Delilah Montagu

Delilah Montagu, a British singer and songwriter, first drew widespread notice for the unvarnished honesty of her songwriting. Her initial breakthrough arrived via the Black Coffee & David Guetta collaboration “Drive,” after which she issued her own debut EP, the introspective In Gold, in 2019. On the subsequent EP This Is Not a Love Song, released in 2021, she expanded the sonic palette with strings and steel guitar; later that year her major-label debut album BABY incorporated brasher pop, rock, and club textures while retaining an unmistakably personal perspective. A string of joint projects with King Henry and Max Jury followed, and Fred again.. sampled her work on the 2022 track “Delilah (Pull Me Out of This).” In 2023 she returned to a more understated, atmospheric approach with the independently released single “Coffee” on MNRK.

Born in Hampshire in South-East England and raised by her mother, Montagu was shielded from mainstream media during childhood. Instead she absorbed the work of classic singer-songwriters including Carole King, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, and Nina Simone. Part of those early years was spent in the Sussex village of Forest Row, where an influx of creative residents meant she was frequently in the company of musicians; by age six she was already composing strikingly mature material, first at the piano and later on guitar. At seventeen she relocated to London intent on entering the music business. Sony signed her in 2018, and while working in the studio she received a demo and was invited to record vocals without being told its purpose. The resulting performance appeared on the international hit “Drive” by Black Coffee & David Guetta; she performed the song live at a stadium show in Johannesburg and again during the 2020 livestreamed One World: Together at Home concert.

Montagu developed a fruitful creative alliance with writer and producer Robin Hannibal, composing primarily in Los Angeles. Sony released her debut EP In Gold in 2019. The follow-up, This Is Not a Love Song, came out in early 2021 and introduced more elaborate arrangements featuring sweeping strings; its single “Loud” accumulated millions of streams and received a Shura remix. Later that July the full-length BABY arrived, further broadening her sound with pulsing electronic dance elements, bolder rock, and atmospheric pop. After the album’s release she and Sony parted ways.

In 2022 she issued several collaborative singles on different imprints—“Fall with Me” with King Henry, “Don’t Call Me Baby” with Bamily, and “Is This Love?” with Max Jury—each highlighting her earlier, gentler style. That same year she scored her largest commercial success when Fred again.. released “Delilah (Pull Me Out of This),” built around a sample of the BABY track “Lost Keys.” Montagu resurfaced with new solo material in late 2023, offering the delicate, semi-acoustic “Coffee” on the independent label MNRK.