{"id":622843,"date":"2026-08-06T02:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/622843\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T02:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T02:28:15","slug":"sienna-spiro-on-her-new-album-and-adoring-frank-sinatra-and-twiggy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/622843\/","title":{"rendered":"Sienna Spiro on Her New Album and Adoring Frank Sinatra and Twiggy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSienna Spiro<\/a> was something of an established artist even before her debut full-length album, \u201cVisitor,\u201d came out on July 3. The 20-year-old Londoner with the big \u201960s hair and an even bigger, more timeless voice is officially a freshman \u2014 she will almost certainly be up for a best new artist Grammy in a few months \u2014 but she\u2019s also already a role model.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNot that this has occurred to her yet.\u00a0\u201cReally?\u201d she says when I point out this dichotomy over a Zoom call shortly after the record\u2019s release, a little bit surprised that anyone could consider her an influential or entrenched figure in pop music just yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo here\u2019s the case for her already being a star, and a true influencer: The new LP was preceded by a series of star-making singles, like the glorious ballad \u201cDie on This Hill,\u201d which went Top 20 in America and Top 10 in her native U.K. That led to a series of media-galvanizing shows, like a U.S. headlining debut in L.A. at the Troubadour in March that had me raving about her in\u00a0Variety\u00a0as \u201cthe world\u2019s next great pop vocal superhero.\u201d A tour of bigger North American theaters set for this October sold out immediately, with her album not yet released, as skyrocketing resale prices suggested that the amphitheater circuit would have been within reach for her.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut perhaps the most telling sign of her impact is how many of the young women participating in competitive TV singing shows have decided that covering her original songs is the best way to make an impression in an audition. On a spring episode of \u201cAmerican Idol,\u201d for instance, a standout candidate tried out by covering Spiro\u2019s \u201cMaybe.\u201d That was followed by Luke Bryan saying the judges had already heard other \u201cIdol\u201d contestants try out with Spiro\u2019s song \u2014 and maybe were already weary of it \u2014 but at last they\u2019d found an aspirant who could nail it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpiro brightens on the rainy stoop where she\u2019s sitting, delighted to hear that in the world of \u201cIdol,\u201d her nascent singles are already considered standards. \u201cWhenever I hear of someone doing that,\u201d she says, \u201cit\u2019s so crazy to me because when I was younger, me and my little sister would do \u2018Britain\u2019s Got Talent\u2019 in my mom\u2019s bedroom, pretending to audition.\u201d She has been able to pass go and skip having a reality-show step in her career, but she\u2019s tickled to be covered by even more youthful singers who\u2019ve come to consider her the gold standard. Spiro may only be 20, but she\u2019s probably just a step or two away from acolytes calling her \u201cMother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of finding hills to die on, I\u2019m ready to collapse on a mound proclaiming that Spiro\u2019s is a voice for the ages, or at least one that I expect to be hearing for decades to come. It doesn\u2019t hurt that she\u2019s inculcated in the classics and is unafraid to follow in some very big footsteps. She\u2019s most often compared to Adele, who laid the groundwork for husky belts like hers to succeed. But conversation about her favorite albums is bound to lead to Spiro sharing her adoration for Frank Sinatra\u2019s lonesome 1955 classic \u201cIn the Wee Small Hours.\u201d \u201cYou know, one of the reasons I signed to Capitol was because I wanted their logo on my vinyl to match Frank\u2019s,\u201d she confesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tChalk it up in part to a dad who grew up in the \u201960s and implanted that era in her soul, although only fairly recently has she added a visual complement to her throwback musical loves by adopting a bouffant and a minidress, styling herself like she was straight out of Swinging London, if not singlehandedly reviving the Ronettes.