In 2022, Cat Burns went from busking on the streets of London to be a platinum-selling composer and opening for Ed Sheeran on his stadium tour.
A feisty breakup song she published three years ago, but which found new life on TikTok.
A slow-burning hit, it debuted at number 57 on the list in January of last year. And eventually climbed to number two in June.
Sam Smith had by then contributed a guest verse to the song and flown Burns, then 22 years old. The United States to perform it on James Corden’s The Late Late Show.
She was nominated for the Brits Critics’ Choice award at the end of the year.
“I always imagined Go would be the song that introduced me to people. But not to the extent that it did,” says the singer, who is still adjusting to the fame.
Last year at this time, the song “had achieved one or two million streams, and I was pleased,” she adds.
I thought its time had past, this year has been absolutely crazy. and for everything. I am incredibly grateful.
However, in many ways, she was intended to be here. Burns creates music with intent, based on her personal experiences but intended to connect, sustain, and heal.
“I’ve always wanted to create relatable pop music,” she explains. Or to locate songs that might make difficult situations feel lighter.
Free, a touching song about her desire to come out and the trepidation she felt about telling her family, fulfills her vow.
If you only knew the suffering I put my heart through, you would understand why I let you down.
When she published it in 2021, the response was phenomenal.
“Many people recounted experiences about how they’d come out, and how their parents had been a little more accepting. When they played the song for them. The song’s lyrics convey how dramatic it is to want your family to accept you for who you are. But be afraid that they won’t.
I believe it humanizes LGBT people, as opposed to dehumanizing us as the mainstream sometimes does.
Burns’ family, for their part, received the news with stride.
Her mother responded to the news with a polite “Okay” (followed by “a million questions” a couple of days later). Her sister inquired, “Then, what sort of women do you find attractive?”
Family and music have always gone hand in hand. Burns grew up listening to her mother’s record collection, falling in love with gospel music like Donnie McClurkin, Kim Burrell, and Kirk Franklin, as well as the classic soul sounds of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.
Her mother participated in choruses and urged her daughter to join as well. She recalls Welsh after-school clubs and summer camps when she would sing High School Musical tunes at the top of her lungs.
She has additional abilities besides music. Burns was a talented basketball player, and her coach told her she might play professionally.
“That’s when I realized I didn’t want to do it,” she chuckles. “Because if you want to pursue it, it consumes your entire life… although I suppose something similar occurs with music.”
Since she had not yet learned to play an instrument. Even than she had begun composing her tunes, organizing everything in her thoughts.
Burns’ audition performance of Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower earned her a spot in the Brit School. Even though, as she jokes, “they were horrible.”
Burns seems unconcerned with the academy’s “famous academy” reputation undermining any sense of coolness or legitimacy, unlike the majority of grads.
She exclaims, “The Brit School provided me the confidence to pursue a profession in the arts and be successful.”
“I believe that many schools do not at all communicate the message. They’ll think it’s unrealistic, but Brit Schools will say, ‘OK, so this is what you want to do? Here are the steps you can take to do that.”
Burns, who enrolled at the age of 14, discovered a kindred spirit in Txm.Smrt, a fellow student whose family had built him a recording studio in their garden shed.
Together, they compiled the tracks for Burns’ debut EP, Adolescent, which was released when she was just 16 years old.
“I then went around the school telling people to stream it, and I performed my headline concert at a location called Off The Cuff. I genuinely desired to challenge myself.”
This keynote performance was an early career highlight for her. People she didn’t even know joined in on the singing. Burns believed the record industry didn’t know what to do with a lesbian, black woman who wanted to perform huge, approachable pop songs in the spirit of Ed Sheeran and Adele.
“I suffered a lot,” she admits. “When I was trying to pitch myself to record labels, there weren’t many black female musicians that they could use as a model or as evidence that this music sells or works.
That was extremely frustrating. I knew there was a demand for this music because I’ve always enjoyed listening to it.
After years of adversity, lockdown proved to be her savior. She created a TikTok account and began polishing her sound while she was holed up in her mother’s home, free from record industry influence.
“It was extremely beneficial to be able to spend time alone and compose tunes. Determining the chord progressions I liked and the degree of minimalism I want in my compositions.”
“Because I have ADHD, I became hyper-obsessed with it and uploaded video after video.”
She discovered her true voice in intimate, acoustic pop tunes that deconstruct and ease the tensions of a generation while creating these videos.
Her song names read like self-help book chapters – Anxiety, People Pleaser, Low Self-Esteem – yet her lyrics are neither didactic nor self-pitying. She exists solely to be a friend, frequently to herself.
She states, “I like to live with my songs.” “Therefore, once I’ve written them, especially if they’re about something personal to me. I prefer to spend some time with them and utilize them to help me get through whatever I’m going through.
“And then, when the time is right, you must say, ‘OK, it’s time to share this with the rest of the world, and perhaps it will assist other people as well.'”
