Chlöe Howl

Early life

Chlöe Howl (real name Chlöe Howells) was born on 4 March 1995 in England. The unusual use of the diaeresis above the "o" in her name is said to be a mistake her parents made on her birth certificate. Her father is from England and her mother is Welsh. She grew up in the village of Holyport, near Maidenhead, Berkshire. She attended Holyport Primary, and then Altwood Secondary School. At the age of 10 she recorded and sold her own Christmas CD (singing All I Want for Christmas Is You) to help raise funds for her primary school. In 2006, at the age of 11, she filmed a pilot episode for an environmentally-aware music show called "The Trollmates" in which she played one of four singing trolls (complete with pointed latex ears) discovered in Scotland by an American recording executive. As part of the TrollMates singing group she went on a promotional tour to the USA in August 2006, where she met David Hasselhoff. TrollMates made a concert appearance at the Great Wall of China at Badaling in September 2006 on the occasion of the launch of the 2008 Paralympics mascot. Among the tracks the group recorded was a special edition CD "to benefit the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games".

Howl left school aged 16 and signed a record deal with Columbia Records shortly afterwards. For a brief time she worked in an office, but spent much of the following three years writing and recording songs for her debut album.

2013–present

On 4 March 2013, her first extended play, Rumour, was released for free download. In June 2013, she released the video for her first single, "No Strings". She released a second extended play No Strings on 26 August. "No Strings" was part of the soundtrack for the movie Kick-Ass 2. On 9 December 2013, her second single "Paper Heart" was released.

On 2 December 2013 she was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2014. On 5 December 2013 she was shortlisted for the 2014 BRIT Awards: Critics' Choice Award, eventually finishing behind Sam Smith. Howl was included in the New Artists 2014 list by iTunes, along with Mø, Sam Smith and Dan Croll. Howl supported Ellie Goulding at some of her 2014 shows in Europe. In March 2014 she released "Rumour" as her third single.

It was expected that her debut studio album Chlöe Howl would be released in 2014 by Columbia Records (Sony Music), but by April 2015 it was being reported that she had left Sony Music. She released a new single "Bad Dream" via the indie label Heavenly Songs in April 2015. In May 2015 she teamed up with fashion house Fendi to model their new range of Orchidea sunglasses. In June 2016 she appeared alongside Ella Eyre in a video promoting the Nintendo 3DS handheld console.