Sarah Close

British singer/songwriter Sarah Close came to fame uploading covers online. Leaving behind a major-label deal, she struck out on her own, hitting number one with her debut single. Born and brought up in a small village on the Isle of Wight, off England's south coast, she was isolated not just from the mainland but from all of her schoolfriends, who lived on the other side of the island. With both parents playing in local bands, she dreamed of a music career, and turned to the internet in a bid to make it happen. Surreptitiously borrowing her mother's guitar, she taught herself to play and in 2010, at the age of 14, started uploading video covers of other artists' songs, as well as writing her own. Through a constant social media presence, she gradually grew her online fan base and started playing live; gigs at Rob da Bank's club nights led to a slot at his Bestival. At 18 she moved to London and enrolled in a songwriting course at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance but dropped out after two years. In 2017 she signed to Parlophone, but parted ways with the label a year later without releasing anything, unhappy with the direction they were trying to push her in. This bold decision paid off when she hit number one in the U.K. charts with her debut single "Call Me Out" from the Caught Up EP, released on her own Kodiak Club label. While her covers had been only acoustic guitar and piano, her own music went in a more electronic, synth-based direction. More singles followed before she released her debut mini-album, And Now, We're Shining, in 2020. After its release, she took an extended hiatus from her career, spending time in the U.S. and working with various songwriters. She returned in 2024 with the mini-albums Forgiveness Is My Weakness and See You for Now. That same year she reinvented herself as Bbyclose, launching a new career as a pop-house diva. ~ John D. Buchanan