Singer, Songwriter and Producer Grace Davies made history by becoming one of the first acts, alongside co-stars Rak-Su to perform original material on The X Factor.
Grace, 25, was mentored by Sharon Osbourne, competed on the show in 2017 and delighted viewers but wanted them to know she was just as talented when it came to writing her own material. She revealed she was bewildered as to why contestants weren’t already doing this, citing some of the show’s biggest exports being famed songwriters.
She performed her re-released single Wolves on the show, following, Grace admitted she had a bit of a battle with bosses.
During an exclusive chat with the Daily Star, she said: “I was always baffled as to why that hadn’t happened before.”
“To me, if you look at song credits on Spotify that in the Top Forty, pretty much all of the time, the artists have written their own song themselves.”
“For me, I never quite understood why that hadn’t caught on when people like James Arthur and Lucy Spraggan hinted at it occasionally.”
The Blackburn-born star continued: “I was like ‘This is what artists do, let people sing their own songs’ and I think that me and Rak-Su who were on my year were very lucky that we were allowed to do that.”
“I think it’s definitely something that we fought for.”
“It was amazing to see the public react so well to it, the only two contestants who sang their own songs the whole way through came first and second.”
Grace has re-released the full and remastered track which viewers of the former ITV show never got to hear during her stint.
Reflecting on this, she said: “It’s nice, I was always like ‘Guys, you’ve never heard the second verse and it’s the best bit’.”
“It’s really good, especially with this version because it’s come from my brain and I never really got to produce The X Factor version the way I would have.”
“It’s really nice to be like ‘this is the whole song and this is the way I always intended people to hear it, so to see that people are so receptive and loving it, it’s great.”
Grace will play her first headline show next month at St Pancras Old Church with support from Catty and Dan Aura.
Sharing her excitement, Grace exclaimed: “I’m absolutely buzzing, I came off X Factor and did a couple of years of writing and went into release mode.”
“As soon as I released we got put in lockdown and during that lockdown we had the label [Syco] demise and I was like ‘ah’, so last year was kind of me just building up my fanbase again and making sure that my music was out there in order to give me a platform to do a live show.”
“That’s such an important party of my job, I’ve been on stage since I was three, so I miss performing, I’ve done festivals and support slots but never had a Grace Davies show, so I’m really excited to live versions of the songs.”
Tickets for Grace’s show on August 18 are on sale now, click here.
