KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained attention with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland and has subsequently also appeared in two episodes of the comedy series This is Jinsy on Sky Atlantic. In 2025 it was estimated that Tunstall's accumulated record sales totalled seven million. Her accolades include a Q Award, European Border Breakers Award, two Ivor Novello Awards, a UK Music Video Award, and two BRIT Awards for Best British Female Artist and Best British Breakthrough. Additionally she has been nominated for a Grammy Award, Mercury Music Prize, World Music Award, and a Hollywood Music in Media Award.
The name of her debut studio album, Eye to the Telescope, was inspired by her childhood experiences at her father's physics laboratory at University of St Andrews. Released in 2004, the album was a strong seller worldwide, selling over five million copies internationally, and ultimately became the 51st best-selling album of the 2000s decade in the United Kingdom. The single, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", was given the Q Magazine Award for Best Track in 2005, and "Suddenly I See" won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song in 2006. "Suddenly I See" became a popular hit and was featured in the hit film The Devil Wears Prada and adopted as a campaign song for the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign. Her second album, Drastic Fantastic, features some tracks written prior to the release of Eye to the Telescope and was supported by the singles "Hold On", "Saving My Face", and "If Only". She began the 2010s decade with the release of her third album, Tiger Suit.
In April 2013, she released "Feel It All" as the lead single from her fourth album, Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon. From 2016 until 2022, she released three albums as a trilogy – Kin, Wax, and Nut. Singles released during this period include "Maybe It's a Good Thing" and "It Took Me So Long to Get Here, But Here I Am". In 2023 she partnered with American singer and bassist Suzi Quatro on the collaborative album Face to Face.
Early life and education
Tunstall was born to a half-Chinese, half-Scottish mother, Carol Ann Orr, who was from Hong Kong, and a Northern Irish father, John Corrigan, from Belfast. Her parents met while her mother was working as a dancer in Penthouse bar in Edinburgh, where her father was a barman. She was born at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital and at 18 days old was placed for adoption by her mother with a family in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. She never met her biological father.Her adoptive father, David Tunstall, was a physics lecturer at the University of St Andrews, and her adoptive mother, Rosemarie Tunstall, was a primary school teacher. They already had adopted another child who became her older brother Joe and went on to have another son Dan. Tunstall has said: "My earliest memories are Californian", from a sabbatical that her father took at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1979. She was musically oriented and her adoptive parents supported her interest. She recollected that she asked for a piano when she was four.
Tunstall grew up in St Andrews, Fife, attending Lawhead Primary, then Madras College in St. Andrews and the High School of Dundee, but she spent her last year of high school in the United States at the Kent School, a selective boarding school in Kent, Connecticut. She spent time busking on Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, and at a commune in rural Vermont. Tunstall studied at Royal Holloway, University of London. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama & Music in 1996. Royal Holloway conferred an honorary doctorate in science on her in 2011 for her work on environmental issues as a musician.
Music career
Career beginnings (2000–2004)
Throughout Tunstall's twenties she played in indie music bands including Elia Drew and Tomoko. She focused on songwriting, as well as performing with members of the fledgling Fence Collective. Tunstall lived with Gordon Anderson of the Beta Band and the Aliens, whom the song "Funnyman" on her second studio album Drastic Fantastic is about. She toured with the klezmer band Oi Va Voi and stayed with them while they were making their second studio album, Laughter Through Tears.When British label Relentless Records put forward an independent offer, Tunstall opted to sign with a U.S. major label instead. However, when that deal did not work out, she decided to go with Relentless. Although Relentless co-founder Shabs Jobanputra recognised the potential in the quality of Tunstall's voice and songs in the early 2000s, his assessment then was that she "wasn't ready yet", and so together with Tunstall's manager, Jobanputra discussed "the process of how we saw her happening and how we would work, why we thought the songs were great, why we thought she was great, and why it could really work if we took enough time."
''Eye to the Telescope'' and breakthrough (2004–2007)
Tunstall's debut studio album, Eye to the Telescope, was first released in late 2004, entering the UK Albums Chart at number 73. Tunstall's first appearance of note was a solo performance of her folk blues song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland. She had only 24 hours to prepare after scheduled performer Nas cancelled. She performed as a one-person band using a guitar, a tambourine, and a loop pedal.Shortly after the Later appearance, Eye to the Telescope was re-released and shot up the British charts, peaking at No. 3 and certified 5× Platinum by the BPI; it was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize. The album was released in the U.S. on 7 February 2006. On the UK Singles Chart, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" made it to No. 28, and on the US Billboard Hot 100 it charted at No. 20. The next release from the album in the United Kingdom was "Other Side of the World", whilst "Suddenly I See" was released in the United States and used in the opening credits of the film The Devil Wears Prada, as well as in the television series Ugly Betty. Further singles released from the album were "Under the Weather" and "Another Place to Fall", which were also successful.
