Cat Burns
When: 15th October 2024
Location: O2 Academy
Cat Burns is the Gospel-hued pop putting untold Gen Z stories front and centre. Coming to Glasgow’s O2 Academy on 15th October 2024.
From the realities of adulthood to coming out to family, London singer-songwriter Cat Burns navigates love and life with an open heart and disarming honesty, crafting some of the most inclusive and relatable pop of her generation.
Listening to Cat Burns now – a graceful yet assured chronicler of life as an LGBTQ+ Gen Zer – it’s hard to believe there was a time when she was self-consciously testing the music waters, hiding her piercing original material behind heartfelt, guitar-laden covers she posted online. The style-bending pop artist and BRIT School graduate was still in the process of finding her voice when she released her debut EP Adolescent independently in 2016. Melding bassy, R&B-inflected grooves with indie explorations of youth, love and friendship, the release captured an artist straddling moods and genres that labels found hard to market. The five-track follow-up, 2019’s Naive drew from a fresh sonic palette to discuss familiar themes of players and pretty boys —in hindsight, miles away from the liberated voice Burns would soon grow into.
A resonant storyteller with influences stretching from gospel to Destiny’s Child, Burns honed her craft strumming away in her Streatham bedroom or busking along South Bank —but she would eventually find the connection she craved online. With plenty of time to spare during the pandemic, the south Londoner turned to TikTok, where an army of like-minded followers extended their warm embrace around her. The platform is, in fact, credited with her breakthrough in the form of ‘Go’, a 2020 single that, in a tremendous TikTok twist of fate, went viral in early 2022, climbing all the way to No.2 in the Official Singles Chart later that year. A raw, refreshingly direct break-up ballad unfolding over achingly fragile guitar notes, the double-platinum track earned Burns prominent fans like Sam Smith, who laid soul-baring vocals on a later remix, and invited the artist for chillingly beautiful duets on stage.
Emotionally Unavailable
The track also served as an opener to 2022 EP Emotionally Unavailable, a testament to the self-professed introvert’s songwriting maturity, bravely sorting out priorities and confronting mental health needs. The singer has called 2022 the year that changed her life, with highlights including supporting Ed Sheeran on his Mathematics tour – with added tips on covering a massive stage, as opposed to hiding behind a mic stand – a headline show in London music institution KOKO and a BRITs Rising Star Award.
With a combined follower count in the millions, Cat Burns nurtures new ways of inclusivity and communication, charting her personal and musical journey in a therapeutic tide of gender-neutral pronouns and reassuring melodies for fans who haven’t figured it out yet. An empowering voice to Black queer artists, the singer has also spoken openly about the challenges of being diagnosed with autism and ADHD. In 2024 ‘Wasted Youth’, an emotion-soaked collab with drum ‘n’ bass producer goddard., was followed by ‘Alone’, a spine-tingling, gospel-laced track contemplating a lonely future. Together, these two releases signalled another year of insightful soul-searching and bold chances for Cat Burns, on the lead-up to her debut album Early Twenties, slated for July 2024.
