Eliza Doolittle (singer)

Early life

Eliza was born in Westminster, London. She comes from a family with a successful and varied musical background. Her father is John Caird, a stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas who is also an honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Her paternal grandfather G. B. Caird, was the theologian and principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. Her mother is musical theatre actress and artist Frances Ruffelle, who won a Tony Award for her role of Éponine in the English-language version of Les Misérables and represented the United Kingdom in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. Eliza is the granddaughter of Sylvia Young, founder of the eponymous theatre school. She is one of nine siblings. Her parents divorced when she was four years old.

Eliza had a brief career on stage playing Young Cosette in Les Misérables in London's West End in 1996–1997. Her parents had met and began their relationship during the original production, when her father was the co-director and her mother played Eponine. Eliza went on to play the lead role in Lucy Simon's Tony Award-winning musical version of The Secret Garden in 2001 when the Royal Shakespeare Company premiered the show in London.

Musical career

Career beginnings

Before entering the charts, Eliza toured the UK with her band. She released an EP including songs Naive produced by Al Shux (A New York State of Mind), Ego and Piano Song produced by Truth & Soul (Lee Fields, El Michels Affair). On 29 November 2009, a further EP release featuring the tracks "Rollerblades", "Moneybox", "Police Car", and "Go Home" (produced by Craigie Dodds, Johnny Dollar, Matt Prime and Phil Thornaley). Tracks from the EP were remixed by Plastic Little ("Rollerblades"), Sam Young and Jamie xx from The xx ("Money Box"). The EP received radio plays from Rob Da Bank, Nick Grimshaw, Fearne Cotton, and Jo Whiley.

She recorded the song 'Running For Life", which was featured on the soundtrack of the 2008 cult British film Adulthood. Later that year, she performed at Glastonbury on the Pussy Parlour stage, her first festival performance.

2010–2013: ''Eliza Doolittle''

In early 2010, she took part in musician Shane MacGowan's charity single "I Put a Spell on You", in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Her debut single "Skinny Genes" was released on 12 April 2010, reaching No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart. She told BBC's Steve Lamacq the song is "a funny scenario if you didn't like someone, if they were really annoying, but you had a good time under the sheets." Eliza's second release "Pack Up" was released on 5 July 2010, reaching No. 5 on the Official UK Singles Chart on 11 July 2010.

In March 2011, she performed at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas as well at Coachella in California. In April 2011, Eliza was touring the UK. On 19 April 2011, Eliza's self-titled album was released in the United States almost one year from the UK date.

In 2013, Eliza collaborated with Disclosure on the track "You & Me" from their debut album, Settle. Early that year, she began recording new material for her second album. In an interview with Elle magazine in April 2013, she stated "I'm definitely showing more of myself than I ever have before. I feel like on my last album, I hadn't experienced very much of anything really, and it's been three years or more since then and I have felt and seen things I hadn't before, and I know things I didn't know before. In a way I have answers to questions, but then those answers open up a thousand other questions. I guess I've gone through things that so many people go through at the age I am. I've written almost every day about my every thought and emotion and the album is made up of the songs that mean the most to me".

2013–2016: ''In Your Hands''

On 7 June 2013, she premiered a new single called "Big When I Was Little", which was released in July 2013. It subsequently joined BBC Radio 1's playlist, and features on her second studio album. On 17 June 2013 the video for the single premiered on her YouTube channel.

Eliza and UK garage artist Wookie wrote a song called "The Hype" in 2013. Wookie contributed a remix to her album In Your Hands for her track "Walking on Water".

She featured on "YNSP", a track from hip hop artist Vic Mensa's Innanetape mixtape produced by DJ Dahi.

She had a cameo role as a nightclub singer in The Great Train Robbery, a drama series on BBC One in December 2013.

In 2014, Eliza was invited by Burt Bacharach to sing with him at Henley Festival in the summer of 2014.

2016: Rebrand, ''A Real Romantic'' and ''A Sky Without Stars''

In 2017, she rebranded her name from Eliza Doolittle to Eliza and changed her sound. On 12 December 2018, her album A Real Romantic was released. In 2022, Eliza released a couple of new singles ("Straight Talker" and "Heat of the Moon") after signing to [PIAS]'s Different Recordings and a new album, A Sky Without Stars, was announced.

