X Factor star Grace Davies on music, mental health and Liam Payne: ‘I’m glad that show isn’t on now’

When the Big Issue speaks to musician Grace Davies, she apologises for “looking like shit”.

She doesn’t, for the record – but the Blackburn songwriter says sorry, nonetheless, multiple times. The phone’s been ringing off the hook all morning.

“I’ve just found out that I’m getting my very first Radio 1 play tonight!” she explains. “I literally just got the email now. So, I’ve been ringing my dad and my friends. That’s very, very exciting! But that’s why I look like shit. I haven’t showered yet.”

It’s been a long time coming – as Davies says: “It only took us ten years. I honestly thought I was blacklisted.”

The Blackburn musician shot to fame in 2017 after finishing runner-up on the 14^th season of The X Factor. She joined Simon Cowell’s record label Syco, a signing that promised to open industry doors.

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But in 2020, Simon Cowell suddenly quit the music label. Davies was dropped. It was hard, she says – but it also kickstarted a new era of music-making. Her latest single Another Night is the best of her career, the 27-year-old enthuses.  

Grace Davies is grateful for her stint on The X Factor – but she says there’s “no aftercare” for contestants of the show. Considering the tragic death of Liam Payne – who rose to fame on the show as one fifth of boyband One Direction – Davies urges showbiz bosses to “seriously look at” the treatment of young musicians.

“You get thrust into the spotlight what feels overnight,” she says. “I definitely didn’t experience the heights of someone like Liam Payne. so I can’t even imagine.”

The Big Issue spoke to Grace Davies about her new music, her experience on The X Factor and what 2025 holds.

BIGISSUE: Some of our readers maybe know you from The X Factor, but you’ve had a very busy year – tell me about your new music that you’ve been releasing.

GRACE DAVIES: This year has been very exciting. I’d last released music in November 2022 and I was done. I was so ready to be out of this industry. People say it takes 10 years to be an overnight success – I’m about to hit my 10th year, so I’m like ‘come on’. Yeah, I was very much done. But then I decided to just take the time to create for me.

In the midst all of that, we got contacted by European Athletics asking me to write their official song. I thought it was like a spam email! But we released that in April. Then we went straight from that into finally releasing singles from the album.

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A post shared by Grace Davies (@gracedaviesofficial)

What got you excited about writing music again?

I was in that headspace of, “Ugh, I’m done.” I had a writing session with people that I’d never worked with before. I was like, I want to go home. I want to cry in bed. And I ended up writing A Wonderful, Boring, Normal Life [a single Davies released in September] that day. Which obviously was the first single out of everything that’s about to come.

It’s always that thing with life where you’re like, “No, I’ve decided that I’m out.” And then something happens and you’re like, “Oh, I’m back in.”

You came up through the The X Factor. What sort of industry pressure did you experience on that show, and afterwards when you were signed with Syco?

[Before] The X Factor, I had no experience of the industry whatsoever. I’m from a super small town up north. That show for me was the only way in, and I don’t think I’d be here without it and the opportunities that it’s given me and the rooms that I can get in as a songwriter now because of the name I made for myself on that.

I’m always super appreciative but it has also been hard to kind of go, OK, that was then and we did that, but doesn’t define me. My perspective on the industry [has changed]. I’m not as naive as I was.  

In light of the recent tragic death of Liam Payne, there has been a lot of discussion about the effect of fame at a young age, and whether these shows have enough aftercare for the young people who go on them. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I can tell you that there is zero aftercare. I mean you get thrust into the spotlight what feels overnight. And I mean, I was the oldest person in my category. I was sharing a room three 16-year-olds.

I can only be grateful that I had a really supportive team around me. I definitely didn’t experience the heights of someone like Liam Payne. So I can’t even imagine.

I wasn’t particularly like a One Direction girly, but that’s my generation. We grew up on that music being around, and our best friends having Liam Payne on their walls in their bedrooms. And it really affected me hearing that news, it really upset me. Particularly obviously on different scales, but sharing the same experience. I was like, “shit.”

So it is scary and I think I’m glad that the show isn’t running now, only from a way of – I think if they were to ever do it again, they need to take a serious look at how they look after people.

If that show was to ever return, it would be a completely different world to what it was then. Which I’m glad for.

Back on kind of your new music, are you feeling nervous to kind of get out there and perform it?

I feel good. I think it’s hard when you are independent and when you’re not someone like Adele who can take five years away and then she drops three seconds of a song and the world goes crazy. I’m not on that level. So I’ve made an album for me. I’ve had a really nice time doing it.

Taking a year and a half away from posting on social media was really good for my brain. [But] when you don’t post for a year and a half, the algorithm starts to dislike you a little bit. So, I think that was the hardest thing for me coming back was sort of going, ‘I’m back. Where is everyone?’

I’m obviously trying not to jinx it, but if anything flops or if nothing hits and this is the last thing I do, I can sleep at night for the rest of my life knowing that I made music that I’m so in love with, and that I wouldn’t change this past two years for anything.

What do you hope 2025 holds for you?

I keep saying I hope this album and this era of music takes me to the next step of my career, but I don’t really know what that is.

But I guess even just like this morning [hearing], ‘You’re on Radio 1.’ I’ve never had that before. It already feels like I’m kind of progressing. And whether it’s slowly or something takes off, I have no idea. But I feel good about it.

Listen to Another Night and Grace Davies’ other music on all music streaming platforms.

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