Valencia Grace had lived in Los Angeles, Dallas, Kuala Lumpur, and Poole, Dorset by the time she was 14, moving enough that songwriting became the one constant place to put everything she wasn't able to share with anyone in real time.
She built an audience of more than 2.6 million TikTok followers posting covers before she'd released a single original song, drawing on Etta James, Amy Winehouse, and Aretha Franklin rather than anything closer to her own generation; she's since supported Sam Fender on a US tour and toured Europe with renforshort, still working entirely as an independent artist alongside producer CJ Baran, known for his work with MARINA.