Ukulele-wielding internet sensation Sophie Madeleine Ball was born in Sussex, England. After a musical childhood, she studied at Bath Spa University where she attained a First Class BA(Hons) in Commercial Music and a Masters Degree in Songwriting. While putting the finishing touches on her debut album, 2009′s Love.Life.Ukulele, Sophie uploaded a video performance to YouTube that was originally intended only to cheer up a friend. The video quickly went viral across the Internet, championed by blogs including Boing Boing and Ukulele Hunt. Fans soon gravitated towards Love.Life.Ukulele and Sophie’s other YouTube videos, pushing her to the forefront of the flourishing ukulele community. Without the benefit of a record label or PR team Sophie sold over 3,000 copies of Love.Life.Ukulele and amassed over 2 million video views, helping her build a fan base spanning 5 continents.
Her music has since appeared on several TV ad campaigns (including Nestle, UK and Postbank, Germany) and she has expanded her reach by touring extensively in the UK and Europe, supporting major international acts including Newton Faulkner, Gruff Rhys and Josh Rouse. In addition to supporting the album, she also released a charity single entitled “You Are My Favourite” in memory of her deceased Father – Ben Ball OBE. The music video for the single features video clips of fans from hometowns as diverse as Stockholm, Vancouver, Boston, Sydney, Barcelona and Paris, performing their own renditions of the song. Half of all sales profits from the track were then donated to Macmillan Cancer Relief.
2010 found Sophie partnering with the crowd-sourcing website PledgeMusic to raise the funding for her second full length album The Rhythm You Started. Through the site, her loyal fans around the world contributed over £10,000 of their own money to help pay for the recording costs of the album. PledgeMusic was so impressed with Madeleine’s work that they offered her an exclusive contract with their publishing arm, PledgeMusic Publishing, in December 2010. In 2011 she signed with XtraMile Recordings (Frank Turner, My Vitriol) who licensed and re-released The Rhythm You Started. The album debuted in the top 20 on the iTunes Chart, resulting in widespread praise, radio plays (including BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6) and a sell out album launch show at the Enterprise, London.
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