1. Samuel Thomas Fender was born on 25 April 1994 and is an English singer, songwriter, and musician.
115 Facts About Sam Fender
1. 2.
Sam Fender's sound relies primarily on his traditional American musical upbringing combined with a British rock sensibility.
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Sam Fender is known for his high tenor voice and Geordie accent.
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Sam Fender won the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards and released his debut album, Hypersonic Missiles, which entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, that same year.
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Samuel Thomas Fender was born on 25 April 1994, in North Shields, England, to Shirley and Alan Fender.
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Sam Fender has a brother, Liam, nine years his senior.
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Sam Fender described the first 10 years of his life as "comfortable" within a musical family.
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Sam Fender's mother left when he was eight years old, although he later reconnected with her when he, at age 17, was forced out of his father's house by his stepmother.
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Sam Fender's mother was then living in the Scottish Borders, and Fender would grow up there when he visited her.
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At age eight, Sam Fender received his first guitar from his father.
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Sam Fender attended John Spence Community High School in Preston, Tyne and Wear.
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Sam Fender was bullied for being overweight and unathletic as a child.
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When Sam Fender was 12, he met his friend Dean Thompson and continued to play the guitar alongside him.
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Sam Fender's brother introduced him to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town albums at age 15, during which he began playing at his brother's open mic nights and formed his first band.
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Sam Fender met Joe Atkinson, and they developed a friendship through their musical interests.
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Sam Fender studied theatre and A Level in English language and literature at Whitley Bay High School; during this time, he began to spend most of his time in the music department, although he had not studied the subject academically.
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Sam Fender was regarded as popular with students and staff and engaged in school activities.
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Sam Fender performed with his band for the Year 13 students finishing their time.
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Sam Fender got into several fights in his youth, and though his father taught him boxing, this did not have the intended effect.
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At age 16, Sam Fender entered a Teenage Cancer Trust competition and won.
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The environment Sam Fender grew up in was "ravaged" by the omnipresence of drugs, especially spice.
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Sam Fender's friends were dealing marijuana, and later some switched to hard drugs such as cocaine.
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Social pressure had prompted him to smoke spice several times, but he stopped after finding the experience unsettling, while his friends became addicted for years, which Sam Fender said "destroyed their lives".
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Sam Fender idolised his father for his talent as a musician, and viewed him as a tough man who struggled to provide for his children in a region facing an endemic lack of opportunities.
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Sam Fender recalled that his stepfather had become homeless for more than a year after serving in the armed forces, and faced difficulty escaping street life whilst struggling to find stable housing and employment.
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Whilst studying, Sam Fender simultaneously held two jobs, working in a local restaurant and pub, and consumed alcoholic beverages daily from 17 and a half to 18, relieving him from work fatigue.
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Sam Fender abandoned his A Levels to earn money to help his mother, who developed a mental illness in addition to her fibromyalgia.
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Sam Fender's father was then a guitarist playing in clubs around Newcastle upon Tyne, and their relationship improved due to their shared common passion for music.
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Around 18 years old, Sam Fender began performing paid gigs at restaurants.
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At 18, Sam Fender was spotted performing in Low Lights Tavern, the pub where he worked, by Ben Howard's manager, Owain Davies, who took him on as a client.
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Sam Fender was diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening illness when he was 20, shortly after which his father moved to France.
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Sam Fender revealed years later that he has a "compromised immune system".
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Sam Fender has said that prior to this time he tried to write songs that he thought would be popular as he was "desperate to do well" to get himself and his mother out of their financial and living situation.
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However, Sam Fender said that having a major health scare and facing the possibility of death changed his outlook on life.
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Sam Fender's recovery refocused his songwriting efforts, and he began writing songs for himself.
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In March 2017, Sam Fender independently released his debut single, "Play God", which premiered on BBC Radio 1.
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In November 2017, Sam Fender was placed on BBC's Sound of 2018 shortlist, Won by Sigrid, the list was compiled by votes from 173 critics, festival bookers, and DJs.
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The song deals with the subject of male suicide, and Sam Fender wrote it as a reaction to losing close friends to suicide.
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In October 2018, Sam Fender performed "Dead Boys" alongside "Leave Fast" on BBC's Later.
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Sam Fender went on a 13-date European and Australian tour.
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Sam Fender released his debut studio album, Hypersonic Missiles, on 13 September 2019.
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Sam Fender received the Official Charts Number 1 Award for the BBC's Match of the Day.
