Holly Humberstone may be a rising pop star, but she's the first to admit she's far from perfect. In fact, she believes that's exactly what makes her connect with fans.
Speaking from her home in New Cross, south-east London, the singer-songwriter opened up about her latest album, Cruel World, and the pressure to appear flawless. "People can't connect to a pop star who's 'too polished'," she says. "It's totally fine if you mess up or sing a wrong note. So maybe my strength is that vulnerability, and I need to recognise that more."
That vulnerability is at the heart of Cruel World, which entered the UK charts at number four earlier this year. The album was written after a period of upheaval for Humberstone, whose parents sold her childhood home in Lincolnshire and moved to Wales. The house, a "freezing cold, falling down" property outside Grantham, had been a creative sanctuary where she wrote her early EPs. "It's a place I always felt I could go back to, to remind myself of who I am," she says. Packing up 23 years of memories left her feeling "uprooted" and grappling with an identity crisis.
Instead of shying away from those feelings, Humberstone poured them into her music. The result is an album that explores escapism and fantasy, but also confronts uncomfortable truths. The closing track, Beauty Pageant, is a raw examination of the impossible beauty standards imposed on female artists. "It's a song that I wasn't really setting out to write," she admits. "Writing about other people often feels easier than turning the magnifying glass on yourself."
The lyrics draw on her experiences at an all-girls school in Grantham, where she says competition was drilled into students. "You're only rewarded if you're the best. And if you're not, you're worthless," she recalls. That mindset was exacerbated by her early success, including winning the Brits Rising Star award in 2022. "Suddenly I was in meetings being compared to all these people on my label's roster, who are on a completely different scale," she says. "It's something I've really had to unlearn."
Now, Humberstone is focused on making music that feels authentic to her, rather than chasing charts or awards. "I don't think there's a point I could get to, or an award that I could win, where these feelings would disappear," she says. "So I'm done with setting myself goals, because then I lose sight of the real reason that I'm doing this, which is to write music that represents me, and have other people feel understood through that music."
That philosophy extends to the expanded edition of Cruel World, which features five new songs written after the original album was completed. The new tracks showcase a more confident, flirtatious side of Humberstone, inspired by a playlist of Abba, Madonna and Robyn. "When you've got that in your back pocket, there's room to experiment and break some of your usual parameters," she explains.
One of the new songs, Too Cute To Be Lonely, is a will-they/won't-they story set at a house party, while Terminally Yours captures the moment she realises she's fallen in love. "Your stupid face is my sorry fate," she sings, cross at herself. "For [expletive]'s sake, I'm in love." Another track, Silver Sky, is a gorgeous acoustic ballad written in Nashville with co-writer Maddie Diaz. "I usually write a lot about my mental health struggles, but I was just in the mood to write something that made me feel good," she says.
Despite her growing success, Humberstone admits her stage nerves have only intensified since the album's release. "It's the proudest I've been of any of my work and, for that reason, I struggled with shows because I felt a lot of pressure to go out and deliver it to the standard that I think people are expecting," she says. But she's learning to embrace imperfection. "People can't connect to a pop star that feels too robotic and polished," she reiterates. "So maybe my strength is that vulnerability."
That vulnerability has won her millions of fans, even if a hit single has so far eluded her. Her breakout song Falling Asleep At The Wheel was recently certified silver in the UK, five years after its release, proving that her music has staying power. Humberstone is surprised to learn of the accolade during our interview. "If I'm going to be doing this for years to come, I've just got to keep making music that feels right, trusting my gut and realising there's no end point," she says. "Reaching an end point would mean I've 'made it', but I think, maybe, that's a myth that doesn't really exist."
