016.

Early life

Låpsley was born in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. Her middle name, Lapsley, is her mother's maiden name. She changed "Lapsley" to "Låpsley" by adding the Scandinavian character Å, partly due to her perceived ties with Scandinavia through her Scottish heritage, as well as how it looked when written. She grew up in Southport, Merseyside, where she attended

Greenbank High School Greenbank High School is an all-girls secondary academy school located in Hillside, Southport, Merseyside, England. School details Greenbank currently holds The NACE (National Able Children in Education) Challenge Award, Artsmark Gold, British ...

and Formby High School for

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

Career

2013–present

Having been a member of several bands in the Merseyside area, Låpsley won the "One to Watch" prize at Merseyside's GIT (Getintothis) Award in April 2014, following over half a million listens of her solo bedroom-recorded ''Monday EP'' on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

. She played the

BBC Introducing BBC Music Introducing is BBC Radio's platform supporting unsigned, undiscovered, and under-the-radar UK music talent. The backbone of that network consists of 32 BBC local radio shows on stations across England and the Channel Islands, various ...

stage at

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

in June 2014, having been championed by

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 Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

DJ's

Huw Stephens Huw Meredydd Stephens (born 25 May 1981) is a Welsh radio and television presenter, currently broadcasting on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 6 Music. Stephens founded the Sŵn music festival with John Rostron and the yearly s ...

and

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reed Lowe (born 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through pr ...

. Her track ''Painter (Valentine)'' was playlisted by BBC Radio 1 in September 2014 and received daytime airplay. Låpsley signed with

XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been run and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. It releases an average of six albums a year. T ...

in October 2014. On 30 November 2014, Låpsley was revealed as one of acts on the BBC Sound of...2015 long list. Her ''Understudy'' EP was released on 5 January 2015. Her debut album, ''

'', was released on 4 March 2016. She performed at

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

in July 2016. In April 2016, she was picked as

Elvis Duran Elvis Duran (born Barry Brian Cope; August 5, 1964) is an American radio personality. He is the host of the daily morning radio program ''Elvis Duran and the Morning Show'' in New York on Z100 and in syndication on Premiere Networks. Before h ...

Artist of the Month Since 2013, ''Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month'' is a regular ''Today Show'' feature fronted by American radio broadcaster Elvis Duran in which he chooses an upcoming solo singer, and at times duos and groups, to spotlight them each month as "Artis ...

and was featured on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' show hosted by

Kathie Lee Gifford Kathryn Lee Gifford (Given name, née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress, and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live with Kelly and Mark, Live! wi ...

and

Hoda Kotb Hoda Kotb ( ; born August 9, 1964) is an American broadcast journalist, television personality, and author. She was the main co-anchor of the NBC News breakfast television, morning show ''Today (American TV program), Today'' from 2018 to 2025, ...

, broadcast nationally, where she performed live her single "Love Is Blind". In 2016, the track "8896" by Låpsley was included in the sound track of ''

American Honey "American Honey" is a song written by Cary Barlowe, Hillary Lindsey, and Shane Stevens, and recorded by American country music group Lady Antebellum. It was released on January 11, 2010, as the second single from their second album '' Need You N ...

'', directed by Andrea Arnold. In the same year, track "Falling Short" was included in season one of Harlan Coben's ''

The Five (TV series) ''The Five'' also known as '' Harlan Coben's The Five'', is a British mystery thriller miniseries created by crime author Harlan Coben and written primarily by Danny Brocklehurst. Tom Cullen, O. T. Fagbenle, Lee Ingleby and Sarah Solemani ...

'', during the final scene of episode 4, directed by Mark Tonderai.

Personal life

Låpsley enjoys yachting and owns a boat called Theodore. On 28 June 2020, she came out as bisexual in an Instagram post. In exchanges on Instagram, Låpsley has stated that she is studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics ( PPE) at Goldsmiths University. During the

2024 UK general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a landslide victory over the governing Conservative Party unde ...

, the Labour Party used ''Better Times'' by Låpsley and

KC Lights KC Lights (real name Kerr Slaven born 23 November 1991) is a Scottish DJ, record producer and songwriter. History Slaven grew up on the Isle of Bute and attended secondary school in Rothesay. According to Slaven, he initially listened to a mixtu ...

as a soft campaign song, and she sang it live to a Keir Starmer rally on 29 June.Singer Lapsley performs 'Better Times' to wrap up pre-election rally.
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Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

Music videos

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 1996 births Living people English electronic musicians English women singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters Musicians from Southport English women in electronic music XL Recordings artists 21st-century English women singers Bisexual songwriters Bisexual singers Bisexual women musicians English LGBTQ singers English LGBTQ songwriters Art pop musicians 21st-century English LGBTQ people LGBTQ women singers