Biography
Tom Odell: biography
Chichester, New Zealand, and a piano education
Thomas Peter Odell was born in Chichester, West Sussex, on 24 November 1990, to an airline pilot father and a primary-school teacher mother, and he has an older sister. Part of his childhood was spent in Auckland, New Zealand, after the family moved abroad, and he has recalled schooling in both countries. He attended Bishop Luffa School and Seaford College in West Sussex. Piano study from the age of seven, anchored in the Elton John songbook, gave him a classical foundation that he soon bent toward pop songwriting.
At school he wrote songs for a band that struggled to keep a lead singer, which pushed him to sing his own material rather than hand it to someone else. At eighteen he abandoned plans to attend the University of York and tried to win a place at a music college in Liverpool. A year later, after being made redundant from a bar job, he returned to Chichester and used his grandmother's car to travel to London for shows and to advertise at music schools, studying briefly at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music on the way.
Brighton, London, and a record deal
In Brighton Odell played open-mic nights with his band Tom and the Tides while working behind a bar, living in a bedsit between a hospital and a police station. The group eventually fell apart, and after another redundancy he moved to London, deciding he no longer wanted to rely on other people and would perform under his own name. Bookings were modest, including a daytime set on the concourse of St Pancras station played in a duffel coat.
A one-take studio performance of the song Sense, uploaded in 2012, drew attention, and a gig at Ronnie Scott's put him in front of Lily Allen, who signed him to her In the Name Of imprint on Columbia Records. Allen later told the BBC that his onstage energy reminded her of David Bowie. The debut EP Songs from Another Love appeared in October 2012, and a month later his first television performance, on Later... with Jools Holland, was described by the show's producer as a classic Later debut.
The breakthrough year, 2012 to 2013
In December 2012 Odell was named the BRIT Awards' Critics' Choice winner, becoming the first male artist to take the prize, and he was also longlisted for the BBC's Sound of 2013 poll. The BBC used Another Love to advertise its 2013 television schedule, and the single has endured as a streaming staple, peaking at number ten on the UK Singles Chart. In a long 2013 Observer interview he said heartbreak made for good songs and admitted that the camera-side of awards ceremonies left him uncomfortable.
His debut album Long Way Down was released on 24 June 2013 and entered the Official UK Albums Chart at number one, where it spent a single week before logging 58 weeks on the chart in total. He had been due to support the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park that July but withdrew through illness. The record fixed the template of his early work: piano-led, openly autobiographical ballads sung with a cracking, forceful vocal.
Ivors, syncs, and the middle albums
In May 2014 Odell won Songwriter of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards, collecting his statuette alongside Mumford and Sons, James Blake and others. Earlier that year his cover of the Beatles' Real Love had been recorded for the John Lewis Christmas advert, climbing to number seven in the UK, still his highest singles peak as a lead artist. His songs also became routine sync choices for series such as The 100, The Blacklist, Reign, NCIS and The Vampire Diaries.
Wrong Crowd, his second album, followed in June 2016 and peaked at number two in the UK on the back of the No Bad Days tour. Jubilee Road, released in October 2018, took its title from an east London terraced street where he had lived: neighbours asked him to invent a name so their road would not become a tourist attraction. Together the two records widened his range from pure confession toward character writing while keeping the piano at the centre.
Monsters and the turn to independence
Monsters, issued in July 2021, marked a deliberate break: darker, electro-lined pop informed by artists such as XXXTentacion, Drake and Travis Scott, and by Odell's own experiences of anxiety and panic attacks, which he discussed publicly around the album's release. He described years of feeling that the role of the songwriter had become obsolete during the pandemic, and he returned to the sessions with the filters and indulgence trimmed away.
After completing his contract he left Columbia and in 2022 became an independent artist, releasing Best Day of My Life that October. He later explained that working at a major could make an artist feel permanently insufficient, and that he now measured success in moments on stage when strangers sang his lyrics back to him rather than in venue sizes or stats. The change reset his working methods and opened the most prolific phase of his career.
