Sam Fender

Samuel Thomas Fender (born 25 April 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician.

He is known for his high tenor voice and Geordie accent, layered over music characterised by a roots-orientated rock approach.

Recognised for his songwriting, Fender's sound relies primarily on his traditional American musical upbringing combined with a classic British rock sensibility.

Fender was born and grew up in North Shields.

Samuel Thomas Fender was born on 25 April 1994 in North Shields, England, to Shirley and Alan Fender.

He has a brother, Liam, nine years his senior.

Shirley was a nurse, and Alan was an electrician; the working class family lived in a terraced house in the suburb of North Shields.

Alan is also a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pianist, whilst Liam plays the drums.

Both were musicians performing locally.

Fender described the first 10 years of his life as "comfortable" within a musical family.

His great-great-grandmother was Irish.

His father later became a music teacher.

He had a tumultuous late childhood and adolescence.

His mother abandoned him when he was eight years old, but he later returned to her after his stepmother forced him out of his father's house.

His mother was then living in the Scottish Borders, and Fender would grow up there when he visited her.

At the age of eight, Fender received his first guitar from his father.

Fascinated by Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Slash, he became "proficient" on the guitar at age 10.

Fender attended John Spence Community High School in Preston, Tyne and Wear.

He was bullied for being overweight and unathletic as a child.

When he was a young teen, he and his mother discovered the body of a woman they knew who died by suicide, which affected his formative years.

Fender said: "Suddenly mortality became real. Life and death became concrete."

When Fender was 12, he met his friend Dean Thompson and continued to play the guitar alongside him.

Over the following year, he performed for the first time in front of an audience at his brother's street performer nights, playing Hendrix covers, and accompanied by Thompson at the latter's uncle's birthday, covering songs from Kings of Leon.

His ambition at this point was to become a professional musician; Fender recalled, "when I hit 13 it was the only thing I wanted from life."

At the age of 14, Fender began writing his own songs.

The same year, he learned to sing by listening to Jeff Buckley's Grace, an album his brother gave him.

At the age of 15, his brother introduced him to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town albums.

Fender began playing at his brother's open mic nights and formed his first band at age 15.

At the time, he and his mother were living in a small, crumbling flat within a council estate on the outskirts of North Shields and struggled to pay rent as both were poor.

Fender attended sixth form at Whitley Bay High School.

He found musically-minded friends at high school.

He met Joe Atkinson, and they developed a friendship through their musical interests.

Fender studied theatre and A Level in English language and literature at Whitley Bay High School; however, he began to spend most of his time in the music department, although he had not studied the subject academically.

He was regarded as highly popular with students and staff and engaged in school activities.

Fender performed with his band for the Year 13 students finishing their time.

He found his vocation as a singer-songwriter around the age of 14 and subsequently released several singles independently, being named one of the BBC's Sound of 2018.

Fender signed to Polydor Records and released his debut EP, Dead Boys, in November 2018.

He won the Critics' Choice Award at the 39th Brit Awards and released his debut album, Hypersonic Missiles, in September 2019, which entered the UK Albums Chart at number one.

His second album Seventeen Going Under was released in October 2021 and also topped the UK Albums Chart and spawned the UK hit single "Seventeen Going Under".

In 2022, Fender received the Brit Award for Best British Alternative/Rock Act and the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.