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Spiro recently did a how-to video for Vogue before a concert (yes, she does her own makeup), she cited Twiggy as an influence as she went through the steps to putting her cat-eye liner in place. \u201cYou\u2019re drawn to what you\u2019re drawn to, but I love the \u201960s,\u201d she says. \u201cI just loved all her magazine covers, and the way her eyes look was so fascinating to me. When I was figuring out my identity growing up, I loved her, so I wanted to try it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you\u2019ve seen the video Spiro put up as a blond lass just starting out at 16, sending her cover of a Finneas number into the world like a message in a bottle, she\u2019s unrecognizable. \u201cI grew up really insecure, and much bigger in weight to all of my peers and family, so I\u2019ve always had issues with the way I dress. But my dad always showed me the music and the films of women like Barbra Streisand and Ava Gardner. When I started releasing music, I still didn\u2019t want anyone to see my body, so I would wear huge clothes so that no one would get to make any comments. Then you grow into yourself more. I tried the hair for the first time, and it made me feel like such an elevated version of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHer songs match the promise of her voice, but there\u2019s very little that\u2019s retro about them, at least lyrically; they\u2019re mostly too stripped down and confessional to suggest any era but that of a contemporary young woman who\u2019s writing very frankly. \u201cI have no filter, which is a good thing and a bad thing. But I have no choice but to write honestly, and no choice other than to show up as myself,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m just a 20-year-old, and sometimes I wake up and I\u2019m on my period and I have to go and perform onstage. And sometimes having hair that\u2019s different from my everyday hair, or when I put my boots on, allows me to kind of step into something and have a level of confidence and separation from the way I felt writing those songs.\u201d But she certainly doesn\u2019t step into them every day: Without the big hair, she goes unrecognized on the stoop for the length of our video call. And, she points out, \u201cI\u2019d never wear heels in everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFamously, at this point,\u00a0<\/strong>she has vocal nodules that are responsible for the quality of her voice. \u201cI was really husky growing up,\u201d Spiro says. \u201cI only officially found out [about the nodules] two years ago. But I\u2019ve always had a super raspy voice. I do feel like I\u2019ve probably always had them, or from a young age at least.\u201d\u00a0Half the world\u2019s young female singers would probably pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for those nodules, I note, and she laughs. \u201cYou definitely wouldn\u2019t. A nightmare! They\u2019re such a blessing and a curse. I love the texture they give my voice, and sometimes they stop your voice from doing something, which I actually think sounds good. But I was nearly mute for a year \u2014 like, I barely spoke the year before last. It was really tricky. Very isolating.\u201d And ultimately very empowering, when she came back out of it in full strength, sounding 20-going-on-40, a one-woman tonic for anyone who\u2019s had their share of wispy voices in pop.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe credits her primary producer, Omer Fedi, for helping teach her the vocal quality she cherishes most: \u201cIntentionality.\u201d Before Fedi put her back on the right track in the early making of \u201cVisitor,\u201d she went through a phase of trying too hard in the studio before comprehending that, while we love artists who overshare, we don\u2019t necessarily love the ones who over-sing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t grow up thinking I was a singer, ever. My dad always was like, \u2018Oh, you sound shit,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018OK, great \u2014 so I\u2019ve got to be a really good songwriter if I wanna do this as a job.\u2019 But then I started doing sessions, and people started being very complimentary of my voice, so then I fed off that validation, and so I would do the most. Every riff, every run, every moment to belt, I would take it. But the way Sinatra sings is like a\u00a0painter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lead vocal she most aspires to live up to, though, is Roberta Flack\u2019s 1971 cover of \u201cWill You Love Me Tomorrow.\u201d \u201cThe way she approaches each line is with so much care. When I listen to it, I just feel like melting. You\u2019d think a favorite vocal performance would be something like Whitney Houston, which obviously is up there for me. But that is a dream of mine, to be able to sing like [Flack]. Sometimes holding back and being quiet is the most powerful thing you can do.\u201d\u00a0As far as most fans are concerned, Spiro\u2019s already mastered the art of creating meltdowns: Every time she sings, there are happy puddles where listeners once stood.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cVisitor\u201d isn\u2019t quite a concept album, but the title stems from her coming back around again and again to the theme of \u201cimpermanence,\u201d and how disturbing that can be until you find a way to embrace it. It\u2019s not unusual, among her peer group, to focus on relationships inevitably ending, but Spiro goes on from that to address the way all things \u2014 and mortality itself \u2014 must pass, which can be a little heady to be hearing from a 20-year-old.