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On 21 October 2019, Sam Fender appeared as the musical guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
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Sam Fender set the record for the fastest sell-out of four nights at Newcastle's O2 Academy.
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Elton John personally invited Sam Fender to perform at his annual AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Party after the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020.
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On 13 February 2020, the single "Hold Out" was released, which Sam Fender said was to be the last release from the Hypersonic Missiles era.
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Sam Fender was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2020 Brit Awards, won by Lewis Capaldi.
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Sam Fender performed in the Live Lounge playing a cover of "Back To Black" by Amy Winehouse, which was later officially released.
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Sam Fender was supposed to embark on a UK-headline tour in spring 2020, including performances at Leeds Arena, Utilita Arena Newcastle, and Cardiff International Arena, which would have marked his first-ever headlining arena shows.
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On 24 November 2020, Sam Fender released the single "Winter Song", a cover of a 1970s track by Lindisfarne, which was premiered as Annie Mac's Hottest Record in the World.
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On 7 July 2021, Sam Fender released "Seventeen Going Under" as the lead single and title track of his second studio album.
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Sam Fender followed the title track's release with the politically charged single "Aye", which he described as being "about the polarity between the left and the right wing".
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Sam Fender embarked on a 13-date headline UK tour, which was initially scheduled for March and April 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.
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Sam Fender presented a documentary on the life of Alan Hull, named Lindisfarne's Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull Story, which featured contributions from Sting, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, Dave Stewart, and Peter Gabriel.
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In December 2021, The New York Times wrote that Sam Fender "is fast becoming one of Britain's biggest rock acts".
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Sam Fender dedicated the win to the North East Homeless centre.
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On 24 June, Sam Fender performed on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2022.
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Sam Fender appeared as a special guest for The Rolling Stones at British Summer Time Hyde Park on 3 July 2022.
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Sam Fender headlined a show to 45,000 people at Finsbury Park on 15 July 2022.
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On 2 September 2022, Sam Fender announced his first headline stadium show for 2023.
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Sam Fender unveiled "Wild Grey Ocean", a song previously unreleased from Seventeen Going Under, which would later be included in the album's reissue.
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Sam Fender opened for Springsteen at two shows in Italy in May 2023.
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Sam Fender headlined two shows on 9 and 10 June 2023 at Newcastle's St James' Park stadium, attended by 100,000 people in total.
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On 19 January 2024, Sam Fender was featured on the song "Homesick" from Noah Kahan's album Stick Season.
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Sam Fender played two unreleased songs, "People Watching" and "Nostalgia's Lie", at an intimate show in Plymouth on 3 August 2024.
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In November 2024, Sam Fender began teasing the release of "People Watching", sharing details about the single on social media.
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Sam Fender revealed that the song was inspired by the death of someone who was like a "surrogate mother" to him.
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Nick Reilly of Rolling Stone gave the album four stars, stating that it proved why Sam Fender is a "master storyteller".
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However, Pitchfork's Hannah Jocelyn gave the album a rating of 6.5, saying that Sam Fender sometimes gets "lost in the wall of sound".
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On 18 October 2024, Sam Fender announced his People Watching Tour, with dates across the UK and Europe.
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Sam Fender made his acting debut in the pilot episode of the ITV drama series Vera, which aired in 2011.
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Sam Fender appeared in an episode of the fantasy series Wolfblood, which first aired on CBBC in 2012.
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About his brief acting career, Sam Fender stated he favoured music due to the ability to have "more control over it".
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In 2018, Sam Fender first appeared in UK fashion magazines such as F Word and The Last Magazine.
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Sam Fender made an appearance at the British GQ Men of the Year Awards 2019 at Tate Modern in London.
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In 2021, Sam Fender created his signature clothing line in partnership with Barbour International and launched it in April of that year via Scotts Menswear.
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On 1 April 2020, Sam Fender performed for Isolation Nation Live on LADbible's Facebook page with an optional donation benefiting the British Red Cross's COVID-19 relief efforts.
78.
Sam Fender participated in the Live Lounge Allstars charity single as part of a charity supergroup that recorded a rendition of "Times Like These" by Foo Fighters from their homes during the COVID-19 lockdowns, whose proceeds were donated to charities Children in Need, Comic Relief, and COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
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Sam Fender released a cover of "Winter Song" by Alan Hull to raise money for The Big Issue newspaper, collaborating with the social enterprise People of the Streets.
