KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall [ ˈkeɪtɪ ˈtʌnstɔːl ] (born June 23, 1975 in Edinburgh , Scotland ) is a Scottish singer , lyricist and composer and belongs to the genre of singer-songwriters .
Life
The St. Andrews- born singer is of Chinese-Irish descent, grew up with adoptive parents and studied at the Kent School in Connecticut and at the Royal Holloway University of London . When she met her birth mother, she learned from her that her father was a musician - after she had already embarked on this path herself. At the beginning of her musical career she played in several independent bands, specializing in songwriting. She also wrote and appeared on music for children's TV shows.
Her alias "KT" refers to the name Katie . As a student at the University of London, she played the acoustic guitar in a student pub under that name.
Her breakthrough came in 2004 with a solo performance of the song Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on the British entertainment show Later with Jools Holland , where she only had 24 hours to prepare for this gig after the scheduled appearance of rapper Nas could not take place because his father became ill.
The debut album Eye to the Telescope was re-released a short time later and then climbed to number 3 in the UK charts (only to number 73 after the first release). It was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize in July 2005 .
In Germany, KT Tunstall first became known outside the hit parades in 2005 for her concert at the New Pop Festival organized annually by ARD radio station SWR3 .
KT Tunstall was married from 2008 to 2013 to the drummer Luke Bullen, who was a member of Joe Strummer's band The Mescaleros and also played for John Squire.
At the BRIT Awards 2006 she was able to secure the title of British Female Solo Artist (Best British Female Solo Artist ).
A series of songs with acoustic instruments was released in October 2006 under the title KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza . Originally, the songs were to be sold exclusively through their website. She is said to have recorded the album in just 36 hours.
In September 2007 her second studio album Drastic Fantastic was released . The first single was the song Hold On .
Tunstall's third studio album Tiger Suit was released in Germany on October 22, 2010. The first European single (Still A) Weirdo was released for download on August 30th. In America, instead, Fade Like a Shadow was released as a download single on August 10th .
Tunstall's fourth studio album Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon was released in June 2013.
KT Tunstall prefers to play guitars from Gibson , here again mainly the so-called Dove models.
Discography
Studio albums
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
2004 | Eye to the Telescope |
DE43 (14 weeks) DE |
AT41 (8 weeks) AT |
CH29
gold
(28 weeks)CH |
UK3 × 5
(98 weeks)UK |
US33
platinum
(83 weeks)US |
First published: December 13, 2004
|
2007 | Drastic Fantastic |
DE35 (3 weeks) DE |
AT43 (3 weeks) AT |
CH8 (7 weeks) CH |
UK3
gold
(26 weeks)UK |
US9 (13 weeks) US |
First published: September 10, 2007
|
2010 | Tiger suit |
DE89 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH34 (2 weeks) CH |
UK5
silver
(5 weeks)UK |
US43 (2 weeks) US |
First published: September 22, 2010
|
2013 | Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon | - | - |
CH56 (1 week) CH |
UK14 (10 weeks) UK |
US64 (1 week) US |
First published: June 7, 2013
|
2016 | Kin | - | - |
CH96 (1 week) CH |
UK7 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: September 9, 2016
|
2018 | Wax | - | - | - |
UK15 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: October 5, 2018
|
EPs & compilations
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
2006 | Acoustic extravaganza | - | - | - |
UK32 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: May 8, 2006
|
2007 | Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas | - | - | - | - |
US92 (2 weeks) US |
First published: October 14, 2007
|
2008 | Live from SoHo | - | - | - | - |
US199 (1 week) US |
First published: May 27, 2008
|
More albums
- 2004: False Alarm
- 2006: Live Sessions
- 2010: Energy Live Session: Live from Switzerland
- 2011: Live At The Wiltern
- 2011: Live in London March 2011
- 2011: The Scarlet Tulip EP
- 2013: Live Islington Assembly Hall
Singles
year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
2005 | Black Horse and the Cherry Tree Eye to the Telescope |
DE51 (9 weeks) DE |
AT31 (20 weeks) AT |
CH92 (2 weeks) CH |
UK28
silver
(10 weeks)UK |
US20 (30 weeks) US |
First published: February 21, 2005
|
Other Side of the World Eye to the Telescope |
- | - | - |
UK13 (28 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: May 9, 2005
|
|
Suddenly I See Eye to the Telescope |
DE89 (9 weeks) DE |
AT48 (18 weeks) AT |
CH46 (19 weeks) CH |
UK12
gold
(31 weeks)UK |
US21 (30 weeks) US |
First published: August 29, 2005
|
|
Under the Weather Eye to the Telescope |
- | - | - |
UK39 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: December 5, 2005
|
|
2006 | Another Place to Fall Eye to the Telescope |
- | - | - |
UK52 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 13, 2006
|
2007 | Hold On Drastic Fantastic |
DE100 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH26 (15 weeks) CH |
UK21 (9 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: July 16, 2007
|
Saving My Face Drastic Fantastic |
- | - |
CH93 (1 week) CH |
UK50 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: November 12, 2007
|
|
2008 | If Only Drastic Fantastic |
- | - | - |
UK45 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 3, 2008
|
2010 | (Still a) Weirdo Tiger Suit |
- | - | - |
UK39 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: September 19, 2010
|
Awards for music sales
|
Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.
Country / Region | silver | gold | platinum | Sales | swell |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
|||||
Australia (ARIA) | - | gold1 | - | 35,000 | aria.com.au |
Europe (IFPI) | - | - | 2 × platinum2 | (2,000,000) | ifpi.org |
France (SNEP) | - | gold1 | - | 100,000 | snepmusique.com |
Canada (MC) | - | - | 3 × platinum3 | 240,000 | musiccanada.com |
New Zealand (RMNZ) | - | - | platinum1 | 15,000 | nztop40.co.nz |
Switzerland (IFPI) | - | gold1 | - | 15,000 | hitparade.ch |
United States (RIAA) | - | - | platinum1 | 1,000,000 | riaa.com |
United Kingdom (BPI) | 2 × silver2 | 2 × gold2 | 5 × platinum5 | 2,260,000 | bpi.co.uk |
All in all | 2 × silver2 | 5 × gold5 | 12 × platinum12 |
Web links
- Official website (English)
- KT Tunstall in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- KT Tunstall on MusicBrainz (English)
- KT Tunstall at Discogs (English)
swell
- ^ KT Tunstall - Black Horse & The Cherry Tree (Later Archive 2004). BBC / Later ... with Jools Holland , Series 24, Episode 3, May 28, 2013, accessed December 3, 2015 (video, 4 minutes).
- ↑ Item description of the download single (Still A) Weirdo ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Article description of the download single Fade Like a Shadow
- ↑ The two new singles on twitter.com
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Tunstall, KT |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tunstall, Kate Victoria (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish singer and songwriter |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 23, 1975 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Edinburgh , Scotland |