Grace Petrie

Hailed as the voice of a new generation by listeners and critics alike, Leicester’s Grace Petrie emerged from the blossoming East Midlands music scene in 2006, at the age of 18. Her lyrically led pop-folk soon began to draw attention, and after a well-received first album that earned her a dedicated local fan base, she managed to break on to the festival circuit and was welcomed at both of Leicester’s major festivals, The Big Session and Summer Sundae.
But in 2010, Grace found a new direction: following her outrage and heartbreak at the general election, she picked up her guitar one day and wrote what has since become one of the strongest anti-establishment anthems of recent years: Farewell to Welfare. When protest legend Billy Bragg heard her music, he hand-picked her to play on his Leftfield stage at Glastonbury alongside Frank Turner, The Agitator and Bragg himself, who was moved to comment after her performance that she “stole the f***ing show, sister.”
2011 saw Grace Petrie’s music explode on a national scale, with features in the Guardian, the New Statesman and Clash magazine, as well as interviews on the BBC’s 6music radio. After touring the UK with Emmy the Great and Josie Long, Grace returned to the studio to produce her newest release, Mark My Words, a record of blistering political tributes to her protesting generation.