Stolen Land

**Stolen Land** is the seventh studio album by British singer-songwriter Kathy Poulton. It was released on February 26, 2021, by her husband's label P&P Records. It was described by the author as "a comeback to her roots" and as a "lyrically powerful album". Like her previous efforts, the album was a commercial success, debuting atop multiple international charts, including the Paper US Albums chart. It was also nominated for a Paper Music Award in the "Best Album - Pop" category.

## Background and production

Poulton began writing songs for her upcoming album during the Glitter World Tour in 2019. At first, it had to be titled "Zero" and released in the first months of 2020. After releasing the lead single "Taken By The Clouds", which featured Adele and was accompanied by a high-budget music video, she announced a mini-tour, which had to promote the record. It lasted for two months between January and March 2020, with the two latest concert cancelled due to the COVID-19 lockdown in United Kingdom. On April 22, 2020, Poulton announced that she will not be releasing "Zero" as scheduled, first moving its release date to August. However, later on, it was revealed that the album was scrapped and a new one is in the making.

According to Parker - one of the main producers of "Stolen Land" - the first demos of new songs were recorded between March 20th and 27th, 2020 in Poulton's bathroom. The first studio version was produced in June 2020, although none of the songs made it to the final cut. He also stated that "the first song [they] made for the album was "Fighters" in July of 2020" and that "it was meant to become the lead single, but [their] plans changed after finishing "Take Me Where I Belong" a few days later".

Most of the songs on the album have lyrics that metaphorically respond to certain events in the world, such as the pandemic and merits of medical workers, racial injustice around the world, discrimination of non-heteronormative people and climate change. Other topics include Poulton's private life, her reflections on isolation, as well as experiences with marriage.

## Release and promotion

The lead single promoting "Stolen Land" was released on August 14, 2020 - the day on which "Zero" was meant to be released before cancelation. "Take Me Where I Belong" was accompanied by a music video, that was viewed over fifty million times in just a few hours after release on YouTube, making it one of the fastest films to achieve this. The song itself was a commercial success, peaking atop the Paper US Songs chart for three weeks. Two hours before final release, Poulton answered questions asked by her fans on Twitter. The song was performed live for the first time during the 2020 European Paper Music Awards, which took place in Paris on August 22. During the ceremony, she won the award for "Collaboration Of The Year" along with Adele.

After appearing on "The Night Music Show" in September, Poulton gave a series of interviews for various media outlets, most notably Good Morning America and BBC Radio, in which she started teasing her next single. At the beginning of October, she posted a series of videos on her social media, all of which with a coded message. After the last clip was shared, fans have successfully guessed all the words, which in the end spelled out "The 100th Avenue. Out October 30th. Pre-save now". The next day, Poulton publicly announced the second single off her seventh album. It was released as planned, on the second-to-last day of October, 2020. The official music video was released a day later, on Halloween. Similarly to "Take Me Where I Belong", it was a big success both commercially and critically, with experts praising the "enthralling production" and "deep lyrics".

Poulton announced the third promotional single via social media on December 30, 2020. Writing "this song is also my next album's title track", she confirmed the record's name and hinted it will be released soon. During her New Year's Eve performance in Glasgow, Poulton staged "Stolen Land" for the first time before its official British premiere, which happened on January 1, 2021 at midnight local time. It didn't match the success of its predecessors, but still managed to enter the top-ten on official charts in United Kingdom. The song was later described by the author as "the quintessence of the album".

Just days later, Poulton surprise-released "Fighters" as the final promotional single before album's release, alongside the official "Stolen Land" announcement. In a social media post, she said "this next chapter is probably the most personal [she's] ever gotten on a record", emphasizing the thoughtful, inspiring and down-to-earth lyricism. According to her, "Fighters" was chosen as the announcement-accompanying song because it "still holds a special place in [her] heart" and it "depicts what to expect from "Stolen Land"". The song was later released as a full single.

On February 25, 2021, a countdown was started on Poulton's official website. It started exactly twenty-four hours before album's release and fans could chat about the upcoming release in real time, as well as share their photos and expectations. "Stolen Land" was finally released at midnight ET. The sixteen-track record was sold out in all online stores at the time. Poulton's fans expressed their happiness on social media and twelve topics and keywords related to the album were trending worldwide on Twitter simultaneously. In just twenty-four hours after release, the album was streamed over eighty million times on Spotify alone, with an additional thirty-six million views coming from YouTube. Poulton occupied the whole top-fifteen of Spotify global charts for two days, making "Stolen Land" the most-streamed studio album by a female artist in twenty-four hours, forty-eight hours, as well as seven and thirty days.