Ella Eyre says three-hour commute inspired debut album Feline

 
Inspiring: Ella Eyre (Picture: Marcia Chandra)
MARCIA CHANDRA
Alistair Foster29 May 2015
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Singer Ella Eyre has revealed her daily three-hour commute was the inspiration behind her debut album.

The 21-year-old made the journey from her home in Ealing to the Brit School in Croydon as a teenager and used the time to pen lyrics and ideas for her forthcoming record Feline, due out in August.

The singer, who has already had a number one single with Rudimental — Waiting All Night — which won a Brit Award last year, said: “It was quite the commute — it took an hour and a half each way. The trains were always rammed, so I’d be stood in an awkward position and rather than being on my phone, I liked to observe.

“I would be drawing people or writing anecdotes, stories, comments, lines. They turned out to be my main ideas for my album.”

Albums - April & May 2015

1/21

Eyre revealed she was initially keen on becoming a West End singer, adding: “But then I realised how competitive it is and I think there’s a shelf life with musical theatre.” Her latest single Together charted at number 12 at the weekend, and she was recently announced as the replacement for Beyoncé as the face of the Emporio Armani Diamonds fragrance.

She said: “It was mad for me — I still don’t consider myself successful and don’t think I’m established, so to be considered by a huge fashion house that had Beyoncé was weird, but really cool.”

Eyre also inadvertently wrote the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, performed by Ann Sophie at the weekend.

She said: “Its funny — everyone’s initial response was: ‘You traitor!’ But it was a reject from my album that was cut.

“We got the request from this artist and then I found out on Twitter that Ann Sophie had auditioned to be part of Eurovision, and won [her heat]!

“So my song was the representing entry, which was mad because I remember when I was at school, sitting down with some popcorn, watching Eurovision!”

Unfortunately the entry placed last with nul points.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in