page_title: Paloma Faith
section_title: 1981–2008: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Paloma Faith / Biography / 1981–2008: Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: hammersmith apollo 8th nov 2010
context_page_description: Paloma Faith Blomfield is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her retro and eccentric style. Her debut album Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful? was released in 2009 and has been certified double platinum in the UK. The album contains the singles "Stone Cold Sober", "New York", and "Upside Down", and earned Faith her first BRIT Award nomination in 2010.
  In 2012, Faith released her second studio album, Fall to Grace, which debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. The album was critically well received and surpassed the success of her debut, earning her numerous award nominations in 2013 and earning a double platinum certification in the UK. The album produced her first top ten single, "Picking Up the Pieces", the top twenty cover version of INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart" and earned her two BRIT Award nominations for Best British Female and British Album of the Year. Faith released her third album, A Perfect Contradiction in 2014, which stands as her most successful album to date. The album spawned the two UK top ten singles "Can't Rely on You" and "Only Love Can Hurt Like This", with the latter topping the charts in Australia.
context_section_description: Paloma Faith Blomfield was born in the Hackney area of London on 21 July 1981, the daughter of an English mother and Spanish father. Both of her parents were raised in Norfolk. Her parents separated when she was two years old and divorced two years later. She was raised by her mother in Stoke Newington, although she maintains a close relationship with her paternal grandmother. As a child, she was encouraged to dance by her mother and took weekly ballet classes in Dalston. After completing her A-levels at City and Islington College, she went on to study for a degree in contemporary dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, while working as a hip hop dancer at the nightclub LoveDough. She then studied for an MA in theatre directing at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and took various part-time jobs as a sales assistant at Agent Provocateur, a singer in a burlesque cabaret, a bartender, a life model, and a magician's assistant.
  Faith's first foray into music began when she mimicked famous soul and jazz singers including Etta James and Billie Holiday, whom she admires and cites as influences for her own work. She met her managers Jamie Binns and Christian Wåhlberg of Lateral Management in 2007. Binns had been tipped off by the producer Peanut, a client who had recently worked with Faith in his studio and been impressed. He met up with Faith shortly afterwards and was "completely blown away", later saying, "I wasn't sure what this girl was going to do – she was an actress and a singer – but there was just something about her in that artistic realness that when I came out of the meeting I called Christian and said, 'We have to do something with this girl!'"
  During her time at college, Faith worked in a pub where the manager asked her to front his band, which they later called Paloma and the Penetrators. During a performance with the band at a cabaret show, she was scouted by an A&R man from Epic Records, who invited her to sing for the manager of the label. 20 minutes into the audition, she asked the manager to turn his phone off; when he refused, she walked out. The manager later called her and offered her a contract, claiming that he had seen many acts since their meeting but none had been as memorable as her. She turned down an opportunity to join Amy Winehouse's band in order to write and perform her own songs. Her first recognised work was the song "It's Christmas (and I Hate You)", which she recorded as a duet with Josh Weller in 2008.
caption: Faith performing in November 2010
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