Background and career
Samuel Thomas Fender (born 25 April 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. Born and raised in North Shields, Fender released several singles independently beginning in 2017. His sonic identity relies primarily on his traditional American musical upbringing, combined with a British rock sensibility. He is known for his high tenor voice and Geordie accent. Highly acclaimed for his songwriting style, Fender is the recipient of five Brit Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards and a Mercury Prize. Fender first gained recognition after he was named on the BBC Sound of 2018 shortlist, before signing to Polydor Records, who released his debut EP Dead Boys. He subsequently won the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards and released his debut album, Hypersonic Missiles that same year, entering the UK Albums Chart at number one. His second album, Seventeen Going Under, was released in 2021 and also debuted at the summit of the UK Albums Chart, with its title track gaining immense critical and commercial success. Fender subsequently gained Mercury Prize and Brit Award nominations. In 2022, 2025, and 2026, Fender won the Brit Award for British Rock/Alternative Act, becoming the most awarded performer in that category's history. His third studio album, People Watching, was released in February 2025 and received that year's Mercury Prize; it also debuted atop the UK Albums Chart, his third album to do so. The album's sixth single, "Rein Me In", a duet with English soul singer-songwriter Olivia Dean, became Fender's first UK number one single, received the 2026 Brit Award for Song of the Year, and is currently the longest running chart-topping single in British history, lasting an unprecedented 23 overall weeks at number one.
Samuel Thomas Fender was born on 25 April 1994, in North Shields, England, to Shirley and Alan Fender. Shirley was a nurse, and Alan was an electrician, later becoming a music teacher. Fender has a brother, Liam, nine years his senior. Alan is also a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pianist, whilst Liam plays the drums; both were musicians performing locally. A working class family, they lived in a terraced house in North Shields. Fender's great-great-grandmother was Irish. Fender has described the first 10 years of his life as "comfortable" within a musical family. However, he had a tumultuous late childhood and adolescence. His mother left when he was eight years old, although he later reconnected with her when he, at age 17, was forced out of his father's house by his stepmother. Fender's mother was, at that time, living in the Scottish Borders; he partly grew up there through visiting her. Fender has spoken of his appreciation for Scotland, describing it as his "second home". At age eight, Fender received his first guitar from his father. Fascinated by Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Slash, he became "proficient" on the guitar at age 10. Fender attended John Spence Community High School in Preston, Tyne and Wear. He was bullied for being overweight and unathletic as a child. When he was a young teen, he and his mother discovered the body of a woman they knew who died by suicide, which affected his formative years. When Fender was 12, he met his friend Dean Thompson and continued to play the guitar alongside him. Over the following year, he performed for the first time in front of an audience at his brother's street performer nights, playing Hendrix covers, and accompanied by Thompson at the latter's uncle's birthday, covering songs by Kings of Leon. His ambition at this point was to become a professional musician; Fender recalled, "when I hit 13 it was the only thing I wanted from life." At age 14, Fender began writing songs. The same year, he learned to sing by listening to Jeff Buckley's Grace, an album his brother gave him. Fender's brother introduced him to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town albums at age 15, during which he also began playing at his brother's open mic nights and formed his first band. At the time, he and his mother were poor and living in a small, crumbling flat within a council estate on the outskirts of North Shields. Fender attended sixth form at Whitley Bay High School. He found musically-minded friends at high school. He met Joe Atkinson, and they developed a friendship through their musical interests. Fender studied theatre and A Level in English language and literature at Whitley Bay High School; during this time, he began to spend most of his time in the music department, although he had not studied the subject academically. Fender performed with his band for the Year 13 students finishing their time. At age 16, Fender entered a Teenage Cancer Trust competition and won. The environment Fender grew up in was "ravaged" by the omnipresence of drugs, especially spice. His friends were dealing marijuana, and later some switched to hard drugs such as cocaine. Social pressure had prompted him to smoke spice several times, but he stopped after finding the experience unsettling, while his friends became addicted for years, which Fender said "destroyed their lives". When he was 17, his mother had to end her 40-year career as a nurse due to fibromyalgia; he considered selling drugs to support her, but she talked him out of it. Fender idolised his father for his talent as a musician, and viewed him as a tough man who struggled to provide for his children in a region facing an endemic lack of opportunities. Fender said he needed to become independent quickly. Whilst studying, Fender simultaneously held two jobs, working in a local restaurant and pub, and drank alcohol daily from 17 and a half to 18, to relieve the fatigue. He abandoned his A Levels to earn money to help his mother, who developed a mental illness in addition to her fibromyalgia. At the time, both had slipped below the poverty line. His father was then a guitarist playing in clubs around Newcastle upon Tyne, and their relationship improved due to their shared passion for music. Around 18 years old, Fender began performing paid gigs at restaurants. After high school, he held several jobs, teaching guitar and working in a call centre and a bar.
