FEATURE:
Modern-Day Queens
Sienna Spiro
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ALTHOUGH I did spotlight…
IN THIS PHOTO: Sienna Spiro played London’s The Roundhouse on 19th May, 2026/PHOTO CREDIT: Ben McQuaide
Sienna Spiro last year, I do feel it is worth reproaching one of modern music’s greats. Someone who is among the greatest voices we have. Her debut album, Visitor, is released on 3rd July. I want to bring in some recent interviews with her, plus a live review. Sienna Spiro has some big dates ahead. She plays Wembley Stadium on 6th June. The twenty-year-old from London artist went viral on TikTok with covers in 2021. Spiro reached new audiences with songs like Maybe and her debut E.P., Sink Now, Swim Later. I will finish with a recent live review. However, before then, there are some interviews from this year worth covering. No surprise that this artist is getting so much excitement. I will start out with the Los Angeles Times, and their interview with the voice of a generation. Hours before starting her U.S. headline tour, we get some insights into the world of Sienna Spiro. An artist amazed that she was so far from home but adored by hundreds and thousands of people who have never met her. Thues adoring U.S. audience:
“At 16 she enrolled at East London Arts and Music, a performing arts academy she describes as “the up-and-coming version” of London’s prestigious BRIT School, whose alumni include Adele and Winehouse. Her academic career didn’t last long, though: On her first day of classes she posted a TikTok of herself covering Finneas’ song “Break My Heart Again” that triggered a wave of interest from various record-industry types; soon she dropped out and began regularly traveling to Los Angeles to work on music.
Today Spiro says she has a “love-hate relationship” with the town where she estimates she spends half her time. “I’m very English, and I think something about English people is our honesty — you don’t really have to guess what people are saying. What was shocking to me when I came here was that people didn’t say what they meant.
“I was very, very lonely, and it was hard to make music when you feel that,” she adds. “I make sad music, but it’s hard to be a teenager and be away from your family and your friends and be in a place where you kind of have to play pretend being an adult.”
Did suffering among the two-faced liars of L.A. ever lead her to question her commitment to music?
“No. It just made me question how I was doing it. And not everyone’s a two-faced liar. There are some good ones out there.”
Was she ever at risk of becoming a two-faced liar herself?
“Oh, I’m too English for that,” she says. “If I did that, I’d get a slap.”
Spiro started releasing singles in 2024 and quickly signed a deal with Capitol Records; last year she opened for Teddy Swims on the road and turned heads with “You Stole the Show,” a luxuriously gloomy slow jam with echoes of Adele’s “Skyfall.”
For “Die on This Hill,” which she wrote with Michael Pollack and Omer Fedi (both of whom went on to produce the song with Blake Slatkin), Spiro wanted to capture the feeling of “when you go above and beyond just to feel something reciprocated back from someone,” she says. But if the writing came quickly, the recording didn’t: Spiro jokes that she cut “900 different versions” of the song, including one she says sounded like Silk Sonic and another that sounded like Lauryn Hill.
“I was desperate for something up-tempo,” she says, given that virtually everything she’d dropped so far had been a ballad. Yet Fedi pushed her to cut the tune live with just her on vocals and Pollack on piano. They did four takes, according to the producer, one of which forms the basis of the record that eventually came out.
“Very old-school, very human,” Fedi says of the process. “Maybe I’m corny but with Sienna, less is really more. Her voice is so special, so big and upfront, that you just want to put a giant flashlight on it and let it shine.”
In early January, Spiro gave a bravura performance of “Die on This Hill” on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show; one clip on TikTok has been viewed more than 70 million times. For that appearance, she wore a retro mini dress printed with an old photo of Johnny Carson behind his desk; for a recent performance in the BBC’s Live Lounge, she wore a different dress showing the faces of the four Beatles.
On stage at the Troubadour, her dress features images of the Chateau Marmont and the Capitol Records tower — a bit of setup, she says, for her next single, “The Visitor,” which is due March 13. Spiro has been slowly assembling her debut album for the past two years, but with headlining concerts to play, she’s reaching back for some of her oldies from 2024.
Some, not all.
“To be real with you, some of my early stuff wasn’t the most authentic,” she says as her drummer starts thwacking a snare during sound check. “I was trying to be someone else because I really wasn’t comfortable with myself”.
