Fiona-Lee on touring with CMAT: "Her work ethic is so impressive and I have so much respect for it"

Fiona-Lee is warm, bright and lively – the same can’t be said for the January chill outside the window of her home in Howden, East Yorkshire. Away from the polite meteorological small-talk, the 25-year-old has a darker side.

Much of 2025 was spent building momentum, with the singer earning increasing acclaim for her brand of introspective indie. It’s a sound that combines driving reverbed guitars (Sam Fender meets Chastity Belt) with themes like toxic masculinity and mental health, delivered with sobering maturity.

Debut single ‘Mother’ was immediate proof that Fiona-Lee doesn’t pull out of a hard tackle, detailing the twisted power dynamics she faced when she moved to London. Throw in a distinct, soaring voice, lined with just the right amount of northern authenticity, and it wasn’t long until people noticed. That includes the curators of the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury.

“It was my first time going to the festival,” she says. “I opened the BBC Introducing Stage. Every time I closed my eyes when I was singing, I was expecting everyone to have disappeared when I opened them. They were still there, it was class!”

That she had the energy to open her eyes at all is impressive. Glasto came a day after Fiona-Lee’s time on the road opening for CMAT came to an end.

“They’re just the most down-to-earth people, they’re all so lovely and welcoming,” she says of the experience. “I was playing on my own, so it was just me on the bus with them all. They were really fun and easygoing. Ciara was just lovely, and so funny. Watching her, she’s such a good performer and so good at keeping the crowd interested.

“I learned not to take it all for granted. She’s been doing this for such a long time, she’s got four albums out. I learned that if you keep on going, you really can get there. Her work ethic is so impressive and I have so much respect for it.”

Fiona-Lee has been hard at work too, finishing her second EP Every Woman (out April 17). The follow-up to September’s Nothing Compares To Nineteen, the upcoming project keeps the vulnerable stuff, but feels more assured. Imposter syndrome and narcissists posing as friends are some of the subjects under the microscope.

“The EP is about being a young woman today, and learning how to back yourself in difficult situations,” Fiona-Lee explains. “As a woman, and especially when you’re younger, it’s easy to doubt yourself in certain confrontations with other people.

“It’s about learning how to really back yourself, and how to sit with uncomfortable feelings, to get to that other side of clarity and peace. That’s how I felt throughout the whole process of making the EP. Before I wrote the songs, I had a lot of self-doubt and questioned myself a lot. On the other side of it, I’m a lot more confident and self-assured.”

She also made a point of recording all the guitar parts herself.

“Women are not encouraged in the same way that young men or boys are to play lead guitar and shred or whatever, you know?” Fiona-Lee says. “I’ve grown a lot more confident with all of that, writing those kind of parts. I feel like I’ve not cut any corners and I’ve given it everything.

“There’s some more folky influences and vulnerable, softer moments. When I was younger, I always thought that, as a woman, you had to be really loud to be heard – that’s how you got people’s attention. I’ve realised there’s a lot of confidence in being subtle, gentle and quiet.”

• Fiona-Lee Every Woman EP is out April 17.