Rating:
Verdict: Dazzling debut
This time last year Celeste Waite was on the brink of stardom. The singer from Saltdean, near Brighton, had just won the BRITs Rising Star award, and was getting ready to share a stage with Harry Styles and Rod Stewart at the music industry s biggest bash
This time last year Celeste Waite was on the brink of stardom. The singer from Saltdean, near Brighton, had just won the BRITs Rising Star award, and was getting ready to share a stage with Harry Styles and Rod Stewart at the music industry s biggest bash.
The Rising Star prize is the successor to the Critics Choice award that kick-started the careers of Adele and Florence + The Machine, and there was every reason to think Celeste would hurtle to the top in similar fashion. Tour dates were booked and a debut album scheduled.
Itâs almost a year to the day that Celeste Waite made an almighty splash at the 2020 Brit Awards, wowing an audience of Billie Eilish, Courtney Love, Stormzy and Harry Styles with a pin-drop version of her gothic jazz ballad âStrangeâ before picking up the hotly contested Rising Star gong. The following evening, still in something of a daze, Celeste found herself at another starry event, sitting next to Florence Welch at a Gucci show. For Florence â whoâd won the Rising Star gong in 2009, back when it was called the Criticâs Choice Award â it was like looking through a portal to the past.