Kerri Watt

Kerri Watt is a Scottish singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist from Milngavie. At age 16, she moved to California after receiving a place at a performing arts high school. After a successful year studying in the States, Kerri moved to London to further her training in music and performing. Watt played understudy Cinderella opposite Steve Guttenberg in a 2-month run at the Churchill Theatre Bromley in 2008/09 and toured the UK in Bill Kenwrights production of Jekyll and Hyde alongside Marti Pellow in 2011 before giving up theatre to pursue a career in music.[1]

Watt is best known for her single "Long Way Home", which was playlisted on BBC Radio 2 on their A List.[2] She performed the song on national TV on ITV's The Weekend with Aled Jones on 27 June 2015.

Also in 2015, Watt released a remix of her song "You" produced by Oliver Nelson. The remix gained over 1.5 million plays online and hit the Number 1 spot on Hype Machine. In March 2016, Watt had more success with her follow-up single "The Wild" which was also added to the BBC Radio 2 B Playlist where it stayed for a month. While promoting the single, she toured the UK visiting over 20 radio stations and made a live appearance on STV's Live at Five in Glasgow on 22 March 2016.

In 2015/2016 Watt toured the UK and Europe extensively supporting acts such as Mike and the Mechanics, Ward Thomas, Nina Nesbitt, The Overtones and Starsailor, and played festivals including Isle of Wight, Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party and Boardmasters.

On 11 and 12 July 2017 Watt joined Embrace (English band) on stage at the Millennium Stadium to open for Coldplay on their "A Head Full Of Dreams Tour." Watt's collaboration with Embrace, "Never" was released as the lead single from Embrace's album the following year and was added to the BBC Radio 2 C list.

In May 2017, Watt announced her next single, "Old School Love", would be released on 7 July through East West Records, a part of Warner Music Group.

In 2018, Watt took a step back from releasing music to write and record some new material in Austin, Texas with legendary Metal producer 'Machine' (Lamb of God/Clutch). Machine helped bring a new flavour to Watt's Americana influenced sound. Watt spent the remainder of 2018 road testing her new music around the UK at various festivals including C2C and Country Music Week and supported artists on tour including David Ramirez, Curse of Lono and Tom Speight.

At the start of 2019, Watt signed an album deal and a publishing deal with record label Cooking Vinyl. On 1 July Watt announced her first single with Cooking Vinyl, "Cut Me Loose", would be released on 12 July. The song was featured on the BBC's televised footage of the Wimbledon Mens Final and made several appearances in episodes of British soap Eastenders. Her next single was "Chasing Aeroplanes", released on 1 November and premiered by legendary arbiter of taste Bob Harris on his Radio 2 Country Show. An incredible live performer with a growing reputation, 2019 saw Watt support a number of legendary artists at incredible venues including Keith Urban in London (where she additionally joined him on stage to sing Carrie Underwood’s vocal parts from his 2016 hit single "The Fighter"), as special guest to Julio Iglesias at The Royal Albert Hall and to Joe Jackson at The Palladium. Watt performed a mix of solo and full band shows at Glastonbury Festival, Country2Country, British Summer Time (with Celine Dion), Kew The Music and Cambridge Folk Festival, and as the special guest performer at BBC Radio Scotland’s inaugural Singer-Songwriter Awards 2019.

The beginning of 2020 saw Watt continuing with live show's throughout the UK. In January she performed at Celtic Connections in her home town of Glasgow and as a headliner at the AMAUK Americanafest Showcase in London before going on to perform over 30 live streams throughout the Spring.

Watt released her third single with Cooking Vinyl "Kissing Fools" on 14 February, to coincide with Valentine's Day along with a fun cinematic video inspired by her love of 1990s movies. The video also features Cody Molko (School of Rock, West End), son of Brian Molko, the lead singer of Placebo. In April 2020, Watt released a special acoustic version of her 2019 single "Cut Me Loose" featuring London singer songwriter, Samuel Jack.

On 20 July 2020 Watt announced she would be releasing a series of three EP's called 'Chapters' with Cooking Vinyl each focusing on a different style of music that influences her songwriting. The first track from Chapter 1, "Jessie" releases on 24 July 2020, along with a music video Kerri filmed and edited herself at home during the Covid-19 lockdown period.

References
  1. "Kerri Watt performs Maybe (music session)". The Daily Telegraph. 21 July 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. "BBC Radio 2 Playlist News: A-A-B-C!". Hessomedia.com. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
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