How a feature on Love Island changed Freya Ridings' career: “You don't get many of those moments”

It's been a whirlwind year for Freya Ridings, whose debut album is finally released this Friday.

Whatever your opinion of Love Island, it’s impossible to deny that it’s increasingly becoming a dependable source of some of the best new music.

With such a huge, committed audience tuning in every night to a show often soundtracked by rising artists, consequences for those featured are potentially career-changing. In June, the 24-hour UK Shazam record held by Florence And The Machine for her Game Of Thrones track was smashed by a song from Love Island.

Freya Ridings, best known for her breakout Top 10 single Lost Without You, and more recently her Top 40 hit Castles, knows about this all too well. In 2018, three of her tracks were featured during emotional moments on the series, and in the year since she’s become a familiar voice on mainstream radio, score a Top 10 on the Official Singles Chart and landed a platinum record with Lost Without You - all on an independent record label.

Talking about her lucky break on our podcast Official Charts: Take The Hit, she said Love Island was "definitely a catalyst and a moment that I will always be so grateful for, because you don’t get many of those moments where everything comes together after so many things not coming together for so many years.”

She continued: “There are so many of those little lightning bolt moments that have led up to this… I’m incredibly grateful for it.

“You know when people say it takes ten years to be an overnight success? That literally happened!"

In the podcast, Freya also reveals what it was like working with Game of Thrones alumni Maisie Williams and Lena Headey, her experiences at the BRIT School, and her self-titled debut album, which is out on July 19.