| Background: | group_or_band |
| Oh Wonder | |
| Origin: | London, United Kingdom |
| Years Active: | 2014–present |
| Current Members: |
|
Oh Wonder are an English, London-based alt-pop duo consisting of Anthony Vander West (né West) and Josephine Vander West (née Vander Gucht). Since releasing their debut album, they have seen international success with their alt-pop singles. Oh Wonder recorded and released one song a month for a year, starting in September 2014.[1] All of the songs were released together as a self-titled debut album on 4 September 2015.[2] On 14 July 2017, the duo released their second album, Ultralife. On 12 February 2020, they released their third album, No One Else Can Wear Your Crown. On 8 October 2021, the now-married duo released their fourth studio album, 22 Break. All four albums were written, recorded, produced, and mixed by the duo and have seen cross-platform success.
The band played sold-out shows in London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles one week after their debut album release, which marked the beginning of their touring career. They have since played multiple headline shows and festivals in numerous countries.[3]
Before Oh Wonder was formed, Josephine was a solo artist, first going by her own name and later under the alias LAYLA. Anthony was originally part of the groups Tonight Is Goodbye, Futures, and We the Wild.[4] The two first met in High Wycombe on 21 March 2010, when Anthony was in the audience at one of Josephine's solo gigs. A year later, she attended one of his shows, talked with him, and they began writing songs and making music together.
The duo released their first two songs under the name Wonder Wonder but changed it to Oh Wonder when they learned of another band with a similar name.[5]
See main article: Oh Wonder (album).
Oh Wonder had an unorthodox approach to releasing their eponymous debut album, Oh Wonder. Over the course of a year, the duo released one new single each month, beginning 1 September 2014,[6] having written, produced, and mixed each song in their home studio in London.[7] These monthly installations culminated in the 2015 release of that first album, which also included two previously unreleased songs. The record reached number 26 on the UK Albums Chart, number 16 on the Canadian Albums Chart,[8] and number 80 on the US Billboard 200.[9] [10]
Oh Wonder gave their debut live performance for BBC Radio 1 at Maida Vale Studios, after receiving avid support from BBC Introducing and DJs Huw Stephens and Greg James.[11] The band's first TV performance was on Conan, which aired in the US on 20 January 2016. They performed their single "Lose It".[12]
Since their debut album release, Oh Wonder has toured internationally in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Their performance in Manila was their first show in Asia.[13] They also toured as the opening act on the final installment of the Badlands Tour with Halsey from 21 July to 12 August 2016.[14] Their 2016 debut festival appearances included Bonnaroo,[15] Firefly,[16] and Lollapalooza[17] music festivals in the United States, in addition to Live Out in Monterrey, WayHome Festival in Oro-Medonte, Canada, and Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Ireland.[18]
See main article: Ultralife (album).
On 30 March 2017, Oh Wonder announced that they'd finished their second studio album, to be titled Ultralife. The record's lead track, "Ultralife", was released the day after. As with their previous album, the group released new singles every two weeks in the run-up to the album's publication.
The duo embarked on the Ultralife World Tour in 2017, which saw them play a long run of headline shows in 34 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. They also played three shows with Beck on his 2018 North America Tour.[19]
See main article: articles and No One Else Can Wear Your Crown.
On 5 September 2019, Oh Wonder released "Hallelujah", the first single from their upcoming album, followed by "Better Now" on 25 October and "I Wish I Never Met You" on 14 November. The same day, they announced via Twitter that the album, titled No One Else Can Wear Your Crown,[20] would be released on 7 November. This was followed by the singles "This Christmas", "Happy", and "In and Out of Love". As part of the press coverage around their third album, Josephine and Anthony revealed they were in a relationship and had been for the past seven years.[21]
The pair were to embark on a tour to support No One Else Can Wear Your Crown throughout Europe and North America in March 2020; however, the latter part of the tour, including the entirety of the North American segment, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[22]
Whilst subject to the 2020 UK "stay at home" restrictions related to the novel coronavirus, Oh Wonder released a series of new tracks on an EP titled Home Tapes.[23] [24] [25]
