George Ezra
Artist
George Ezra joined BIMM Music Institute Bristol in October 2011 to study songwriting; less than a year later, he signed to Columbia Records and inked a publishing deal with BMG/Chrysalis. His rapid rise to major-label recognition came as no surprise to his tutors, who recognised his unique bluesy voice and gifted songwriting early on.
He was championed by BBC Introducing and played on their stage at Glastonbury 2013, just before his debut EP Did You Hear The Rain? was released. George placed fifth in the BBC Sound of 2014 poll and toured the UK for two months before heading to Europe. Later that year, George returned to Glastonbury and played an incredible set on the John Peel stage.
His single ‘Budapest’ debuted at no.4 in the UK Singles Chart, selling over 400,000 copies in the UK alone. His debut album Wanted On Voyage was released to critical and commercial acclaim, reaching no.3 in the UK Albums Chart and attaining gold certification for selling over 100,000 copies.
2015 saw George nominated for an astonishing four BRIT Awards: British Breakthrough Act, Album Of The Year, Single Of The Year (for ‘Budapest’) and Male Solo Artist. George gave a brilliant performance of his single ‘Budapest’ at the BRIT Awards to a packed crowd at the O2 arena in London.
Since its release in 2014, the video for Ezra’s single ‘Budapest’ has amassed a ridiculous 207 million views on YouTube and 776 million streams on Spotify.
On 12 February 2018, Ezra released the first episode of his podcast George Ezra & Friends, with guest Ed Sheeran. Ezra’s inspiration for the podcast was listening to other podcasts featuring “comedians chatting with other comedians”. Subsequent guests have included Rag’n’Bone Man, Craig David, Jessie Ware, Sam Smith, Lily Allen, Sir Elton John, Ellie Goulding, Laurie Vincent, Nile Rodgers, Sir Tom Jones, Lewis Capaldi and Shania Twain, to name a few.
Ezra’s second album, Staying at Tamara’s, was released on 23 March 2018. Ezra finished touring Staying at Tamara’s with two performances at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The album went on to become three-time platinum-certified.
Ezra’s third studio album, Gold Rush Kid, was released on 10 June 2022, via Columbia. It became his third consecutive number one album in the UK.
