Beth McCarthy

U.K. vocalist and tunesmith Beth McCarthy fuses introspective writing with layered electronics and intricate pop-rock frameworks shaped by figures such as Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding. Her initial outing, the more acoustic-leaning Northern Light EP, appeared while she was still a teenager in 2013, yet it was the 2021 jealousy-driven track “She Gets the Flowers” that propelled her to viral status. The following year brought the No Hard Feelings EP, which expanded on relational themes through her electro-pop palette edged with rock textures, before she turned to questions of sexual identity on the 2024 release IDK How to Talk to Girls and its accompanying singles, among them “All My Friends Are Hot.”

Born in York, England, McCarthy entered the spotlight at seven through stage musicals, formed her first band by eleven, and picked up guitar and songwriting at thirteen. Live appearances soon followed, beginning with the upload of her debut single “Hero” in 2012 and the self-issued Northern Light EP the next July, shortly after her sixteenth birthday. While cultivating an online audience via originals and covers, she tried out for series three of The Voice UK in 2014 but exited during the knockout stage. Around then she assembled a full band, secured support slots with Shed Seven and the Orchestra (former members of Electric Light Orchestra), and appeared at festivals including Latitude and Green Man.

In 2016 the ballad “Streets of London” featured in the film 100 Streets, after which she issued further singles that were later compiled on the early-2019 EP Self Portrait. Joining TikTok near the end of 2020, she amassed millions of views with a reworked take on Will Joseph Cook’s “Be Around Me.” Streams climbed higher still in March 2021 with “She Gets the Flowers,” a track that drew tens of millions of plays as McCarthy alternated between forceful and tearful comparisons to a rival.

The September 2022 No Hard Feelings EP continued in an electro-pop-rock vein focused on relationships, while February 2024’s IDK How to Talk to Girls introduced explicitly queer material. She added the songs “Good Bi” and the upbeat “All My Friends Are Hot” before year’s end, and also completed her first Australian tour.