Emerging onto the UK folk scene in 2010 with a handful of unpolished, low-fi acoustic songs, her razor-sharp lyricism and the unassuming charm of her performance style began to grab attention from the get-go. In 2011 The Guardian hailed her as a “powerful songwriting voice”, and the legendary Tom Robinson invited her to perform in session on his BBC 6Music show. Support slots with the likes of Billy Bragg, Robin Ince and Josie Long followed, and Petrie spent the 2010s amassing a genre-defying army of fans that crossed the boundaries of folk, punk, protest, LGBTQ+ activism and alternative comedy.

Proudly DIY, crowdfunding allowed her to independently release her first studio-recorded album in 2018 – the critically acclaimed Queer As Folk. Comprising a raft of passion-infused folk anthems, the crowning jewel was breakout single Black Tie, for which she is still best known today. Written as an encouraging, hopeful missive to her unhappy younger self, the song provided an emotive hymn to queer joy that was embraced by thousands of people both in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond and catapulted Petrie from fan favourite to mainstream attention, with glowing reviews in MOJO, the Observer and The New Yorker to name a few. Following a BBC Radio 2 live session for Jo Whiley, she was invited to open Frank Turner’s 12-date UK arena tour, requested as a support act in Europe for Emmy-winner Hannah Gadsby and became a regular musical guest on the smash hit comedy podcast The Guilty Feminist. Black Tie continues to draw new fans from the first listen and to date has accrued 1.2 million streams on Spotify.

Her latest release BUILD SOMETHING BETTER is a return to blistering form. A decade after being hailed as “a millennial’s Billy Bragg” (Huffington Post), the protest anthems pour out of her as fierce as ever and production from folk-punk legend Frank Turner sees them elevated to the crowd barrier hollering anthems he is known for. Upon release, it smashed the UK top 30 and topped both the UK folk and UK download charts, cementing her status as one of Britain’s most beloved songwriters.

“An effervescent charm-bomb of a performer” - The New Yorker

“She’s the urgent, pulsing, compassionate talent this world desperately needs” The Observer

“It’s good have Grace back” – Jo Whiley

Katie Gregson-MacLeod

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