KT Tunstall

Tunstall was born to a half-Chinese, half-Scottish mother, Carol Ann, who was from Hong Kong, and an Irish father. Her parents met while her mother was working as a dancer in Penthouse bar in Edinburgh, where her father was a bartender. She never met her biological father. She was born at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital, but at 18 days old her mother placed her for adoption to a family in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Her adoptive father, David Tunstall, was employed as a physics lecturer at the University of St Andrews, and her adoptive mother, Rosemary Tunstall, was a primary school teacher. Tunstall's adoptive family also includes an older brother named Joe and a younger brother named Daniel. The family had no interest in music and owned no records; the only tape her father owned was a comedy recording by mathematician and musical satirist Tom Lehrer. This was largely because Daniel is deaf and they want to avoid anything that could interfere with his hearing aid. She has said: "My earliest memories are Californian", attributed to a sabbatical that her father took at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1979. In spite of living in an academic family, she was musically oriented. Her adoptive parents supported her, and she recollected that she asked for a piano when she was four.

Tunstall grew up in St Andrews, Fife, attending Lawhead Primary, then Madras College in St. Andrews and the High School of Dundee, but she spent her last year of high school in the United States at the Kent School, a selective boarding school in Kent, Connecticut. She spent time busking on Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, and at a commune in rural Vermont. Tunstall studied at Royal Holloway, University of London. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama & Music in 1996. Royal Holloway conferred on her an honorary doctorate in science in 2011 for her works on environmental issues as a musician.

Tunstall tracked down her biological mother, Carol Ann, in 1996 and learned that her mother was married to cab driver David Orr. She has been critical of the British National Party. In 2010, she publicly disowned Orr because of his decision to run as a BNP candidate in the general election for Livingston. In 2019, she appeared in Series 9 of Long Lost Family. She learned that her biological father had previously died, but she was united with two half-sisters by her biological father's second marriage.

In 2003, Tunstall began dating Luke Bullen, the drummer in her band. On Christmas Day, 2007, Bullen proposed to her at her parents' home in St Andrews, Scotland, and the couple were married in September 2008. They divorced in May 2013, after separating the year before.

Her debut album, Eye to the Telescope, was released in late 2004.

Tunstall sparked some controversy in 2005 when she publicly criticised singer/songwriter Dido, stating that the artist "can't fucking sing" after several fans compared the two musically. Tunstall later apologised, stating that she did not want to be involved in a public feud.

Shortly after the Later appearance, Eye to the Telescope was re-released and shot up the British charts, eventually peaking at No. 3 (on its first release it had entered at No. 73); it was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize. It was released in the US on 7 February 2006.

Tunstall released an acoustic collection album on 15 May 2006, KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza, which was first only available via mail order from her website. The album was re-released in stores worldwide in October 2006.

In January of the following year, 2006, she received three BRIT nominations – British Live Act, British Breakthrough Act, and British Female Solo Artist – eventually gaining the award for British Female Solo Artist, remarking that she wished to share it with fellow nominee Kate Bush. Later the same month she was given a European Border Breakers Award, which recognises the top-selling European Union artists outside their home country. Also, in 2006 she won the Ivor Novello Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Suddenly I See", along with Scottish Style Awards "Most Stylish Band or Musician".

Tunstall sang with Scottish band Travis on their 2007 album The Boy with No Name, on the track "Under the Moonlight", a song written by Susie Hug (late of Katydids).

Tunstall's second album, Drastic Fantastic, premiered on 3 September 2007 in Scotland, followed a week later on 10 September 2007 with the London release for Britain and 18 September 2007, in the US. In its first week, Drastic Fantastic reached No. 1 on the Scottish Album Charts, No. 3 on the British Charts, and No. 9 in the American Charts. The album's lead single, "Hold On", was released in the UK in August 2007, débuting at No. 34 there before peaking at No. 21. The song was also very successful in certain European nations peaking at No. 19 in Italy, No. 19 in Norway, No. 26 in Switzerland and No. 39 in Ireland. The album's second single, "Saving My Face", was released in December 2007. The song did not make the UK Top 40 Singles Charts, but however did managed to peak at No. 50 on the UK Singles Charts, managing three weeks on the UK Charts. Despite missing the UK Top 40, the song made the Top 40 in Italy, making No. 23 and in Switzerland peaking at No. 93. The album's third single and final worldwide single, "If Only", was released in March 2008, becoming the second single from the album not to make the UK Top 40, it managed No. 45 in audition.

On 5 October 2007, the US discount department store chain Target, in association with NBC, released a special KT Tunstall Christmas EP on CD, Sounds of the Season: The KT Tunstall Holiday Collection. On 10 December 2007, it was released in Europe through Relentless under the title Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas.

Tunstall also worked with Suzanne Vega on her 2007 album Beauty & Crime, singing backup on songs "Zephyr and I" and "Frank and Ava". It was revealed in the booklet by Vega that the two had never met during the process of making the album.

