Will Linley

South African vocalist and composer Will Linley, recognized for crafting sincere tracks about romance, reached listeners across borders through digital platforms with his inviting, melody-driven modern pop. The 2021 recording “miss me (when you’re gone)” spread rapidly online, which prompted BMG to issue his first extended play, the major-label kill all my feelings, in 2022. Those early, bright selections leaned partly acoustic, while later cuts such as 2022’s “Last Call” and 2023’s “Tough (The Girls Song)” shifted toward denser, ensemble-driven settings.

Born William Peter Nel Linley in Cape Town, he was raised in a music-filled home and began writing material near the age of 16. During the opening phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, while only nominally pursuing a college degree, he turned his full attention to songwriting. Fragments of his characteristically upbeat, earnest pop numbers and solo video performances started appearing on TikTok in 2020. Building an audience through both the music and his engaging personal clips, the 20-year-old watched a lip-synched clip of “miss me (when you’re gone)” achieve viral status in late 2021. BMG then arranged a formal release of the complete track in 2022, followed in July by the mostly acoustic debut EP kill all my feelings. Linley kept strengthening the instrumental layers, which reached their fullest expression on the project’s energetic, amplified closing title track.

Subsequent singles displayed radio-ready full-band support, among them 2022’s “Last Call,” which entered the Irish singles chart, and 2023’s “Tough (The Girls Song)” together with “Maybe.” That October the singer made his initial appearances in the United States.