Holly Humberstone – Cruel World
Today, award winning artist Holly Humberstone releases her highly anticipated second album Cruel World, alongside lead single “Beauty Pageant” — a stark, unravelling portrait of womanhood under pressure.
Written about the expectations of image, performance and perfection, “Beauty Pageant” confronts the “unattainable standards we hold ourselves to”, and tells the story of a girl who has travelled far from home. The final track on the record, “Beauty Pageant” reflects “the moment after the show when you’re taking off your makeup in the mirror and there are no distractions left. You’re crying alone in your room because you can’t keep the performance going forever.”
Showcasing Holly’s forensic songwriting ability and confirming her place as one of the UK’s most gifted singer songwriters, Holly’s second album Cruel World explores the line between pain and pleasure -— tracing love in all its forms as both a source of euphoria and instability. The beguiling visual world Holly has created with her sister Eleri Humberstone and Silken Weinberg (Ethel Cain) draws from rediscovering dark fairy tales and cinema; from Brothers Grimm to James and the Giant peach, Nosferatu to the Red Shoes and Black Swan. Across Cruel World, Holly steps into a gothic-leaning world shaped by memory, girlhood and self-reclamation.
Following title track “Cruel World”, a song that captures the emotional centre of the record and addresses the euphoria and pain of long-distance love, to up-beat anthem “To Love Somebody”, which Holly performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the album marks a turning point in Holly Humberstone’s writing and a shift from searching for home to finally defining it.
Entering Cruel World, Holly escapes into a dark fairytale world of her own making, where childhood relics, monsters and memory collide. Cruel World was written with a new discipline through daily studio sessions with collaborator Rob Milton and draws deeply on love – romantic, platonic, and feminine. Raised among strong women, Holly speaks to the way girls are taught to see one another as competition, unlearning that instinct and reclaiming solidarity as survival.
Place has always anchored Holly’s lucid storytelling. From her breakthrough EP Falling Asleep At The Wheel, which is a portrait of a girl growing up in a “haunted house” in Grantham – through The Walls Are Way Too Thin and her #3 debut album Paint My Bedroom Black, Holly documented the dislocation of leaving home, capturing life in fragments: hotel rooms, late-night messages, and new cities. Now 26, Holly has built a home of her own in South-East London, restoring a dilapidated house alongside her sisters and best friend Scarlett. Where her debut was steeped in turbulence and longing, Cruel World is anchored in stability and routine. Also written with the live experience in mind, the album layers backing vocals, shaped by years on the road, from festival stages to stadium tours with the likes of Sam Fender, Olivia Reodrigo and Taylor Swift.
Having just headlined a sold-out O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and UK out-store tour, Holly is ready to perform the record to audiences globally, with major festival appearances at Coachella, Governors Ball, Mad Cool and Reading & Leeds this summer. Over the past few years, Holly has already sold out Brixton Academy and Eventim Apollo, to sold-out headline tours in North America and Europe.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
3 June – Boston, MA
4 June – Montreal, QC
6 June – All Things Go, Toronto
7 June – Governors Ball
9 June – Philadelphia, PA
10 June – 9:30 Club, Washington
12 June – Variety Playhouse, Atlanta
13 June – Bonnaroo Fest
15 June – Saint Andrew’s Hall, Detroit / Majestic Theatre, Detroit
16 June – The Vic Theatre, Chicago
19 June – Varsity Theater, Minneapolis
21 June – Gothic Theatre, Englewood
22 June – The Complex – The Grand, Salt Lake City
24 June – The Showbox, Seattle
25 June – The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
26 June – Roseland Theater, Portland
28 June – The Fillmore, San Francisco
FESTIVAL TOUR DATES
12 April — Coachella, California
24 May — Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Sunderland
07 June — Governors Ball, New York City
4 July – London, BST Hyde Park
10 July – Madrid, Mad Cool Festival
14 July – Athens, Ejekt Festival
14 Aug – Tokyo, Summer Sonic Festival
15 Aug – Osaka, Summer Sonic Festival
23 Aug – Darmstadt, Golden Leaves Festival
27-30 Aug – Reading & Leeds
EUROPEAN TOUR DATES
15 Sep – Paris, Trabendo
16 Sep – Amsterdam, Paradiso
17 Sep – Brussels, Botanique
20 Sep – Cologne, Stollwerck
22 Sep – Copenhagen, Amager Bio
23 Sep – Oslo, Parkteatret
24 Sep – Stockholm, Nalen
26 Sep – Hamburg, Gruenspan
27 Sep – Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg
28 Sep – Munich, Technikum
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