At 18, Fender was spotted performing in Low Lights Tavern, the pub where he worked, by Ben Howard's manager, Owain Davies, who took him on as a client. Throughout 2013, he played a series of gigs across England supporting other artists, including Howard and Willy Mason. Fender was diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening illness when he was 20, shortly after which his father moved to France. He took two years out for health reasons. He revealed years later that he has a "compromised immune system". Fender has said that prior to this time he tried to write songs that he thought would be popular as he was "desperate to do well" to get himself and his mother out of their financial and living situation. However, Fender said that having a major health scare and facing the possibility of death changed his outlook on life. His recovery refocused his songwriting efforts, and he began writing songs for himself. It was out of this period that Fender wrote a number of the songs he went on to release.
In March 2017, Fender independently released his debut single, "Play God", which premiered on BBC Radio 1. In the summer of 2017, Fender played the first shows with his band, consisting of guitarist Thompson, guitarist and keyboardist Atkinson, bassist Tom Ungerer, and drummer Drew Micheal. Throughout this period Fender toured with support slots for acts such as Bear's Den, Declan McKenna, and Michael Kiwanuka. In 2017, he put out singles "Friday Fighting" and "Start Again", which sparked a first breakthrough. In November 2017, Fender was placed on BBC's Sound of 2018 shortlist, Won by Sigrid, the list was compiled by votes from 173 critics, festival bookers, and DJs. On 2 December 2017, he played a BBC Music Introducing session at Maida Vale Studios. In June 2018, he signed with Polydor Records. The single "Dead Boys" was premiered as Annie Mac's Hottest Record in the World in October. The song deals with the subject of male suicide, and Fender wrote it as a reaction to losing close friends to suicide. In October 2018, Fender performed "Dead Boys" alongside "Leave Fast" on BBC's Later... with Jools Holland. "Dead Boys" was considered Fender's first breakthrough song, as it was the first to bring him mainstream attention. The single "That Sound" was released on 22 October 2018. His debut EP, Dead Boys, followed the next month, on 20 November 2018. The EP also featured the songs "Spice" and "Poundshop Kardashians". Alongside the EP's release, he embarked on a headline tour, including three shows at the London's Omeara club and one at Newcastle University, and toured with Blossoms in December. He also went on a 13-date European and Australian tour. In December 2018, Fender was selected by Vevo to be a part of its Dscvr 2019 Artists to Watch series, and he was included in The Irish News' list of "Who are the ones to watch in music in 2019?".
In January 2019, the final band line-up was completed by saxophonist Johnny "Blue Hat" Davis, who had worked with The Who's Roger Daltrey and The Blues Brothers' Lou Marini. In anticipation of his debut album, Fender re-released "Play God" on 14 January 2019. The following month, Fender won the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards. On 26 February, he performed "Play God" in his first Live Lounge alongside a cover of Ariana Grande's "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored". On 6 March, Fender released a single, "Hypersonic Missiles", the forthcoming album's title track, which he described as an "unorthodox love song". In March, he performed the song on his US television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He embarked on his first North American tour in March, including shows in New York City and Los Angeles and at the South by Southwest festival in Texas. In May, Fender performed at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Middlesbrough. In early July, he announced the album alongside the release of the single "Will We Talk?". After extensive touring, including two shows at Shepherd's Bush Empire, Fender had to cancel several gigs, including Glastonbury Festival, after experiencing severe bleeding in his vocal cords. Nevertheless, after a month of rest, he recovered sufficiently to support Bob Dylan and Neil Young in Hyde Park and set a record for the fastest-selling show at the Mouth of the Tyne Festival, where he was the headliner. After Fender's performance of "Will We Talk?" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in August 2019, Claire Shaffer of Rolling Stone wrote: "Fender is notably one of the few true singer-songwriters who's climbing the modern-day pop charts". After that, he performed at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago and the Summer Sonic Festival in Osaka and Tokyo. The last single, "The Borders" was released two weeks prior to the album.
Fender released his debut studio album, Hypersonic Missiles, on 13 September 2019. It topped the UK Albums Chart, outselling the rest of the top 5 combined at the mid-week mark, and sold 41,000 copies in its first week of release. The album debuted and peaked at number twelve on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. On 21 September, Fender supported Liam Gallagher for a Radio X performance at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. He received the Official Charts Number 1 Award for the BBC's Match of the Day. Subsequently, he returned for a second North American tour spanning from 25 September to 20 October. On 21 October 2019, Fender appeared as the musical guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers. On 22 November, he began a headlining tour of 20 dates in the UK and Ireland, including two nights at the O2 Brixton Academy and four nights at the O2 Academy Newcastle. Fender set the record for the fastest sell-out of four nights at Newcastle's O2 Academy. On 10 December 2019, "All Is on My Side" was released being described as one of his oldest songs and a staple of his live set, which didn't make it on the album. Hypersonic Missiles was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for selling over 100,000 units in the UK, three months after the album release, on 13 December 2019. It was the "fastest-selling" and the eleventh best-selling vinyl album of 2019 in the UK.
