Bethan Mary Leadley (born 15 December 1995) is an English singer-songwriter, YouTuber, presenter, and actress.

Early life and education

Leadley was born in

Crawley Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a populat ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. She has an older brother, Daniel, who is married to

Hannah Witton Hannah Lisa Witton is an English and German YouTuber, broadcaster, and author. She creates video blogs and informational content which is mostly based around relationships, sex and sexual health; liberation and welfare issues; literature; and t ...

. Leadley attended

Woking High School Woking High School (formerly named Horsell High School) is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in the Horsell area of Woking, Surrey, England. The school has held specialist technology status since 2004, and conver ...

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

followed by

Portsmouth College City of Portsmouth College is a sixth form college on Tangier Road, Baffins, in the city of Portsmouth, England. Admissions The principal at City of Portsmouth College is Simon Barrable. The college is located just off the ''Eastern Road'' whi ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

Career

Music and YouTube

Bethan Mary Leadley / musicalbethan (2007–2014)

Leadley began posting videos to her YouTube channel (formerly ''musicalbethan'') in April 2007, although her main channel videos from prior to 2011 have been since deleted. She then started two side channels; ''acousticbethan'' in 2010 and ''justbefon'' in 2012. Her channels have consisted of covers, original songs, vlogs, interviews with the likes of

Union J Union J were an English boy band, consisting of members JJ Hamblett, Jaymi Hensley, George Shelley and Josh Cuthbert. Shelley left the group in 2016 and was replaced by Casey Johnson, who left several months later, Cuthbert left the grou ...

and

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer, songwriter, and activist. Born in Hereford and raised in Lyonshall, Goulding began writing songs at the age of 15. She released her debut single " Under the Sheets" through ...

, and more. Leadley released a single "Day Affair" in collaboration with mental health charity, Time to Change in June 2014.

Bethan Leadley / musicalbethan (2014–2017)

Leadley released her first EP, ''New Kinda New'' as Bethan Leadley under

LAB Records LAB Records (pronounced lab) is an independent record label operating from Manchester, England, and founded by Mark Orr and Nathen McVittie in 2007. The company also has a creative and distribution division, LAB Exposure, as well as a New York� ...

in November 2014 with producers Jon Gaskin and Ande Mello from

Fort Hope Fort Hope are a British rock band formed in 2013 after the disbandment of electronic rock band My Passion in 2012. The band has released three EPs and released their debut mini-album in May 2014, which peaked at 8 on the UK top Rock and Meta ...

. It was then announced Leadley would set out on her first tour via

Kililive Kilimanjaro Live Group is a group of companies that work in the fields of music and comedy, based in the United Kingdom. They are one of the largest event promoters in the UK. They own and operate Kew The Music, Live At Chelsea, Tartan Heart Fe ...

in January 2015 with performances in Bristol, Birmingham, London, Nottingham, Manchester and Glasgow. She was accompanied by Box of Light and

Dodie Clark Dorothy Miranda Clark (born 11 April 1995), known mononymously as Dodie (stylised dodie), is an English singer, songwriter, author and YouTuber. Dodie began her career uploading original songs and covers to YouTube. , her main channel has over ...

. Leadley supported

Lucy Spraggan Lucy Honour Ruby Spraggan (born 21 July 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Spraggan was a contestant on ''The X Factor'' in 2012, and she was the first contestant in the show's history to score a Top 40 single and album before the live show ...

on tour that May,

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC+00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and eve ...

2015, and

The Midnight Beast The Midnight Beast, sometimes abbreviated as TMB, is a British comedy/parody music group from London. They are most famous for their YouTube cover-parody of the 2009 single " TiK ToK" by American pop artist Ke$ha. The group currently has three ...

on tour that September. In September 2015, Leadley uploaded a charity cover of Birdy's "People Help the People" for

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

. Later in November, her second EP, ''Inside Her Head'' was released, this time with a more

pop punk Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop music, pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop s ...

sound and delving into personal issues Leadley dealt with growing up. The third track on the EP, "Fall for You", received a nomination for YouTuber song of the Year at the 2016 Summer in the City Awards and the music video featured a number of YouTubers, including

Emma Blackery Emma Louise Blackery (born 11 November 1991) is an English singer-songwriter, YouTuber, Twitch streamer, and author. Active since 2012, Blackery has garnered over a million subscribers on her YouTube channel and released two studio albums ...

Orla Gartland Orla Joan Gartland (born 3 February 1995) is an Irish singer, songwriter and musician. Gartland released her debut studio album, '' Woman on the Internet'', in 2021, which reached number 3 on the Irish album chart, number 1 on the UK Indie Char ...

Niki and Sammy Albon Niki and Sammy Albon (born 20 February 1992) are former British YouTube personalities, radio presenters and digital creators. Background Niki and Sammy are twins are from Canvey Island in Essex. They graduated from Roehampton University. Niki h ...