A Sky without Stars received praise and acclaim from reviewers. Dom Taylor of R&B website The Pit wrote that the album "let the music lead" and "can be boiled down to an irreplaceable feeling of soul. The foot-tapping, transformative, time-loses-all-meaning kind of soul." Haste magazine's Becca Hemens summarised a live performance by ELIZA following the release of the album as "An Enigmatic and Sensual Performance for an Album of Melodic Reinvention and Feminine Power" and was struck by the "aura of mystique" in ELIZA's performance.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

Promotional singles

As featured artist

Music videos

Filmography

Personal life

In 2024, she gave birth to her first child with her partner, film director Charlie Robins.

References

Footnotes

Sources

References

1. (13 July 2010). "Talking Shop: Eliza Doolittle". BBC News.
2. "Eliza Biography".
3. (10 January 2015). "Bite The Ballot on Twitter".
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5. "Eliza Doolittle at BBC Music".
6. (14 April 2014). "Disclosure – You and Me featuring Eliza Doolittle: video premiere". [[The Guardian]].
7. (31 July 2013). "Eliza Doolittle announces new album title – Music News". Digital Spy.
8. Savage, Mark. (13 July 2010). "Talking Shop: Eliza Doolittle". BBC News.
9. Chadwick, Henry, "George Bradford Caird, 1917-1984: A Memoir" in ''The Glory of Christ in the New Testament: Studies in Christology in Memory of George Bradford Caird'', ed. L. D. Hurst and N. T. Wright (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987; reprinted Wipf and Stock, 2006), pp. xvii-xxii.
10. (8 December 2010). "Radio 1 Programmes – The Chris Moyles Show, Wednesday – with Eliza Doolittle". BBC.
11. "RSC Performance Database". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
12. "Radio 1 – Nick Grimshaw – Tracklistings". BBC.
13. (24 June 2008). "Running For Life".
14. "Shane MacGowan and Friends "I Put a Spell on You" (Haiti Charity Song) (Video)". Prefix magazine.
15. "Skinny Genes". Songfacts.com.
16. Praxis Media. "Radio1 Rodos Greece ::: UK Forthcoming Singles ::: Charts, DJ Promos, Dance, Lyrics, Free Mp3 Samples Downloads". Radio1.gr.
17. (19 March 2011). "SXSW 2011: the best pictures from day eight". [[The Guardian]].
18. (19 April 2011). "Eliza Doolittle Talks To Us About Style, Kanye And Coachella {{!}} Idolator". Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com.
19. (11 April 2013). "Eliza in Wonderland: Eliza Doolittle Stars in Palladium's New Campaign". Elle.com.
20. (17 June 2013). "Big When I Was Little". YouTube.com.
21. (30 June 2014). "Eliza Doolittle Joins Burt Bacharach for a Special 'Little' Prayer".
22. (11 April 2022). "ELIZA's "Straight Talker" is a hypnotic piece with a somber tone".
23. "BBC Radio 6 Music - New Music Fix, New Music Fix Playlist".
24. (28 March 2022). "Different Recordings Welcomes ELIZA".
25. "ELIZA marks arrival to Different Recordings with release of 'Straight Talker' alongside accompanying video".
26. "Eliza - Official Website".
27. "Different Recordings".
28. (16 September 2022). "ELIZA - A Sky Without Stars [Stream]".
29. "ELIZA "A Sky Without Stars" - Album and Gig Review".
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36. {{cite certification
37. [https://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a502817/eliza-doolittle-announces-new-album-title.html Eliza Doolittle announces new album title – Music News -] ''[[Digital Spy]]''
38. (11 October 2013). "iTunes – Music – In Your Hands by Eliza Doolittle". [[iTunes]].
39. [https://hamadamania.com/2018/12/12/eliza-unleashes-new-studio-collection-a-real-romantic/l Eliza Doolittle unleashes new studio collection ''A Real Romantic''. Hamada Mania Music Blog] Hamada Mania
40. [https://eliza.bandcamp.com/album/a-sky-without-stars A Sky Without Stars. ELIZA] Bandcamp
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45. (28 November 2025). "ELIZA Returns With New Single "Anyone Else"".
46. "Discographie Eliza Doolittle".
47. "Discography Eliza Doolittle".
48. {{cite certification
49. (2024-03-09). "Noughties pop icon all smiles in first outing since secretly welcoming baby".