I do want to go all thew way back to January, as there is a really interesting Music Week spotlight. Making confessional Pop that is striking a chord with so many people, it is no wonder that there is this huge demand for her. Upcoming dates in Wembley will see her playing to a home crowd. Adoring fans showing their love and support to Sienna Spiro. She is one of our most important young artist. I am looking forward to listening to Visitor on 3rd July:
“Instead, her formative musical influences came from the extensive record collection belonging to her father.
“My dad is a huge fan of soul and jazz,” she says, listing the likes of Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass. “But I was always drawn to a lot of the female vocalists in his collection like Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Sarah Vaughan.”
Another significant moment in her musical development came when she got her hands on an iPod Touch.
“My cousin downloaded some songs for me and I listened to them back to back, everyday: Somewhere Over The Rainbow, a song by Michael Jackson and Set Fire To The Rain by Adele.”
In fact, the Tottenham-born superstar’s multiple platinum album 21 proved a creative touchstone for Spiro.
“I was amazed that you could do something like that,” she says. “It was a vocal-driven pop album, but it had so much of a soul influence to it. I was surprised that mainstream music could sound like that.”
Music provided much needed solace during her time at school which she describes as “terrible”.
“I hated it and I was so miserable,” she adds.
This was partly due to her struggles with ADHD and autism, which were undiagnosed at the time.
“There were so many things where I was like, ‘Fuck, why can’t I do this properly?’” she explains. “My handwriting would always change and never look the same twice. It made me feel so insecure. It was only later that I found out it was a symptom of ADHD.”
Spiro goes on to say that discovering retrospectively that she was on the spectrum explained so much.
“I now look at being neurodivergent as having a superpower,” she reflects. “It allows me to do all this stuff creatively.”
After her GCSEs, Spiro quit school and, on the sly, sent an application off to the East London Arts & Music (ELAM) academy.
“I didn’t tell my parents I was applying,” she notes.
Still, they were supportive.
“They had a bit of trust in me,” she says. “I’m a very stubborn person and I’m going to do what I’m going to do. They knew that saying no would not go down very well.”
She found out that she was on the waiting list to get in a week before the course was due to begin.
“I was at Reading Festival and I emailed everyone at [ELAM] with a list of reasons why I needed to go there,” she smiles. “I think I bothered them so much that they let me in!”
Her strong pull towards ELAM – whose alumni include members of FLO and Girli – was vindicated: she finally felt like she was a part of something (“It was amazing to finally find like-minded people”).
It was also here where she met her manager, Miriam Maslin, of Method Music.
“Sienna’s had a great, close-knit team backing her right from the start,” Maslin tells Music Week. “The key to her success so far has been in the culmination of hard work, drive and talent. We’re incredibly excited for her to write her first album and look forward to an even stronger year ahead.”
Spiro appreciates the strength of their bond.
“There are so many times she could have left and she didn’t,” she says. “Miriam’s really my teammate.”
The then 16-year-old had already begun putting clips of herself singing online. The early performances of a blonde Spiro – belting out tracks by the likes of Joy Crookes and Drake while sitting on the floor of her emerald-tiled bathroom – show her natural talent shining through.
“I posted my first TikTok on the day I started at ELAM, and it blew up a little,” Spiro says, adding that she started to get DMs about her assured performances. “I was so confused, I was like, ‘What is happening?’”
Word of the newly viral star quickly spread to Capitol Records in the US.
“Sienna was the first signing for Lillia [Parsa, president, Capitol Music Group] and me when we came to Capitol,” says Capitol’s Tom March. “We were both blown away by her voice and knew straight away we had to sign her. I remember in our first week we were chatting and we asked each other if we had heard of Sienna Spiro. She had no music out but we had both independently met her before starting work together. We also both love working with the team at Method, so it really was a no-brainer.
“Capitol Music Group is the right home because we’re fully focused on artist development and growing our roster,” March continues. “I believe that is showing in the new artists we are breaking.”
Indeed, Spiro now has a following of 1.7 million on TikTok, not to mention 58.5m likes.
“TikTok is a great discovery platform,” Spiro says. “I wouldn’t have any of this without it.”
Among her many achievements so far is her first Top 10 single, Die On This Hill, which peaked at No.9 last year and has 141,525 sales to date, according to the Official Charts Company. Clearly, TikTok is leading people to spend time luxuriating in Spiro’s releases, as a monthly listener count of 13.5 million on Spotify attests. The singer is pleased people are drawn to her music as she intended.
“I don’t make songs for them to be cut down to 20 seconds for people to listen to every five scrolls,” she says. “Songwriting is a story; it’s like writing a book – it’s intentional. You can sometimes fall into the trap of making music for other people, but that’s dangerous.”