, Elyar, the Mandeville Sisters, and more. In 2015 and 2016, Leadley made appearances on YouTube channel CokeTV presented by

, including a duet with Clark, "Gold Star for Me". In February 2016, Leadley signed with

backed talent agency Free Focus. That same year, she supported

The Rocket Summer The Rocket Summer is the solo project of Bryce Avary, a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and record producer based in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas. He has released eight studio albums and several EPs. His fifth release, 2012's '' Lif ...

on the acoustic stage at Slam Dunk Festival 2016.

Leadley (2017–present)

Shifting her main focus towards music and her genre, she rebranded to ''Leadley'' with single "All of You" to debut the new moniker in August 2017. The song was co-written by Iain Mahanty and the music video was directed by Mandy Celine. A self-titled EP followed in November 2018 featuring

and Lucy Moon as back-up vocals and co-writing by Stefan Abingdon. The first single off this EP was "Like I Did", released in July 2018 with a music video in September directed by Abingdon and filmed at the Old Joinery in

Greenwich, London Greenwich ( , , ) is an area in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian ( ...

. The second was "Never Knew Love", which was released in August and its music video in November. It was filmed by her boyfriend, Elyar. She then in December filmed the music video for his song, "Mango", in return. Both were filmed on their holiday in

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

. Leadley's next single, "Chic", along with its music video directed by Mandy Celine, had a 9 August 2019 release. Leadley supported

Tessa Violet Tessa Violet Williams (born March 20, 1990) is an American singer-songwriter, social media personality, actress, music video director, and former child model. Originally a vlogger under the username Meekakitty, Violet has since focused primari ...

on the UK and Europe legs of her 'I Like (The Idea Of) Tour' in October and November 2019. When she got home, she released singles "Money" and "23", which she had debuted live on tour. In 2020, she released "Nightmare" and "Summer Lovin'". The cover for the former features art by digital artist Laura Brouwers (Cyarin/Cyarine). In March 2022, Leadley released her fourth EP overall and second under the Leadley moniker ''Dark Pop'', containing "23", "Nightmare", her 2021 single "Sinner", and 2022 single "I'm Not That Girl (Anymore)". In summer 2022, Leadley supported Kid Rain and was part of the

Climate Live Climate Live is a youth led climate education movement which organises local outreach programs and a series of international concerts hosted every year in over 60+ countries. The concert series was developed by Fridays for Future organisers. Cli ...

, Edgbaston Stadium, and

Reading Pride Reading Pride is an annual LGBTQ+ event held in Reading, Berkshire, England, that serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically asso ...

line-ups. Also in 2022, Leadley released the singles "New Shoes" and "Crush", which would form part of her 2023 EP ''Light Pop'' along with earlier singles "Chic" and "Love Me Like That" as well as new songs.

Television and film

Since 2015, Leadley has worked for

4Music 4Music was a British music television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. Launched on 15 August 2008, the original incarnation, replacing The Hits television channel, showed a mix of music and entertainment pr ...

presenting ''The UK Music Video Chart'', which airs on Saturdays at 5pm. In 2016, she was given a second gig on the network, ''What's Upfront'' on Mondays at 6pm. The shows are broadcast on 4Music,

Box Hits Box Hits (formerly Smash Hits) was a British commercial television channel owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel broadcast general pop music in shows such as Chartbusters, which was recent music and Pop Domination, which s ...

, and The Box. Leadley also hosted TransmitterTV's coverage of the 2015 Brit Awards. Leadley starred as the main character, Chloe Murdoch, in 2016 independent horror film, ''The Darkest Dawn'' (originally titled ''Hungerford 2'').

Artistry

Between her ventures, Leadley describes music as her "first love". Although she has been writing lyrics from as young as 8, she wrote her first full song, "Then I Go", shortly after her parents' divorce when she was 13 or 14. Leadley cites that writing music has helped her through difficult times and much of her music is based on real life experiences, either her own or those of her friends. As she has moved from folk/acoustic to pop punk to pop in terms of her sound, Leadley has stated that her inspirations have changed over time.

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper (band), Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate succe ...

's '' O'', which her father used to play in the car, made her "fall in love with songwriting to begin with."

Personal life

Leadly has been in a relationship with the singer Elyar since February 2017. They officially moved in together in December 2020, and are currently based in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. In April 2023, Leadley went viral on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

when she revealed she had been diagnosed with

primary ovarian insufficiency Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), also called premature ovarian insufficiency and premature ovarian failure, is the partial or total loss of reproductive and hormonal function of the ovaries before age 40 because of follicular (egg producing ...

(POI).

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

Music videos

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

{{reflist

External links

Bethan Leadley on IMDb
Living people 1995 births 21st-century English women singers 21st-century English singers Actors from Crawley Actresses from West Sussex British indie pop musicians English women singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters British music YouTubers People educated at Portsmouth College YouTube channels launched in 2007 YouTubers from Sussex