KT Tunstall

Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall (born 23 June 1975) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician.

Tunstall has said: "My earliest memories are Californian", from a sabbatical that her father took at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1979.

She was musically oriented and her adoptive parents supported her interest.

She recollected that she asked for a piano when she was four.

Tunstall grew up in St Andrews, Fife, attending Lawhead Primary, then Madras College in St. Andrews and the High School of Dundee, but she spent her last year of high school in the United States at the Kent School, a selective boarding school in Kent, Connecticut.

She spent time busking on Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, and at a commune in rural Vermont.

Tunstall studied at Royal Holloway, University of London.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama & Music in 1996.

Although Relentless co-founder Shabs Jobanputra recognised the potential in the quality of Tunstall's voice and songs in the early 2000s, his assessment then was that she "wasn't ready yet" and so together with Tunstall's manager, Jobanputra discussed "the process of how we saw her happening and how we would work, why we thought the songs were great, why we thought she was great, and why it could really work if we took enough time."

She toured with the klezmer band Oi Va Voi, and stayed with them while they were making their second studio album, Laughter Through Tears (2003).

British label Relentless Records put forward an independent offer.

However, Tunstall had decided to sign with a US major, and initially passed up the offer.

But when that deal did not work out, she decided to go with Relentless.

She first gained attention with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland.

She has released eight studio albums internationally: Eye to the Telescope (2004), Drastic Fantastic (2007), Tiger Suit (2010), Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon (2013), Kin (2016), Wax (2018), Nut (2022), and a collaboration album with American musician Suzi Quatro, Face to Face (2023).

She has also appeared in two episodes of the comedy series This is Jinsy on Sky Atlantic.

The name of her debut studio album, Eye to the Telescope, was inspired by her childhood experiences at her father's physics laboratory at University of St Andrews.

Released in 2004, the album led to her nominations for the Mercury Prize in 2005, a BRIT Award for Best British Live Act and BRIT Award for Best Breakthrough Act in 2006, and a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance nomination in 2007.

Her debut studio album, Eye to the Telescope, was first released in late 2004, entering the UK Albums Chart at number 73.

Tunstall's first appearance of note was a solo performance of her folk blues song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland.

She had only 24 hours to prepare after scheduled performer Nas cancelled.

She performed as a one-person band using a guitar, a tambourine, and a loop pedal.

The single "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" was given the Q Magazine Award for Best Track in 2005, and "Suddenly I See" won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song in 2006.

Shortly after the Later appearance, Eye to the Telescope was re-released and shot up the British charts, peaking at No. 3, and was certified 5× platinum by the BPI; it was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize.

She won the BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist and the European Border Breakers Award, both in 2006.

It was released in the US on 7 February 2006.

On the UK Singles Chart, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" made No. 28 on the charts and on the US Billboard Hot 100, charted at No. 20.

The next release from the album in the United Kingdom was "Other Side of the World" whilst "Suddenly I See" was released in the United States and used in the opening credits of the film The Devil Wears Prada (2006), as well as in the television series Ugly Betty.

Further singles released from the album were "Under the Weather" and "Another Place to Fall" which were also successful.

Tunstall had lived with Gordon Anderson of the Beta Band, and the Aliens, whom the song "Funnyman", on her second studio album Drastic Fantastic (2007), is about.

"Suddenly I See" became a popular hit and has been featured in The Devil Wears Prada, Blind Dating, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and Love, Rosie; Thrillville, and as a campaign song on the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign.

Tunstall has written music and songs for film soundtracks including "Boy" for The Kid, "Miracle" for Winter's Tale, "We Could Be Kings" for Million Dollar Arm; "Float", "Strange Sight" and "1000 Years" for Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast; "Fit In" for About Ray; and "Bad Moms (Suite)", "Enough is Enough (Suite)" and "Get Your Tits Up (Suite)" for Bad Moms.

Tunstall was born to a half-Chinese, half-Scottish mother, Carol-Ann Orr, who was from Hong Kong, and an Irish father, John Corrigan.

Her parents met while her mother was working as a dancer in Penthouse bar in Edinburgh, where her father was a barman.

She was born at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital and at 18 days old, was placed for adoption by her mother with a family in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

She never met her biological father.

Her adoptive father, David Tunstall, was a physics lecturer at the University of St Andrews, and her adoptive mother, Rosemarie Tunstall, was a primary school teacher; they already had adopted another child who became her older brother Joe, and went on to have another son, Dan.

Royal Holloway conferred an honorary doctorate in science on her in 2011 for her work on environmental issues as a musician.

Throughout Tunstall's twenties, she played in indie music bands including Elia Drew and Tomoko.

She focused on songwriting, as well as performing with members of the fledgling Fence Collective.