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Sam Fender said the issue of homelessness is significant to him as he has friends and relatives who have experienced it.
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On 4 December 2020, Sam Fender launched a petition to urge all UK councils to stop phone charges for helplines for vulnerable groups of people in the North East of England in need of emergency assistance.
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Sam Fender said it was "scandalous" that four of the seven councils serving its local community charged them 40 pence per minute.
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Sam Fender contributed a cover of Metallica's "Sad but True" for the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist, released in September 2021.
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On 24 May 2022, Sam Fender performed at Newcastle City Hall to raise money for the North East Homeless centre through a ballot ticketing system.
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Sam Fender has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which he believes helped him focus on music.
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Sam Fender supported the use of medical marijuana, which helped alleviate a friend's cancer symptoms.
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On 12 September 2022, Sam Fender announced he was cancelling the remaining dates of his US tour to focus on his mental health.
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Sam Fender holds left-wing views, but has said that the British Left had "alienated their grassroots supporters" by concentrating on identity politics, leaving the working class to "being picked up by the right".
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Sam Fender felt that "the increasing polarisation of political discourse" is a problem that makes "debate and compromise all but impossible".
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In late 2021, Sam Fender felt disillusioned by politicians and political parties, saying that his "only allegiance now is to 'people".
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In November 2023, Sam Fender signed an open letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
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Sam Fender grew up in a family where his parents listened to soul, jazz, rock, and 1990s music through his brother.
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Sam Fender cites Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Otis Redding, Joni Mitchell, Jeff Buckley, Adam Granduciel, and his father's favourite band, Steely Dan, as his early inspirations.
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Sam Fender's godfather was a significant source of musical inspiration to him growing up; thus, visiting him, Fender would listen to songs by Mitchell and the Smiths.
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Sam Fender listened to 1960s rock and roll, the Spencer Davis Group, the Kinks, Joy Division, and Talking Heads growing up.
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Sam Fender credited his initial interest and inspiration for songwriting to a teacher who encouraged him to enhance his writing as part of a two-year school work beginning at age 13.
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Sam Fender names Bruce Springsteen and his album Born to Run as a major influence.
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Sam Fender has been classified as an indie rock and British rock singer.
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Max Winkler of the Hamburg Evening Newspaper wonders if Sam Fender is "the future of rock'n'roll", whilst Neil McCormick of The Telegraph writes that through his music, he "continues his crusade to keep Britain safe for rock'n'roll".
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Financial Times critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney felt a musical approach leaning towards "classic rock" and considered Sam Fender to have established his "authentically British version" of heartland rock as Dire Straits had done in the 1980s.
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The Times critic Will Hodgkinson agreed, calling it "Sam Fender's nostalgia set to a classic rock sound".
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Sam Fender has been dubbed "The British heartland rocker" by WFPK's Kyle Meredith.
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Sam Fender is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, bass, piano, synthesizer, Hammond organ, glockenspiel, harmonica, and mandolin.
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The characteristic features of Sam Fender's music include the jangly guitar tone of Jazzmasters, solos, saxophone, and horns and strings.
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Sam Fender is known for his high tenor voice and strong Geordie accent.
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Sam Fender's manager said he was "totally struck by this incredible voice" when Fender, then 18, began singing under the encouragement of his boss at Low Lights Tavern.
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Petridis observed that in ascending pitch on the song "Aye", Sam Fender's voice "takes on the keening quality" of John Lydon.
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Sam Fender told Billboard in 2019 that he was entering a phase of writing lyrics first due to his enjoyment of "just writing poetry or just writing freeform".
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Sam Fender mostly writes songs on the piano and converts them to the guitar, continuing the creative development to find slight variations of chords on the latter.
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Byrne argued that Sam Fender distinguished himself as "an artist interested in expressing lived emotion" when releasing his series of singles from 2017.
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Seventeen Going Under was described as Sam Fender "turning the mirror on himself; his adolescence and the trials and tribulations of growing up", with North Shields as "the ever-present backdrop".
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Sam Fender began playing a Les Paul in his early days, and then the Fender brand offered to provide him with free equipment.
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Sam Fender subsequently developed an interest in the sound of the Jazzmaster.
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Sam Fender uses a powder blue Stratocaster and a Takamine acoustic guitar; both are gifts from Elton John.
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Sam Fender recorded the second album tuned to C standard and Nashville tuning and used light gauge strings.