Amy Studt

Amy Jane Studt (born 22 March 1986) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Growing up in a musical family she recorded her first demo, "A New Day Breaks" by age 14, which eventually got her signed to Polydor. Studt released her first single "Just a Little Girl" in July 2002, to international success. It was followed almost a year later by "Misfit", which came to be her highest charting single. The same month her debut album False Smiles appeared. Late 2003 and early 2004 two more singles were released, "Under the Thumb" and "All I Wanna Do" respectively, but only to diminishing sales. That caused Polydor to drop Studt in February 2004.

From then until the end of 2006, Studt stayed out of the public eye. But in 2007 it was announced that she was working on a new album, now with the label 19 Entertainment. Some of her new material was published on MySpace. On 3 December 2007, "Furniture" was released as a digital single, and the album, My Paper Made Men, issued on 5 May 2008.

Studt was born in Hammersmith, London. Growing up in Bournemouth, Dorset, she started learning piano, playing guitar and learning the oboe. Studt's father is a violinist and a conductor who has worked with Roy Orbison, Shirley Bassey and The Beatles to name a few, either touring or recording and has played on countless films, while her mother was head of music at St. Katherine's Primary school. Amy also studied a term at Vocaltech vocal school in London, working with close friend, fello co-writer and Vocaltech tutor Yak Bondy.

From the age of 13, she attended Bryanston School, Dorset on a 50% music scholarship (having previously attended Castle Court School, Dorset). By the time Studt was 14, she had written 42 songs. Her father, who regularly works in studios, suggested she record some. She gave or sold the finished CD to various friends, and one found its way to Simon Fuller (manager of Annie Lennox, Spice Girls and S Club 7, among others).

2002–04: False Smiles

In 2001 she was signed to Polydor Records aged fifteen and began to work on her debut album. In July 2002, Studt released her first single, "Just a Little Girl", dubbed by some as the UK's answer to Avril Lavigne, even though Studt had in fact written most of the songs on her debut album before Avril Lavigne had first entered a recording studio. Her debut entered the UK charts at No. 14 but straight after the release she seemed to disappear off the scene. "Just a Little Girl" found its way onto playlists in New York City, Los Angeles and throughout the United States. In the United States, she is generally considered a one-hit wonder, but "Just a Little Girl" still receives occasional airplay on CHR stations.

Almost eleven months later, however, Studt returned to the UK music scene in June 2003 with her second single "Misfit". The lyrics of the song criticise those who conform to the general stereotypes of teenage life – the in-crowd – calling them superficial while Studt states she is comfortable with being labelled a misfit. "Misfit" received greater video and airplay than her debut, resulting in a chart position of No. 6 in the UK chart, an improvement of eight places. Alongside the chart success of "Misfit" was the release of Studt's debut album False Smiles, which entered the chart at No. 24 and later climbed to its peak position of No.18.

September 2003 saw the release of the third cut from the album, "Under the Thumb". The song became her second Top 10 and third Top 20 single, entering at No. 10, which also helped push the album to a peak of No. 18. False Smiles has since been certified Gold, selling around 200,000 copies in the UK and was even considered for the much coveted Mercury Music Prize shortlist. In an attempt to sell more copies of the album, False Smiles was re-released at the beginning of 2004 adding one new track, a cover of the Sheryl Crow classic, "All I Wanna Do". The song failed to set the charts alight at all, peaking at No. 21. The album re-release also failed to improve sales, missing out on the Top 40 altogether. Subsequently, Studt was dropped from her record label Polydor.

2007–09: My Paper Made Men

After some time away from the public eye Studt returned in early 2006. Studt signed onto the 19 Entertainment label. She also toured with Razorlight under the alias Jane Wails in order to stay out of the limelight and overcome stagefright.

"Furniture", a single taken from the album, "My Paper Made Men" was released on 3 December 2007. Some of her new material surfaced through MySpace, including a studio track titled "My Paper Made Man" which was available at the account of music producer Guy Sigsworth. In March 2007, several live recordings were made available on her own account, to which a recent photo shoot and a new biography were added in July 2007. Her new songs have received positive reviews, which suggested that listeners "ignore any dim memories of her midteens pop phase [from] a while ago."

Her latest single "Chasing the Light" was released on 28 April 2008. The video for this single is now available to watch on YouTube.

Her second album My Paper Made Men was released as a digital download on 5 May 2008 and physically on 2 March 2009, along with the third single from the album "Nice Boys".

It was made public in April that she was dropped by her record label due to poor sales of her album. Studt chose to leave her management shortly after.

In mid-2009, she declared an intention to move to the US to live and work after a brief visit there. However, on 20 August 2009 she announced in her blog that she had changed plans and had now moved to a country cottage in the UK where she planned to develop a recording studio and continue to write and tour with her guitarist of two years, Connor McDonald.

2010–present: MercyMadeMe and third studio album

It was announced via her official MySpace and Twitter profiles, that she is currently writing and recording material for a possible third album, which could see a 2012 release. In December 2010, it was announced via her official Twitter that she is currently recording in San Francisco, and in talks of a new direction and record deal. She also announced that she has written a song for Britney Spears.

Under new name MercyMadeMe, a collaboration between singer Mercy (Studt) and Toby Kidd from the band Hatcham Social, the debut single "Sleepwalker" was released on 23 January 2012, via the Cool for Cats Download Club label. MercyMadeMe is described as a revolt against the current day, BBC Radio 1 friendly, voice production techniques. Singer Mercy stated "This is the voice of the disillusioned fighting back".

In June 2015, she released her first single - Different Coloured Pills - from her future third album.

Albums

Singles