Arlo Parks, former Asher, nominated for 2024 Brit Award
Award winning musician and former Ashbourne student, Arlo Parks, has been nominated for Artist of the Year at the 2024 Brit Awards this March.
The nomination comes after the recent release of her second and critically acclaimed album My Soft Machine and book launch of The Magic Border, featuring twenty of her original poems and song lyrics from the album.
There are ways to glow, ways to see what darts beyond your field of visions, ways to feel visible.
Since graduating from Ashbourne in 2019, Arlo, or Anais as she was known then, has gone from strength to strength. Her 2021 debut album, Collapse in Sunbeams received two Grammy nominations, the Brit Award for New Artist, the Mercury Prize, BBC Introducing Artist of the Year Award and made it to the top three in the UK charts. She spent the following year on tour performing alongside the likes of Harry Styles, Lorde and Florence + the Machine.
Arlo kicked off her music career around the age of 15, creating her own tunes on GarageBand software and performing at open mic events in West London. She continued throughout her time at the college and still managed to achieve fantastic grades.
I basically looked up how to make a beat. I also looked up how to be famous, but that wasn’t helpful!
After dabbling on the industry fringes for a few years, Arlo decided to upload one of her tracks to BBC Introducing, a platform for new artists looking to get themselves heard. After six months waiting she finally got an invite to interview.
“It was out of the blue, I was just doing my homework and had forgotten I’d put it up!”
Things really started to pick up from here. She was introduced to her manager and future collaborators on songs such as Cola, which sealed her reputation as an artist. Meanwhile, she was still trying to knuckle down to complete her A levels. But once she’d passed 1000 plays for the track she told her mum that she was going into music.
“OK, go back to your studies,” was the reply, and of course she did!
Soon after, Lily Allen started promoting Arlo on her social media platform helping her to secure a tour with Jordan Rakei and Loyle Carner, and the rest is history.
Right now, Arlo is on tour again in the States, where she currently lives, but you may also be able to catch her next month at the Brits.
Ashbourne provides fantastic opportunities in music and the creative arts and offers scholarships to talented and gifted students in drama and music. Find out more about Music, Drama, Arts and scholarships at Ashbourne.