Declan McKenna

2023 press photo by Henry Pearce

**Declan Benedict McKenna** (born 24 December 1998), sometimes stylized as **Declan Mckenna**, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He initially gained recognition for winning the Glastonbury Festival's Emerging Talent Competition in 2015. He self-released his breakthrough single "Brazil" in December 2014.

Declan released his third album and major-label debut album, *What Do You Think About the Car?*, through Columbia Records on 21 July 2017. His fourth album, *Zeros*, was released on 4 September 2020. His fifth album, *What Happened to the Beach?*, will be released on 9 February 2024.

## Life and career

### 1998-2013: Early life

Declan McKenna was born in Enfield, Greater London, on December 24, 1998 and grew up in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, where he attended St Mary's Church of England High School. He began taking his GCSE exams in the summer of 2015. He later studied for his A-levels in English literature, Philosophy and Ethics, and Sociology, but stopped after a few months after his music career began to consume too much of his time.

### 2014-2018: *What Do You Think About the Car?*

In 2014, Declan began self-releasing music on Bandcamp, including his first two albums *Tribes* and *I've Made It Further Than You (No, Not You)*, which he later removed from the platform in August 2015. In December, he released his third single "Brazil" which garnered media coverage in the UK for its lyrics criticizing FIFA and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

In 2015, Declan entered and won the Glastonbury Festival's Emerging Talent Competition, for which he was awarded a £5,000 prize and a slot on the festival's William's Green Stage. Shortly after, Declan signed a management contract with Q Prime. More than 40 record companies vied to sign him, with Declan choosing Columbia Records and founding Tomplicated Records.

Declan spent the remaining months of 2015 playing a wide range of British and Irish music festivals and concerts in venues throughout London. In November, he released "Paracetamol", which discussed the media's mistreatment of transgender people. A re-release of "Brazil" quickly followed.

Declan appeared on BBC Music's "Sound of 2017" list at the end of 2016, after releasing singles "Bethlehem" and "Isombard", along with the EPs *Stains* and *Liar*. The EPs had similar tracklists, *Stains* being exclusive to France, while *Liar* was released in the US. He would release two more singles, "The Kids Don't Wanna Come Home" and "Humongous", before finally releasing his major-label debut album, titled *What Do You Think About the Car?*. It featured all of Declan's singles since "Brazil", as well as five new tracks. All songs on the album were written by Declan alone, excluding "Listen to Your Friends", which was co-written with Rostam Batmanglij.

Declan played at various festivals in 2017, including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury Festival and Reading and Leeds Festival. Later that year, he won the BBC Music Award for BBC Introducing Artist of the Year. He also appeared at the Pilton Party 2017 with Bastille.

On 17 January 2018, Declan released "live footage" music videos for "Make Me Your Queen" and "Listen to Your Friends".

### 2019-2022: *Zeros*

On 19 August 2019, Declan released the song "British Bombs", which criticized UK foreign policy. He stated that it is specifically about "the hypocrisy of the British arms trade and the weapons convention in London". He wrote it as a result of wanting to write a song directly addressing war.

Declan announced via Twitter on 18 December that his upcoming second studio album was mastered and ready for release. He also had an artwork shoot for the album on the same day. On 29 January 2020, Declan revealed that his second album would be titled *Zeros*, and on that same day, the lead single "Beautiful Faces" was released. The album was slated for release on 15 May, but it was later postponed to 21 August and eventually 4 September, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

### 2022-present: *What Happened to the Beach?*

Shortly after the release of *Zeros*, Declan began working on music for a planned third major-label album. He performed new material from the project for the first time during a special concert in 2022, and performed additional songs one year later as part of The Big Return. He released the album's lead single, "Sympathy", on 6 July 2023.

The album, titled *What Happened to the Beach?*, is slated for release on 9 February 2024.

## Discography

> *Main article: **Discography***
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#### Studio albums

* *Tribes* (2014)
* *I've Made It Further Than You (No, Not You)* (2014)
* *What Do You Think About the Car?* (2017)
* *Zeros* (2020)
* *What Happened to the Beach? (2024)*

#### EPs

* *Stains* (2016)
* *Liar* (2016)
* *Zeros (Stripped)* (2020)
* *Deezer Sessions* (2020)

## Filmography

* *Barefoot in Brazil* (2017)
* *Home Turf: Declan McKenna* (2017)
* *Declan McKenna: Live From London's Brixton Academy* (2021)

## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/thedeclanmckenna/
2. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20140717090005/http://declanmckenna.bandcamp.com/