Isabella Sophie Tweddle (born 27 May 1999), better known under the stage name Billie Marten, is a British singer-songwriter and musician from Ripon in North Yorkshire. Her stage name came from her family's desire to keep her real name private because her music career started when she was a tween.[1] She first came to prominence at the age of twelve when a video on YouTube of her singing garnered thousands of views.[citation needed] She released her first EP at the age of fifteen in 2014, and her second EP a year later. At the end of 2015, she was nominated for BBC's Sound of 2016 award. She has since released four full-length albums: Writing of Blues and Yellows, Feeding Seahorses by Hand, Flora Fauna, and Drop Cherries, all of which have received critical acclaim. Her style can be described as singer-songwriter and folk.
In May 2014, just before her fifteenth birthday, Billie Marten released the single "Ribbon" via Burberry's curation program. She wrote the single with Fiona Bevan the previous year. According to Marten, one theme of "Ribbon" is "the elusiveness of the city, and how quickly you can lose something amongst the people and tube stations."In June 2014 she released her debut EP Ribbon. In August 2014 Marten played the BBC Introducing stage at the Reading Festival. She described her music in December 2014 as "a mix between acoustic and quite folky and a little indie."
In January 2015 Billie Marten signed to Chess Club Records, a division of Sony Music and their RCA Records recording label. She released the single "Heavy Weather" in April 2015 which premiered on Huw Stephens' BBC Radio 1 show. A 7" vinyl version of "Heavy Weather" was released in May with her cover version of Royal Blood's "Out of the Black" on the B-side. She released the single "Bird" in September 2015. She wrote the song with Olivia Broadfield, and according to Marten, the song is about "how words can truly affect people, not always for the right reasons". She toured for the first time in October 2015 as the supporting act for Lucy Rose. Marten released her second EP As Long As in November 2015.
In November 2015 she was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2016. She released her first full-length album, Writing of Blues and Yellows, on 23 September 2016.
In 2018 Marten's "Blue Sea, Red Sea", which was released as a single for her second album, featured as Annie Mac's hottest record on Radio 1. Her second LP, Feeding Seahorses by Hand, was released 26 April 2019. In 2019; Sony's boutique label, Chess Club, which Marten had previously released two albums and several EPs under, dissolved, leading to her separation from Sony. She expressed frustration with the large amount of money that record labels earn from streaming music, leaving artists struggling financially, saying, "Most people I know that have a top 10 album right now are on Universal Credit,". She described being dropped by Sony as "the best day of my life...This was my saving grace." She later signed with Fiction Records in 2020 during mandatory lockdown orders in the United Kingdom.
In January 2021, Marten announced her third album titled Flora Fauna, which released 21 May 2021 In January 2023, she announced her fourth studio album titled Drop Cherries. Marten explained that the title alludes to dropping everything to express your love for a person. The album was released on 7 April 2023.