Spiro is clear-headed on the subject of social media.
“I’m a 20-year-old girl, I’ve used it since I was 13,” she says. “I doomscroll all the time and my brain feels dirty afterwards. It’s about how you use it and how you handle it. You have to be a strong person.”
The songs Spiro had been writing up to this point formed the acclaimed Sink Now, Swim Later EP, which came out in February of 2025.
“At that age you’re going through so much uncontrollable change in your body, and in your relationships,” she says. “I was so overwhelmed. And I’m a control freak, so I was documenting my experiences through the songs.”
The EP included Cyanide, co-written with Couros Sheibani, with its stark lyrics (‘Maybe I should drink some cyanide, anything to make me disappear... just wanna be thin’).
“It’s quite dark, so I won’t get too into it,” Spiro says now. “It’s a confessional – stuff I needed to say out loud but couldn’t say any other way than through that song.”
Meanwhile, Maybe. (co-written with Max Wolfgang and Sol Was) depicts a toxic relationship (‘All I wanted was to be your hostage, for you to tie me up and never leave me’), which led to domestic abuse survivors reaching out in solidarity with the singer.
“It was heavy,” she admits. “I was shocked by how many people experienced that, yet the messages were from a place of gratitude – they were thankful that [the song] had helped them leave their situation.”
Reflecting on her rapid rise, she admits being that “bit delusional” has helped.
“I’ve been so set on one thing my whole life,” she says. “I’d still be doing this even if no one was watching.”
Looking back, Spiro says her rollercoaster 2025 was “surreal”, but hints there’s even more to come this year. Not least of all her debut album.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to write an album,” she smiles. “I’m working on it now and it’s a secret! You’ll hear it when it’s ready to be heard…”.
The penultimate interview I am sourcing is from ELLE from April. They say how her “cinematic croons appeal to a particular demographic”. I would say it has much broader appeal. They say how hopeless romantics and yearners will connect with her music hardest. “It’s spellbinding and brooding—intimate yet unguarded, lovelorn laments you’d normally bury deep in the pages of a diary but secretly hope someone will hear. Her voice sprawls and swells through acrobatic dips, a sound fashioned after influences formed early, courtesy of her father, who loved artists like Frank Sinatra, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Adele, and Amy Winehouse”:
“What does it feel like to be a woman in music right now?
In my experience, being an artist and a woman is a little bit easier than I’ve heard it was in the past. What has been really shocking to me is the way the women who work behind the scenes are treated. I have a female manager, and even though you just see my face [onstage], we’re completely equal. She deserves so much more respect than she’ll probably ever get credit for. I’m not going to lie, it’s a boys’ club. I think for performers, it’s still not perfect, but it’s a little bit better.
Is there a woman whose vulnerability or creative approach helped you to show up more fully in your own work?
Definitely Raye. As I started working in the industry, she released that song “Ice Cream Man,” [about being sexually abused by a music producer]. I, thank God, haven’t had any problems like that. But she talks about dark and scary things, and I look up to her using her voice. Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On was about war, and it was one of the most beautiful albums. Nina Simone always said something. I’m not saying everything has to be preachy, but I really respect and love when artists use their music to actually say something.
As someone going through a breakup yourself, what song of yours would you recommend listening to?
I think my saddest song for a breakup that killed me is called “I Don’t Hate You.” The thing that’s sad about breaking up is when you can’t be angry. Not being able to hate someone after they’ve done the most heinous thing to you is really hard and sad.
Thinking about your debut album, would the ending be hopeful or heartbreakingly realistic?
I’m writing about something specific at the moment, something I’ve been thinking about for two years and going back and forth [with]. It’s a real thing that’s always on my mind, and so that is going to be very dependent on how I actually end up feeling about it. I can only wait and see, to be honest.
What has the process of making your album revealed about you and your artistry?
I have a little bit more confidence than I did, which is a nice thing in a way, because I used to doubt everything, but I have a bit more confidence. I’m really inspired at the moment and I’m very excited”.
Gaining support and plaudits from Swam Smith and Elton John among other huge artists, Ary Russell spoke with Sienna Spiro for Interview Magazine, as she was closing off her U.S. tour. It is interesting what they discuss regarding her style and being influenced by the '60s. If you label her music as Sad Girl or not, I do feel that her love of Sixties fashion should bleed into her work more. I would love to hear more '60s-tinted tracks. Some with psychedelic edge. Some leaning towards 1960s Folk and Pop groups. There is a bit of that, though I feel like there is a strand and strain of music that could well weave its way into Spiro’s world very soon:
“RUSSELL: I wanted to talk about your looks. I see the sixties vibe. Who or what’s been on the mood board for you as an artist and specifically for this tour?