On 22 September 2021, Oh Wonder announced their fourth studio album, 22 Break, and released the title track. Described by the duo as "maybe the first break-up album in history written and recorded with the person you're breaking up with", the album documents their near-split in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and their time away from touring.[26] It was released on 8 October 2021, alongside a 40-minute black-and-white short film accompanying the record in full.[27] [28]
On 7 October 2022, the band published a sequel album, 22 Make, as a celebration of their relationship.[29]
In March 2024, Josephine announced that she had been working on a solo album under the stage name That Woman, with Anthony serving only as a producer. Her debut single, "Hymn for a Woman", which explores different aspects of womanhood, was released independently on 3 May 2024.[30]
Anthony and Josephine married in July 2021,[31] and both changed their surnames to Vander West.[32]
They run a complex of music recording studios, Highwater, located on the bank of the River Thames in Deptford, London,[33] as well as a coffee shop, NOLA Coffee, located in the London district of Peckham. "NOLA is an embodiment of all their favourite experiences of cafes around the world distilled into one beautiful space".[34]
| Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [35] | AUS [36] | BEL (Fl) [37] | BEL (Wa) [38] | CAN [39] | IRE [40] | NLD [41] | SWI [42] | US [43] | ||||
| Oh Wonder |
| 26 | — | 55 | 135 | 19 | 54 | 50 | 87 | 80 | ||
| Ultralife | 8 | 37 | 28 | 115 | 17 | 38 | 48 | 62 | 76 | |||
| No One Else Can Wear Your Crown |
| 8 | — | 84 | — | — | — | 86 | — | — | ||
| 22 Break |
| 51 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 22 Make |
| — | — | 123 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||
| Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEL (Fl) Tip | US Rock [52] | |||||
| "Body Gold" | 2014 | — | — | Oh Wonder | ||
| "Shark" | — | — | ||||
| "Dazzle" | — | — | ||||
| "All We Do" | — | — | ||||
| "The Rain" | — | — | ||||
| "Lose It" | 2015 | — | 45 | |||
| "Technicolour Beat" | — | — | ||||
| "Midnight Moon" | — | — | ||||
| "Livewire" | — | — | ||||
| "White Blood" | — | — | ||||
| "Landslide" | 103 | — | ||||
| "Drive" | 6 | — |
| |||
| "Heart Hope" | — | — | ||||
| "Without You" | 34 | — | ||||
| "Plans" | — | — | ||||
| "Ultralife" | 2017 | 47 | 36 | Ultralife | ||
| "Lifetimes" | — | 48 | ||||
| "My Friends" | — | — | ||||
| "Heavy" | — | — | ||||
| "High on Humans" | — | — | ||||
| "Solo" | — | — | ||||
| "All About You" | — | — | ||||
| "Bigger Than Love" | — | — | ||||
| "Heart Strings" | — | — | ||||
| "Slip Away" | — | — | ||||
| "Overgrown" | — | — | ||||
| "Waste" | — | — | ||||
| "Hallelujah"[55] | 2019 | 42 | — | No One Else Can Wear Your Crown | ||
| "Better Now"[56] | — | — | ||||
| "I Wish I Never Met You"[57] | — | — | ||||
| "This Christmas"[58] | — | — | ||||
| "Happy"[59] | 2020 | 46 | — | No One Else Can Wear Your Crown | ||
| "In and Out of Love" | — | — | ||||
| "Lonely Star"[60] | — | — | Home Tapes | |||
| "Keep on Dancing"[61] | — | — | ||||
| "I Like It When You Love Me"[62] | — | — | ||||
| "22 Break" | 2021 | — | — | 22 Break | ||
| "Don't Let the Neighbourhood Hear" | — | — | ||||
| "Rollercoaster Baby" | — | — | ||||
| "Magnificent" | 2022 | — | — | 22 Make | ||
| "Fuck It I Love You" | — | — | ||||
| "True Romance" | — | — | ||||
| "Can We Always Be Friends?" | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes singles that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||
| Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [63] | AUS [64] | CAN [65] | NZ Heat. [66] | US [67] | US Dance [68] | US R&B/HH [69] | |||||
| "The Way Life Goes" | 2017 | 87 | 85 | 48 | 4 | 24 | — | 13 | Luv Is Rage 2 | ||
| "Superlove"[73] | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | 48 | — | |||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||
| Title | Year | Artist | Album | Contributing member(s) | Songwriter | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Echoes" | 2015 | Lauren Aquilina | Anthony Vander West | |||
| Josephine Vander West | ||||||
| "Hello Hello" | 2017 | Lewis Watson | Midnight | Both | ||
| "Deep the Water" | ||||||
| "Forever" | ||||||
| "Give Me Life" | ||||||
| "Slumber" | ||||||
| "Fly" | Meadowlark | Postcards | Anthony Vander West | |||
| "Eyes Wide" | ||||||
| "Slow Fade" | 2019 | Ruth B. | Maybe I'll Find You Again | Both | ||
| "Personal Best" | Maisie Peters | It's Your Bed Babe, It's Your Funeral | ||||
| "Nothing Like You" | Gryffin | Gravity | ||||
| "Another Song" | 2020 | Lewis Watson | The Love That You Want | |||
| "Dizzy" | 2021 | Chloe Moriondo | ||||
| "I Wish I Wasn't Me" | 2023 | Eric Nam | House on a Hill | |||
| "Never Ever Love a Liar" | Bea and her Business | Introverted Extrovert | Anthony Vander West | |||
| Josephine Vander West | ||||||
| "If I Was a God" | Anthony Vander West | |||||
| Josephine Vander West | ||||||
| "Born to Be Alive" | Anthony Vander West | |||||
| Josephine Vander West | ||||||
| "Good Things" | 2024 | Anthony Vander West | ||||
| Josephine Vander West | ||||||