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSorry, it\u2019s raining now,\u201d she notes, explaining why she might be feeling \u201csuper existential,\u201d though it\u2019s clearly her natural way of being. \u201cI\u2019m neurodivergent, and I think that\u2019s a really big part of the hyper-fixating and overanalyzing. If I feel something, I will sit there for hours, days, weeks and years trying to understand why it is I feel that way. It took nine tries for me to write [the song] \u2018The Visitor,\u2019 because it was years of \u2018Why do I feel like this? What causes it?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy grandma feels these feelings, and you can feel it when you\u2019re 10 years old in a playground, feeling like you\u2019re not getting chosen. You feel it when you\u2019re in your early 20s and going through your first heartbreak, or seeing how your old friends aren\u2019t really your friends anymore. Or finding your identity while knowing how fragile your existence is. My grandpa died, and you have people leave your life in that way. We are\u00a0all\u00a0visitors in life in some way, shape or form. And this whole album is me grappling with coming to terms with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSomehow out of these feelings about life being transitory, Spiro finds a momentary fix in focusing on physical media. For example, the song she recorded for the \u201cDevil Wears Prada 2\u201d soundtrack, \u201cMaterial Lover,\u201d specifically came out of reflecting on the film\u2019s storyline and how it addresses the threat of print publications going away. \u201cI really related to the idea of magazines ceasing getting printed as everything becomes digital with social media. I\u2019m 20 years old, and that\u2019s very much apparent in my generation, and I hate\u00a0it. I especially hate how it translates across to music. I really believe in having tangible, real, physical things everywhere in life, but music is the thing I\u2019m the closest to.\u201d She did a photo shoot picturing herself amid the colored vinyl variants for the new album. \u201cI love these old hi-fi and analog adverts, and I set up that whole shoot inspired by it. Holding your music in physical form is just a really crazy feeling. Music comes out of nowhere \u2014 it comes out of your head \u2014 and you\u2019re like, \u2018I don\u2019t even know how this even came to be.\u2019 But then when you get to hold it in a physical format, it makes it feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpiro will be the guest performer at Variety\u2018s annual Power of Young Hollywood<\/a> event, where she will join a lineup of honorees who are mostly also in their early 20s to sing \u201cPure,\u201d a bubbling-under track from the new album. She will undoubtedly be able to compare notes with some of her contemporaries at that event. Spiro acknowledges it can be difficult navigating life as an old soul who not so long ago was being made to feel like a child prodigy; after teenaged years of being told she was great for her age, now she has to go for just being great. Which, as \u201cVisitor\u201d proves, is hardly a formidable task. But finding the sweet spot where she can embrace her youth while looking toward a kind of agelessness can be a challenge.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBeing 20 is just tricky, period,\u201d she laughs. \u201cEveryone struggles. But in the industry, for some reason, it\u2019s really been great to be super young. But you\u2019re put in these really trying situations where you have to be mature and make decisions about your life and do sessions with people that are twice your age. And so it\u2019s a really weird balance of \u2018Oh, I\u2019m super young\u2019 yet needing to be mature to make good decisions\u2026 while also making sure I\u2019m still being youthful and having life experience so I can continue to write songs and grow as a human\u2026 while also making sure I\u2019m not damaging anything for my life being in these situations. There\u2019s a balance you have to figure out \u2014 which I\u2019ve definitely not figured out! So that\u2019s my experience with my age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDichotomies suit Spiro. File her under \u201cNew Arrivals,\u201d but know that, by any intuitive standard, she\u2019s already a fixture.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sienna Spiro was something of an established artist even before her debut full-length album, \u201cVisitor,\u201d came out on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,19,17,337,261171,241494],"class_list":["post-622843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-power-of-young-hollywood","tag-sienna-spiro"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117046208528259036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}