SPIRO: I love the personality and character of the sixties, and how individual it is. It took me a really long time to find my style because I grew up, honestly, hating my body. It took me a while to be comfortable being looked at on stage. But I love the silhouettes from back then and I’ve grown into myself and feel a lot more confident than I used to. Nancy Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, and Francoise Hardy are amazing women who I just admire a lot. And those paper dresses or the little box dresses. I just love that.
RUSSELL: I love the look of a romper with go-go boots back then.
SPIRO: So cute.
RUSSELL: How are you balancing making sure that you’re paying homage to these artists that have inspired you while also putting your own stamp on your identity as an artist?
SPIRO: Well, just listening to music, you’re naturally influenced subconsciously. The way I sing is the main way I pay homage to those artists because that’s how I learned to sing. There’s this famous quote from Frank Sinatra, he said, “A singer, to me, is somebody who tells a story.” I keep that in mind whenever I’m singing and I always try and bring myself back to what I wrote the stories about.
RUSSELL: Yeah.
SPIRO: But my music is, for the most part, pretty stripped back. I love the humanness of music from back then. You couldn’t auto-tune, you couldn’t punch in. I record everything in one take and there’s barely any chop-ins. All the instruments are recorded by people. You hear the little mistakes.
RUSSELL: The cries.
SPIRO: You hear the breaks, you hear rubbing from my dress. That is so personal. The guy I work the most with is Omer [Fedi] and he’s taught the most about singing because I used to do every riff, and every run.
RUSSELL: You’re Christina [Aguilera].
SPIRO: I was trying to prove myself because I actually didn’t think I was a good singer growing up. So every chance I would get to over sing, I would do it. He’s the one who taught me less is more and you can only do what the song wants.
RUSSELL: That way when you really want to do more, it feels like—
SPIRO: A moment.
RUSSELL: Your music is very evocative of sad girl vibes. When I ask this question, I don’t want you to take this in the wrong way.
SPIRO: Don’t worry.
RUSSELL: Do you see yourself writing happy songs in the future?
SPIRO: I have to write wherever I’m living. I’m not sad all the time. I just find it easy to pull from that emotion. It’s a sad set, I’ll be honest with you. I would love to make some upbeat songs.
RUSSELL: When you’re looking out into the crowd and you’re singing, literally pouring your heart out, what is the reaction that you’re typically seeing from the crowd?
SPIRO: It’s all different. I was doing a show in Philadelphia the other day and I saw this girl in the front row crying, and it just looked like she’d been through so much pain. I’ve lived through all these songs, so I know what it feels like. I really love the people in the audience. It’s a very special group of people. There is such a mutual understanding in that crowd, which is so rare”.
There is a live review I want to finish with. I would urge people to pre-order Visitor ahead of its 3rd July release. Last month, Sienna Spiro played one night at the iconic Roundhouse in north London. CLASH provided a brief report on the night. I do hope that there are more gigs in the U.K. If she platys at a venue like O2 Forum Kentish Town, then I will definitely come and see her. Sienna Spiro is an artist who I feel will gain the same sort of acclaim and popularity as Adele. I would not be rurtp9ised if she gets a huge run of U.S. dates and her own residency in time:
“She’s just visiting, this isn’t permanent. Sienna Spiro emerges at North London’s Roundhouse venue to the screams of fans, the realisation that this is it, she’s here for one night only.
A recent run of singles – ‘Die On This Hill’, ‘The Visitor’ and ‘You Stole The Show’ – have amplified the hype around her name, and this home city show underlines her star quality.
Of course, Sienna Spiro has recent to celebrate. In the hours after the lights go off she will announce plans for her long-awaited debut album – it’s called ‘Visitor’ and will be released on July 3rd.
Revelling in importance, Sienna seems to urge us to seize the day – and that flickering message runs through every second of this show”.
Visitor is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated and exciting debut albums of this year. The first full-bodied release from an artist spoken about in the highest terms. She is spellbinding. If you do not know Sienna Spiro, then go and follow her. I hope to see her live, and I will definitely spotlight Visitor soon enough. There are so many amazing music queens coming through with the promise to endure for years. However, in my opinion, there are very few…
AS good as her.
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