Violet Skies

Violet Skies brings a soulful voice to pop as a singer, songwriter, and producer whose work favors close-up lyrics and sweeping melodies. Her debut solo EP, Dragons, appeared in 2014, while the 2019 single “Is She Gonna Be There?” from her third EP, I’ll Buy a House, became her most-streamed track to date.

Hannah Berney, raised in Chepstow, Wales, performed as a university student on the first season of The Voice UK in 2012 under the name Violet Skies. She advanced to the second week of the live shows, interpreting material associated with Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake. One year afterward she issued her introductory single as Violet Skies, “How the Mighty.”

BBC Radio playlists lent early exposure, leading to a 2014 slot on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury, a headline date in London, and three releases that year: the Stumbleine EP Chasing Honeybees and album Dissolver, both showcasing her vocals, plus her own Dragons. Subsequent U.K. festival dates followed, and she returned in early 2016 with the single “Jealousy” just before her first SXSW appearances in Texas. The seven-track collection This Was Us came out on Saiorse Records in 2017.

The single “Is She Gonna Be There?” surfaced in early 2019, surpassing one million streams before landing on the self-released EP I’ll Buy a House that June.