Grace Barker looked like a pioneer of the lockdown pop scene when she released a single titled Alone in My Room (Gone) just before everything stopped. However, the video, in which she looks miserable among a jostling crowd of clubbers, and the lyrics, which are actually about going out every night to forget an ex, now make it sound like it’s from a distant era rather than early March.
Even so, with a couple more videos filmed in isolation, the 21-year-old from Haywards Heath has become one of the breakout stars of this lonely time. Don’t Need Love, a streamlined collaboration with dance-pop producer 220 Kid, has now spent two months in the top 40 and is currently on its second week in the top 10.
Meanwhile a slower new song all her own, Empty Love, isn’t far behind, with over three million Spotify plays in the past month. As a Brit School graduate and former backroom writer of hits with Jonas Blue, Tiësto and Rita Ora, she already seems to know the route to chart success.
Household name status is inevitable, once she can get out of the house.
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