Griff has today launched brand new single ‘One Foot In Front Of The Other’, which premiered as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in The World on BBC Radio 1. It’s the title track from her brilliant, forthcoming debut mixtape, which will see a release on Warner Music on June 11th and also includes breakout moment ‘Black Hole’: the single achieved its peak chart position of 22 off the back of the BRITs performance, where Griff won the prestigious BRITs Rising Star and was heralded by the likes of Taylor Swift.
‘One Foot In Front Of The Other’ is another step (by step) towards superstardom for Griff. Written under lockdown about the uncertainty of the future, it’s an anthemic and vulnerable snapshot about feeling out of control, tackling life’s little things, and ultimately having faith in yourself. The track is brought to life on the mixtape’s iconic artwork, where Griff took tightrope-walking lessons to further represent a mixtape (she says) all about “that feeling that you could fall at any second. I’ve also produced the majority of this mixtape – I heard a stat that 2% of music producers are women, and so it feels important that as a young female in the music industry I should empower myself and continue to properly do it. It was challenging, but I hope in doing so ‘One Foot In Front of The Other’ feels like a raw, emotional and unpolished body of work.”
2021 has seen Griff take her place as the next great British pop star. She began the year shortlisted for the BBC’s Sound of 2021 poll, making her TV debut across ‘Late Night With Seth Meyers’ and ‘Later…With Jools Holland’, before gracing all new heights winning her first ever Brit Award earlier this month. True to her all-encompassing approach, Griff wore a hand-made dress of her own design during the post-apocalyptic ‘Black Hole’ performance (also making her band’s outfits), whilst collaborating with Lewis James as creative director (Beyonce, Jay Z, Drake). It remained important for Griff to shine a light on emerging, diverse talent on the night, which saw her work with London-based, Chinese-born designer Susan Fang on her breathtaking red carpet look. The night was capped off by Griff sharing chips with Taylor Swift backstage, after the mega-star sent her flowers and a card before the show wishing her luck.
Up next is Griff’s first mixtape, ‘One Foot In Front Of The Other’ – a body of work written in the first year of the pandemic, but also digging deeper into the still-just-twenty-year-old’s phenomenal story so far. Born to Chinese and Jamaican parents just out of Watford, Griff started making music in secret whilst completing her A-Levels – brought together into debut EP ‘Mirror Talk’, when many of her classmates learned for the first time what she had been busy with all along. In the last year or so, Griff has shown the type of creativity and curiosity that can still flourish even when – incredibly – she still has just one live show to her name. A singer, songwriter, producer and DIY fashion designer, Griff is that rare talent as at home fronting a Disney Christmas campaign as she is taking over London’s Tate Modern for her first ever live stream, or founding her own, popular ‘Against the Clock’ video series.
With its powerful title track unveiled today, songs across ‘One Foot In Front Of The Other’ follow Griff down the ‘Black Hole’ of modern teenage life: tackling big themes (young love, mental health, family, and friendship) in her signature style. Whether taking to the BRITs or making beats from your bedroom, trusting yourself to put one foot in front of the other is the spirit that has gotten Griff this far, and looks set to keep her going as she treads a new path for UK pop on the world www.
One Foot In Front Of The Other’ is available to preorder here, with bundles including personalized + signed vinyl, tape, CD, plus exclusive merch designed by Griff.
‘One Foot In Front Of The Other’- released June 11th on Warner Records
UK Live Dates – October
