| Gia Margaret | |
| Birth Date: | [1] |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Years Active: | 2017–present |
Gia Margaret (born 1987 or 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from Chicago, Illinois. She released her debut studio album, There's Always Glimmer, in July 2018. She is currently signed to Orindal Records in the United States and Dalliance Recordings in the UK.[2]
She was trained in classical piano as a child and began pursuing a degree in music before ending both endeavors because they were "creatively limiting".[3] Margaret has had various jobs prior to becoming a musician, including a nanny, book store clerk, and dental assistant.[4] She describes the genre of her music as "sleep rock," and has been compared to artists including Imogen Heap, the Postal Service, Nick Drake, and Broken Social Scene.[5] [6]
In 2019, she toured around the United States with Welsh alternative folk singer-songwriter Novo Amor.[7] In September of that year, she went on her first headlining tour in the UK.[8] Margaret was selected to perform at SXSW 2019, a music festival in Austin, Texas, and was later selected by NPR to be part of the Austin 100.[9] This is a playlist of “a hundred handpicked highlights from among the thousands of acts playing SXSW 2019”.[10]
Margaret released her debut studio album, There's Always Glimmer in 2018. This album was re-released on May 24, 2019 with two additional tracks, "Smoke (Acoustic)" and "Babies".[11] Beyond her studio album, she released an Audiotree live album on November 14, 2018 that included live performances of six songs.[12] Margaret’s song "Birthday" was remixed by artists Ryan Hemsworth and swim good now and released on streaming services on September 3, 2019.[13] Margaret has two record labels, Orindal in the United States and Dalliance in the UK.[14] [15] While touring with Novo Amor, the two artists recorded and released two songs, "Lucky for You" and "No Fun," on February 28, 2019.[16] [17] [18] On Spotify, "Lucky for You" has 19.5 million streams and "No Fun" has 8.8 million streams as of April 30, 2023 and remain Margaret's most streamed songs on the platform.[19]
On June 12, 2020, she released her second studio album, Mia Gargaret. While touring her previous studio album There's Always Glimmer in 2019, Margaret lost her voice due to illness and was forced to cancel her remaining tour dates. This resulted in experimentation with ambient synthesizer meditations that came to comprise Mia Gargaret; there are no vocals featured on the record, excluding the final track.[20]
On April 26, 2023, Margaret announced her third studio album, Romantic Piano, and released the lead single "Hinoki Wood" alongside "Cicadas," another song featured on the album.[21] The album was released on May 26, 2023, with 12 total tracks. Like her previous studio album, all songs were instrumental, with the exception of "City Song".[22]