Lucie Silvas

A singer and songwriter who has charted in her native U.K., Lucie Silvas debuted her soulful voice and earnest, adult alternative pop in 2004 with Breathe In. Her third LP, 2015′s Letters to Ghosts, was her first after relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, and she hit the Billboard Heatseekers and Independent Albums charts for the first time with 2018′s E.G.O. Silvas has also worked as a dedicated songwriter, penning tunes for artists such as Miranda Lambert, Katharine McPhee, and Reba McEntire, and she released collaborative singles with Sheryl Crow (“Cool Down”) and Brandi Carlile (“We Don’t Know We’re Living”) in 2021.
Born in 1980 to a New Zealander father and a Scottish mother, Lucie Silverman spent her childhood years splitting her time between those countries as well as her birthplace of England. Showing an interest in music early on, she had started playing the piano at the age of five and had written her first song by age ten. Later, she dropped out of high school to work as a background singer for ex-Take That singer Gary Barlow, and in 2000 she signed to then-EMI imprint Chrysalis Records. Going by Lucie Silvas, her debut single, “It’s Too Late,” saw release in 2000. She was dropped from the label before producing an album.
Silvas spent the next few years working as a songwriter for such artists as Liberty X and Will Young, but ultimately decided that performing her own material was what she wanted to do most. Mercury signed her in 2003 and released her full-length debut, Breathe In, the following year. It went to number one in the Netherlands and 11 in the U.K. The next few years were spent touring, mostly in the U.K. but also across Europe and as far as Asia. Silvas’ second album, The Same Side, hit Dutch shelves in October 2006, reaching the Top Five of the album chart there. After Mercury delayed its release in the U.K. due to the performance of lead single “Last Year,” it reached the U.K. in November, where it peaked at number 62.
She then parted ways with Mercury, and while working on material of her own, returned to co-writing songs for others. “Même Si,” Silvas’ collaboration with Grégory Lemarchal, appeared on the Lemarchal’s 2009 posthumous release, Rêves, and she co-wrote multiple tracks that were included on Katharine McPhee’s 2010 LP, Unbroken. Silvas opened a show for Jamiroquai at the O2 Arena in 2011, and “Fall to Fly,” a song she wrote with Mike Busbee for the Osmonds’ 2012 album, was covered on the second season of the ABC series Nashville in 2013. That year, she also had songs featured on another music-themed TV drama, NBC’s Smash. By that time, Silvas had relocated to Music City. Over the next couple of years, her writing appeared on albums by artists including Lucy Hale, Dave Barnes, Jamie Scott, and others. In early 2015, she returned with her own EP, Lucie Silvas, issued via her own label, Furthestpoint. Later in the year, she married John Osborne of country duo Brothers Osborne and released her second studio album, Letters to Ghosts. It was reissued the following year by Decca.
In 2016, Silvas contributed backing vocals to the Miranda Lambert LP The Weight of These Wings. It included the song “Smoking Jacket,” which she had co-written. Her songwriting could also be heard on releases by Lily & Madeleine, Kandace Springs, and Reba McEntire in 2016 and 2017, before Silvas delivered the solo album E.G.O. in 2018. It featured songwriting collaborations with the likes of JD McPherson, Tenille Townes, and Natalie Hemby. Released on Furthestpoint, E.G.O. debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and 35 on the Independent Albums chart. A series of collaborative singles, including “Cool Down” with Sheryl Crow and “We Don’t Know We’re Living” with Brandi Carlile and Joy Oladokun, followed in 2021. ~ Marcy Donelson