Molly Smitten-Downes

Molly Alice Smitten-Downes, simply known as Molly, is a British singer-songwriter, born on April 2, 1987.

Molly’s early life was spent in Anstey, Leicestershire, but she was raised in Rothley and attended Our Lady’s Convent School in Loughborough. Her first stage performances started when she was only eight years old. She pursued her interest in music by studying at Leicester College and the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey.

She was associated with the British electronic music ensemble, Stunt. Their collaboration with Sash!, “Raindrops (Encore une fois)”, a mashup of “Raindrops” and “Encore une fois”, earned them recognition in 2008. Molly collaborated with Basshunter, a Swedish producer and singer/songwriter in 2009 for “I Will Learn to Love Again,” which features in his second UK album, Bass Generation.

Molly released her acoustic EP, “Fly Away with Me”, on 18 December 2011. Grime artist Marger sampled one of its tracks, “Shadows,” which was subsequently released on iTunes through 360 Records. Her collaborations with Swedish producer Anders Hansson (“Beneath The Lights”) and producer Darren Styles (“Never Forget”) were launched in April 2013 and recorded in 2012 respectively. Molly was honored with the Best Urban/Pop Act at Live and Unsigned in 2012 and won Best Song at the Best of British Unsigned Music Awards in 2013. 

After earning recognition from BBC Introducing, Molly was approached by Guy Freeman, the executive producer and head of delegation of Eurovision for the BBC. Initially skeptical, she eventually agreed to the proposal of performing a self-composed work on a global platform.

On March 3, 2014, Molly’s selection to represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with “Children of the Universe” was announced by the BBC. Molly authored the song, expressing her desire to create music that “dissolves political barriers”. Prior to the contest, she signed a record contract with Warner Music UK on April 1, 2014, and announced the release of “Children of the Universe” on April 28, 2014. Despite being one of the favorites, Molly finished 17th in the Eurovision final on May 10, 2014.

Molly was invited to perform at the Glastonbury Festival on June 27, 2014. She was also recognized for her musical achievements at Leicester College with an honorary award on November 1, 2014, where she had completed a performing musician course in 2002. The next year, she collaborated with German DJ and producer Zwette for the track “Rush”, released by Spinnin’ Records and remixed by Sam Feldt. “Beneath the Lights” from her album was sampled by Kanye West’s producer Hudson Mohawke for “Shadows”. She performed at a concert named Laid Bare. She published an acoustic live performance of a new song called “Aeroplane”.

After this, she kept on writing songs. In June 2019 she was part of a musical project under the name of Pages. They released an EP called “Beautiful weirdo”. In July 2021 Molly released a new solo song, “Who are you”.