KT Tunstall

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KT Tunstall bigraphy, stories - Singer-songwriter

KT Tunstall : biography

23 June 1975 –

Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish

singer-songwriter and guitarist. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland. She has enjoyed commercial and critical success since, picking up three nominations before winning a BRIT Award, and a Grammy Award nomination. She is also the recipient of an Ivor Novello Award. Tunstall has a contralto vocal range. 

She has released five albums internationally: Eye to the Telescope (2004), KT Tunstall’s Acoustic Extravaganza (2006), Drastic Fantastic (2007), Tiger Suit (2010) and Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon (2013). She has also appeared in an episode (S01E04) of the comedy series This is Jinsy on Sky Atlantic.

Awards and nominations

In Tunstall’s breakthrough year, 2005, she received a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize, which eventually went to Antony and the Johnsons; and was awarded Best Track for her composition and performance of "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by Q magazine.

In January the following year, 2006, she received three BRIT nominations – British Live Act, British Breakthrough Act, and British Female Solo Artist – eventually gaining the award for British Female Solo Artist, remarking that she wished to share it with fellow nominee Kate Bush. Later the same month she was given a European Border Breakers Award, which recognises the top-selling European Union artists outside their home country. Also, in 2006 she won the Ivor Novello Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Suddenly I See", along with Scottish Style Awards "Most Stylish Band or Musician". stv.tv

She gained more nominations in 2007 and 2008: a 2007 Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" (eventually going to Christina Aguilera for "Ain’t No Other Man"), and another BRIT nomination for British Female Solo Artist – the same accolade she had won in 2006.

Live performances

Tunstall performing at the 2005 [[Glastonbury Festival with her Gibson Dove guitar]] Tunstall is known for her live performances, in which she combines use of an Akai E2 Headrush loop pedal, which she affectionately calls "Wee Bastard", with a full four-piece backing band (Luke Bullen on drums, Arnulf Lindner on bass, Sam Lewis on lead guitar and Kenny Dickenson on keyboards, trumpet, percussion and various other instruments), as well as her two backup singers (Cat Sforza and Ami Richardson)

Similar to her initial début on music show Later… with Jools Holland, Tunstall first débuted in the United States performing on various talk shows, although it was not until The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she was interviewed. Since her talk show days, she has performed at numerous large concerts such as the Hogmanay Edinburgh Concert in 2005, the American leg of Live Earth in 2007, and the Nobel Peace Prize Concert also in 2007. Tunstall said prior to the Hogmanay performance that "This is the gig of a lifetime… This Hogmanay party is probably the best-known and best-loved in the world, and I’ve been here a few times over the years dreaming of being the one entertaining the crowds. Until we’re on that stage I won’t believe we’re allowed on it."

Early life

Kate has a half-Chinese, half-Scottish mother and an Irish father. She was 18 days old when she was adopted by a family in St Andrews, Fife. Kate never met her biological father. Her adoptive father was employed as a physics lecturer at the University of St Andrews, and her adoptive mother was a school teacher. Tunstall’s family also includes an older brother named Joe and a younger brother named Daniel. Her parents had no interest in music and owned no records—the only tape her father owned was a comedy recording by mathematician and musical satirist Tom Lehrer.Planet Rock Profiles – KT Tunstall