Similar to her initial début on music show Later... with Jools Holland, Tunstall has performed on various American talk shows, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show on 21 September 2007. Since her talk show days, she has performed at numerous large concerts such as the Hogmanay Edinburgh Concert in 2005, the American leg of Live Earth in 2007, and the Nobel Peace Prize Concert also in 2007. Tunstall said prior to the Hogmanay performance that "This is the gig of a lifetime... This Hogmanay party is probably the best-known and best-loved in the world, and I've been here a few times over the years dreaming of being the one entertaining the crowds. Until we're on that stage I won't believe we're allowed on it."

In April 2007, Tunstall underwent surgery to correct an undersized kidney, a problem caused by a childhood infection.

In 2007 Tunstall joined the Disko Bay Cape Farewell expedition to the West Coast of Greenland in September 2008. Cape Farewell is a British-based arts organisation that brings artists, scientists and communicators together to instigate a cultural response to climate change.

She gained more nominations in 2007 and 2008: a 2007 Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" (the award went to Christina Aguilera for "Ain't No Other Man"), and another BRIT nomination for British Female Solo Artist – the same accolade she had won in 2006.

In 2008, Tunstall recorded a song for the album Songs for Survival, in support of the indigenous rights organisation Survival International. In a video for Survival International, she speaks of music as being a force for good, and about what she has learned about tribal people on this project. She also discusses various issues concerning our culture of consumption and greed, our relation to the earth and the importance of indigenous rights in the world today.

Over the Christmas holidays in 2008, Tunstall joined Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide lineup in Auckland, New Zealand to record a studio charity album for Oxfam. The album was recorded in Finn's New Zealand studio over three weeks and featured all-new material, with singing and songwriting contributions divided amongst the group. Most of the participants from the original 2001 7 Worlds Collide lineup returned, along with several new additions including Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt and Pat Sansone of Wilco, New Zealand songwriters Don McGlashan and Bic Runga, and Finn's son Elroy Finn. The album, titled The Sun Came Out, was released on 31 August 2009.

In 2008 Tunstall started experiencing problems with her hearing on her left side. By 2018 the problem had grown to full hearing loss on that side, also resulting in balance problems.

On 11 February 2010, the Daily Record reported that Tunstall had recorded her new album in Berlin's Hansa Studios. Located near the former site of the Berlin Wall, the studio was used to make legendary albums including David Bowie's "Heroes" and U2's Achtung Baby. Tunstall said, "I had an amazing three weeks recording in Hansa in Berlin in January and am finishing it all off in London." Her third album, titled Tiger Suit, was released in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2010 and in the United States on 5 October 2010.

On 20 March 2013, Tunstall announced that her fourth album would be titled Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon, considered as her best by most critics and her most melancholic album to date. The title is inspired by the two batches of songs from the album: Invisible Empire, recorded in April 2012, is the melancholic half that deals with her father's death and the theme of mortality, while the Crescent Moon half, recorded in November 2012, is full of songs that are more ethereal. These thirteen songs formed an album that Tunstall qualified as "from the heart," inspired by her divorce from Luke Bullen and her father's passing away.

Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon premiered in the United Kingdom on 10 June 2013, while it was released in Germany and Australia on 7 June, and in Japan and Canada on 11 June. However, the release date was pushed back to 6 August 2013 in the United States. Meanwhile, the lead single, "Feel It All", was released worldwide on 10 June, and its music video on 29 April.

In 2013, Tunstall worked with Howe Gelb in Tucson, Arizona for his album The Coincidentalist, and recorded a duet on the song "The 3 Deaths of Lucky". Also, she plays in a second episode of This is Jinsy on 5 February 2014, as bearded folk musician Briiian Raggatan.

On 16 June 2016, Tunstall released the Golden State EP before the album release. It is made of the lead single "Evil Eye" and its remix, and two other tracks: "All or Nothing" taken from the French TV series Sam and "The Healer".

Tunstall released her fifth album, KIN, on 9 September 2016. The album was produced by Tony Hoffer, and recorded in Los Angeles. Four singles were released from this album: the lead single "Maybe It's a Good Thing", plus "Hard Girls" in which Melanie C from the Spice Girls made an appearance, "Love Is an Ocean", and "It Took Me So Long to Get Here, But Here I Am"

In 2017, Tunstall announced a trilogy of albums following the themes of soul, body and mind. KIN was the first, with the theme of soul. She released the second, WAX, with the theme of body, on 5 October 2018.

In 2018, Tunstall contributed several songs to the Pete the Cat children's album including "CatGo & the Nine Lives", "Catalina Casesolver", "Let It Slide" and "CatGo's Weird Song".

In March 2020, Tunstall announced she would start recording the third and final album of the trilogy by fall, with the theme of mind.