Becky Hill doesn’t do rules. A hit machine since her teens, the pop powerhouse has forged her own particular path to fame. As successful as a songwriter as she is as an artist, as fierce behind the scenes as she is on stage and as credible as she is commercial, the 27-year-old has become one of Britain’s most successful musicians entirely on her own terms.

Only Honest On The Weekend, her years-in-the-making debut album, is both Becky as you know her and as you’ve never heard her before. It arrives on the heels of the gold-selling Get To Know, (a collection of singles Becky either released herself or wrote and guested on), which turned the writer of ten Top 40 hits (including eight platinum records) and a singer with over 1.75 billion streams on Spotify alone, into a household name.

“Even I think it’s weird to have a ‘greatest hits’ album out before a debut album,” says Becky. “But it joined so many dots for people who loved the songs, but didn’t necessarily know who had sung them. Profile-wise, it was a game-changer, but I’ve only ever cared about making great music. I’m not in this to be stopped in the street.”

On Only Honest On The Weekend you’ll hear the addictive, audacious, straight-talking dance-pop that made Becky the ultimate clubbing companion, the raver you want to rave with. But you’ll also hear vintage disco, retro soul, funk, sassy female anthems and dreamy synth-pop. Lyrically, it’s Becky’s life laid bare, from break-ups and make-ups with the same guy to finding her feet in a male-dominated industry to dealing with life in lockdown.

The oldest songs date back to before Becky signed with Polydor Records, some written with her long-time best friend MNEK. A trio of tracks took shape at a writing camp she set up herself and filled with her favourite co-writers. The newest additions were recorded remotely while Becky was busy at home broadcasting live sessions for radio stations and self-producing her critically acclaimed and industry-adored podcast The Art of Rave, for which she booked guests including Roni Size, Sister Bliss, Pete Tong and Basement Jaxx.

“I wanted people to see different sides of me,” says Becky. “I’m known for my voice and that’s what ties the tracks together, but it’s not all big, belting vocals. There are intimate songs where I sing softly. You can hear when I’m pissed off, but also when I’m feeling confused or overwhelmed. Some of it will come as a surprise.”

Confounding expectations has been key to Becky’s career. The Bewdley-born star began writing songs on guitars aged 13 and by 16 had formed a band to perform in pubs and at open-mic nights. At 17, she auditioned for The Voice to get herself out of finishing sixth form.

“I didn’t take it that seriously, but I liked the idea of being judged on your talent, not your appearance,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to be heard rather than seen.”

Still, she made it to the semi-finals, using the show to collect contacts to help launch her career the following year. She found a manager, worked tirelessly for 18 months writing songs and honing her craft and then signed her first record deal. By which point she had already been spotted by other musicians who admired her attitude as much as her voice.

Becky hooked up with fellow teenager MNEK and the pair co-wrote the double platinum-selling No.1 Gecko (Overdrive) for Oliver Heldens, featuring Becky’s vocals, as well as songs for what Becky assumed would be her soon-to-arrive debut album. She co-wrote the Top 10 hit Afterglow for Wilkinson and co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Powerless, a single from Rudimental’s huge debut Home. With Rudimental, Becky got her first taste of big stages, touring the world with the band for two months and taking planes for the first time in her life.

When Losing, her first solo single, charted outside the Top 40, however, Becky was dumped overnight from her deal. Undeterred, she launched her own label, Eko, named in memory of her late uncle’s 12-string guitar which was passed down to her as a child, and released an EP from which four songs flew on to Radio 1, including a duet with Little Simz. Six months later, having turned down an offer from her old label, she signed a new deal with Polydor that allowed her to keep control of her career.

Her hits kept coming – False Alarm with Matoma, Back & Forth with Jonas Blue, Piece of Me with MK, Wish You Well with Sigala, Lose Control with Meduza, I Could Get Used To This with Weiss, Afterglow with Wilkinson. Compiled on Get To Know (confirmed by Offcial charts as as one of 2020’s top 5 most streamed albums by a female artist in the UK), Becky’s career went supernova. In both 2019 and 2020 she was crowned the second most-streamed British Female Solo Artist on Spotify UK.