Tunstall released an acoustic collection album on 15 May 2006, KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza, which was first available only via mail order from her website. The album was re-released in stores worldwide in October 2006. Tunstall's North American break came when American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee contacted her asking to use "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" as her choice for a Billboard-themed week. At the time, the song was No. 79 on the Billboard charts. Tunstall had not been shy with her opinions regarding shows like Idol, saying "The major problem I have is that it's completely controlled. They're told what to say. They're told how to sing." She chose to license the song as she felt that "no one on that show told Katharine McPhee to sing my song because no one knew it". Tunstall's belief was correct—the song was suggested to McPhee by Billboard columnist and author Fred Bronson. The song immediately jumped to No. 23 on the Billboard charts the week following McPhee's performance.
Tunstall sang with Scottish band Travis on their fifth studio album, The Boy with No Name, on the track "Under the Moonlight", a song written by Susie Hug, formerly of Katydids.
''Drastic Fantastic'' and ''Tiger Suit'' (2007–2012)
Tunstall's second studio album, Drastic Fantastic, premiered on 3 September 2007 in Scotland, followed a week later on 10 September 2007 with the London release for Britain and then on 18 September 2007 in the U.S. In its first week Drastic Fantastic reached No. 1 on the Scottish Album Charts, No. 3 on the British Charts, and No. 9 in the American Charts. The album's lead single, "Hold On", was released in the UK in August 2007, debuting at No. 34 before peaking at No. 21. The song was also very successful in certain European nations, peaking at No. 19 in Italy, No. 19 in Norway, No. 26 in Switzerland, and No. 39 in Ireland. The album's second single, "Saving My Face", was released in December 2007. The song did not reach the UK Top 40 Singles Charts but did peak at No. 50, managing three weeks on the UK Charts. Despite missing the UK Top 40, the song made the Top 40 in Italy at No. 23 and in Switzerland peaking at No. 93. The album's third single and final worldwide single, "If Only", was released in March 2008, becoming the second single from the album to miss the UK Top 40; it managed to reach No. 45.In the United States, "Hold On" was moderately successful, charting at No. 95 on the U.S. Billboard Pop Chart and No. 27 on the U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40. However, it failed to make an impact inside the Billboard Hot 100, placing at No. 104. Drastic Fantastic became one of her best charting albums to date: No. 3 on the UK Album Charts, topping the Scottish Album Charts, and making the top ten on the US Billboard 200 album charts at No. 9. Further single releases from Drastic Fantastic, "Saving My Face" and "If Only", were moderately successful, charting at No. 50 and No. 45 on the UK Singles Charts, respectively.
Tunstall commented that the photograph for the album cover was influenced by the rock star Suzi Quatro. On 5 October 2007, the U.S. discount department store chain Target, in association with NBC, released a special KT Tunstall Christmas EP on CD, Sounds of the Season: The KT Tunstall Holiday Collection. On 10 December 2007, it was released in Europe through Relentless under the title Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas.
In 2008 Tunstall recorded a song for the double album Songs for Survival in support of the indigenous rights organisation Survival International. In a video for Survival International, she speaks of music as being a force for good and of what she learned about tribal people on this project. She also discusses various issues concerning our culture of consumption and greed, our relation to the earth, and the importance of indigenous rights in the world today. Tunstall also worked with Suzanne Vega on Vega's seventh studio album Beauty & Crime, singing backing vocals on the songs "Zephyr and I" and "Frank and Ava". It was revealed in the booklet by Vega that the two never met in person during the process of making the album.
Over the Christmas holidays in 2008, Tunstall joined Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide line-up in Auckland, New Zealand, to record a charity studio album for Oxfam. The album was recorded in Finn's New Zealand studio over three weeks and featured all-new material, with singing and songwriting contributions divided amongst the group. Most of the participants from the original 2001 7 Worlds Collide line-up returned, along with several new additions including Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt and Pat Sansone of Wilco, New Zealand songwriters Don McGlashan and Bic Runga, and Finn's son Elroy Finn. The album, titled The Sun Came Out, was released on 31 August 2009.
On 11 February 2010 the Daily Record reported that Tunstall had recorded her new album in Berlin's Hansa Studios. Located near the former site of the Berlin Wall, the studio is where legendary albums including David Bowie's "Heroes" and U2's Achtung Baby were recorded. Tunstall said, "I had an amazing three weeks recording in Hansa in Berlin in January and am finishing it all off in London." Her third studio album, titled Tiger Suit, was released in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2010 and in the United States on 5 October 2010.
Tunstall said that Tiger Suit's title was inspired by a recurring dream she had before discovering that 2010 was the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac. In the dream, she sees a tiger in her garden and goes outside to stroke it. She returns indoors and is seized by the fear that she could have been killed. Over the years, it has occurred to her that the reason the tiger responded so passively is that she herself was disguised as a tiger, wearing a tiger suit. She said that while writing and recording the album, she experimented with a new sound she called "Nature techno", which mixes organic instrumentation with electronic and dance textures, similar in style to the work of Icelandic singer Björk. At a media showcase in London, Tunstall offered an unusual description of the songs from her forthcoming third album: "Like Eddie Cochran working with Leftfield".
The album's first single was "Fade Like a Shadow" in the United States and " Weirdo" in the United Kingdom. Tunstall has also been a panelist on the BBC Two comedy music show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, first on series 21 episode 8, and on series 24 episode 10.