Black Friday and a return to the charts
Odell issued the single Black Friday in September 2023 and announced the album of the same name, which arrived on 26 January 2024. The title track, a spare acoustic ballad about self-doubt inside relationships, spread widely on TikTok and reached number 21 in the UK, giving him his most visible singles chart return in a decade. Clash's review called the album his most confessional work to date and praised its raw, intimate delivery while noting how melancholy the set can feel.
The era also brought fresh collaborations and campaign work. He teamed with the producer and DJ Lost Frequencies on Black Friday (Pretty Like The Sun), a remix that grazed the UK top fifty in 2024, and he has kept up a long association with the Choose Love refugee charity, performing benefit shows and fundraising events for Ukraine in 2022. In August 2023 he re-released Streets of Heaven with Everytown to support gun-violence prevention in the United States.
A Wonderful Life and recent work
In May 2025 Odell announced his seventh studio album, A Wonderful Life, released on 5 September 2025 through UROK and Virgin. Recorded in London across ten tracks, it includes Don't Let Me Go and the single Don't Cry, Put Your Head On My Shoulder, and he has said that living, and writing honestly about it, is a profoundly important part of his life now. The record continues his late-period interest in turning the anxiety produced by the news cycle into direct, unadorned songwriting.
During 2025 he also widened his live reach, supporting Billie Eilish and The Lumineers on selected tour dates while continuing his own headline and festival appearances. He remains active as a writer and performer, with a catalogue that stretches from the piano ballads of his twenties to the sparser, more conversational songs of his thirties, and he continues to play shows built around direct exchange with audiences.
Selected moments
Career highlights
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Debut EP Songs from Another Love
Odell's first EP arrives on Lily Allen's In the Name Of imprint, introducing the piano ballad style that defines his early career.
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BRIT Awards Critics' Choice win
He wins the BRITs Critics' Choice prize and is reported as the first male artist to take the award, presented at the 2013 ceremony.
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Long Way Down tops the UK Albums Chart
His debut album enters the Official UK Albums Chart at number one and spends 58 weeks on the chart in total.
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Ivor Novello for Songwriter of the Year
Odell collects Songwriter of the Year at the 59th Ivor Novello Awards in London, among winners that included Mumford and Sons.
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Real Love and the John Lewis advert
His cover of the Beatles' Real Love scores the John Lewis Christmas advert and peaks at number seven on the UK Singles Chart.
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Wrong Crowd reaches UK number two
The second album, led by the singles Wrong Crowd and Magnetised, peaks at number two and anchors the No Bad Days tour.
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Jubilee Road released
Third album Jubilee Road draws on his east London neighbours and street life, and reaches the UK top five.
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Monsters changes the palette
Fourth album Monsters shifts toward darker electro-pop and becomes the record around which he speaks publicly about anxiety.
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Goes independent with Best Day of My Life
After leaving Columbia, Odell releases his fifth album independently and describes a new way of measuring success on stage.
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Black Friday album and viral title track
The sixth album arrives in January; the title track spreads on TikTok and reaches number 21 on the UK Singles Chart.
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A Wonderful Life released
His seventh studio album is released on 5 September 2025 through UROK and Virgin, recorded in London across ten tracks.
Recognition
Awards and nominations
Tom Odell's headline wins are the 2013 BRIT Awards Critics' Choice prize and the 2014 Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year, both confirmed by contemporary reporting of the ceremonies.
His nominations span the BBC Sound of 2013 poll, two BRIT Awards categories in 2014, and later Best Song Musically and Lyrically shortlists at the Ivor Novello Awards.
- BRIT Awards wins
- 1
- Ivor Novello Awards wins
- 1
- Wins listed here
- 2
| Year | Award | Category | Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | BRIT Awards | Critics' ChoiceWinner | |
| 2013 | BBC Sound of 2013 | Sound of 2013 pollNominee | |
| 2014 | Ivor Novello Awards | Songwriter of the YearWinner | |
| 2014 | BRIT Awards | British Male Solo ArtistNominee | |
| 2014 | BRIT Awards | British Breakthrough ActNominee | |
| 2023 | Ivor Novello Awards | Best Song Musically and LyricallyNominee | Best Day of My Life |
| 2024 | Ivor Novello Awards | Best Song Musically and LyricallyNominee | Black Friday |