George Ezra
| George Ezra | |
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Ezra at the 2014 Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | George Ezra Barnett |
| Born |
7 June 1993 Hertford, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom |
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| Years active | 2013–present |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | Bradley Cowtan |
| Website | georgeezra |
George Ezra Barnett (born 7 June 1993) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. After releasing two EPs, Did You Hear the Rain? in October 2013 and Cassy O' in March 2014, Ezra rose to prominence with the release of his hit single "Budapest", which reached the top 10 in several countries around the world, reaching number one in Austria, Belgium, New Zealand and the Czech Republic. His previous work was with singer-songwriter Jordan Grey.
Ezra's debut studio album Wanted on Voyage, released in June 2014, reached number one in the UK and the top ten in seven other countries. It was also the third best-selling album of 2014 in the UK.Zane Lowe, a BBC Radio 1 DJ, called him "one of the most compelling and powerful new vocalists around."
Ezra grew up in Hertford in Hertfordshire, attending Bengeo Primary School and then Simon Balle School. He moved to Bristol in 2011 to study at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute there. Both of his parents are teachers.
Ezra cites Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie as his main musical influences. When the Gramophone Rings called him "a voice beyond his years", with "a soulful, wizened tone that somehow would feel more at home coming from an Alabama shrimp boat captain than a 21-year-old Bristolian."
A youthful obsession with Dylan prompted Ezra to seek out earlier American folk and blues artists. "Out of curiosity, I went to find out who he had been listening to," he says. "That's when I found Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie and Howlin' Wolf." Ezra had heard a Lead Belly compilation and had simply tried to sing like him. "On the back of the record, it said his voice was so big, you had to turn your record player down," Ezra says. "I liked the idea of singing with a big voice, so I tried it, and I could."
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