A Man who broke through in late 2016 and went on to win the 2017 BRITs Critics’ Choice Award and finish 2nd in the BBC Sound of 2017 list. With his debut album becoming the decade’s fastest-selling debut album so far by a British male, outselling those of Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran.
Rory Charles Graham (born 29 January 1985), better known as Rag’n’Bone Man, is an English singer-songwriter.
Graham’s Rag ‘n’ Bone Man moniker came from his childhood memories of sitting in front of the TV with his grandfather, watching repeats of the British ’60s sitcom Steptoe and Son, about a pair of rag-and-bone men — dirt-poor street collectors who in bygone days gathered up rubbish in an attempt to find useful rags, bones, and scrap metal that could be sold to merchants for a few pennies
A music man since an early age; his mother an acclaimed singer and his father an accomplished guitarist, music has been a significant part of Rag ‘N’ Bone man’s life since the very beginning. Such a harmonic upbringing emanates and breathes on every track where you can find his unique vocal tones. The singer originally began his career as a blues singer, then transitioned his way to a hip-hop sound. With his breakthrough album Human, he has found a way to bring those genres, as well as a little more soul and rock, into a new sound for him.
Bone man’s early releases were more acoustic, but he evolved toward a more electronic sound with hip-hop-styled beats. In 2013, he signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell, which enabled him to give up his day job as a caregiver for people with Asperger’s syndrome. His increasing profile brought him to the attention of Columbia Records, which signed him in 2016.
Let’s present you our rich variety of his Top4 Songs
Number 4: Hard Came The Rain – Off the Disfigured EP of 2015
Neo-blues & soul singer Rory Graham was born and raised in the small town of Uckfield in the southeast of England. Growing up on early blues and soul, he taught himself to sing by mimicking Muddy Waters, before discovering hip-hop.
“I [played blues music] for a while and felt kind of restricted by it. I started looking for something else, and found it in hip-hop and writing my music over beats,” Graham tells Billboard. “I feel music differently at different times. Being in the hip-hop scene in the U.K., I was put in a box, and I was restricted in a different way [than when I was singing blues]. I wanted to write songs from the ground up, I wanted to sit at a piano and build around that. But I still have a lot of love for hip-hop so I want to do more collaborations in that sense.”
In May 2017, Rag’n’Bone Man endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 UK general election. During an interview with Channel 4, he said he saw Corbyn as a “man that speaks with passion”. He added that he could “relate to what he says and have never felt like that before”.
NUMBER 3: As You Are
Rag ‘n’ Bone Man announces the birth of his son on the Jonathan Ross Show
On September 9, the Human hitmaker announced that his son Reuben was born five days (4 Sept.) before the show was filmed. Earlier this year he revealed he and his girlfriend Beth Rouy were expecting, with a due date of September and it seems like their little one came right on time.
At the 2017 Brit Awards he was named British Breakthrough Act and also received the Critics’ Choice Award
Rag’n’Bone Man also won International Newcomer and International Male Artist at the 2017 Echo Awards in Germany and was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Push Artist at the MTV European Music Awards 2017
Skin – was released as the third single from the album on 26 January 2017. The song has peaked to number 18 on the UK Singles Chart.
NUMBER 2: Skin – After being nominated for a second Brit award, the single Skin was released as an advance of the album Human, released on 10 February 2017 via Columbia Records / Best Laid Plans.
Enjoying our spotlight has been a British music sensation well known with a tattoo-covered arms, nose ring, shaved head, enormous beard, and typical garb of hoodie and jeans, Graham looked like an escapee from an early-2000s nu-metal band, but he blew crowds away as soon as he opened his mouth with his deep, powerful, soulful, bluesy vocals.
Currently has one album – Human: released on 10 February 2017 through Columbia Records and features his breakthrough single of 2016, entitled “Human”. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart on sales of 117,000, making it the fastest-selling debut album by a male artist during the 2010s.
Wolves – released in 2014, working in collaboration with Mark Crew
The follow up, in 2015 was the Disfigured EP.
NUMBER 1: Human – A bluesy, smoky lead single off his major label debut of same title.
- It’s one of those songs that has, for reasons that neither its creator nor anyone else can quite ascertain, taken on a life of its own. Intended as “a little ramp to the record”, it’s exploded out of all proportion since its July 2016 release.
- It had been doing unbelievably well all over the world – particularly in Europe, where it reached Number One in 10 countries. In Germany, it remained on top of the charts for over three months, making Graham one of the most recognizable British faces there.
