Ella Eyre

Ella McMahon (born 1 April 1994), better known by her stage name Ella Eyre, is a British singer and songwriter. She is best known for her collaborations with Rudimental on their UK number one single “Waiting All Night” (2013), which won the 2014 Brit Award for British Single of the Year, with DJ Fresh on his single “Gravity” (2015), and with Sigala on their singles “Came Here for Love” (2017), and “Just Got Paid” (2018). Her debut EP, Deeper, was released in 2013 and her debut album, Feline, was released in 2015. Eyre’s musical influences include Lauryn Hill, Etta James, Basement Jaxx and Hans Zimmer.

Eyre was born on 1 April 1994 and was raised in Ealing, West London.[1] Her father was Jamaican, and her mother is Maltese. Her father was a chef who lived in his home country of Jamaica, his health too poor to travel to the UK,[2] and her mother, who raised Eyre in London, is a cake designer.[3][4] Eyre trained as a competitive swimmer before she began singing professionally.[3]

Eyre was educated at Millfield School in Somerset; refuting the idea that she came from a privileged background, she observed that her mother could not have afforded the fees, and she went there on a “massive swimming scholarship”.[2] She later attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, where she studied musical theatre.[5][6] Discovered by her management through a vocal coach in 2011, McMahon juggled school with songwriting. She signed to the publisher Warner/Chappell Music in July 2012 and a record deal with Virgin EMI followed shortly after.