Sophie Madeleine

Last updated

Sophie Madeleine
Born
Sophie Ball
Origin Brighton, England
OccupationSinger-songwriter / copywriter
Instruments Ukulele, vocals, guitar
Years active2009–2014
Labels Xtra Mile Recordings
Website sophiemadeleine.com

Sophie Madeleine (born Sophie Ball) is a ukulele player from Brighton. [1] She released three solo albums; her third album, Silent Cynic, was released on 1 November 2013 after a crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMusic. [2] [3]

Contents

Career

Madeleine graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Commercial Music and a master's degree in Songwriting. [4] While at Bath Spa, she was in the band Oriole. [5]

She wrote her first ukulele song, "Take Your Love With Me," for her then-boyfriend who had bought her that first ukulele. She also plays tenor guitar. [4] She produced her first album as a final year project at Bath Spa. [4] A song from her first album, "You Are My Favourite," was released as a charity single to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support in memory of her father Ben, with a video featuring people from around the world who filmed themselves playing the song. [6] [7]

Her second album, The Rhythm You Started, was self-produced at home, and then mixed by Danton Supple. It was released online in 2010. [8] For 30 days in 2011 before the "official" CD release, Madeleine released a video every day of her performing a different cover song, including such disparate songs as "Pure Imagination" and "Pumped Up Kicks." [9]

While living in Bath, she met Hannah Rockcliffe (Hannah-Rei) with whom she formed the comedy-song duo Rocky and Balls, [10] posting videos together on YouTube and recording one album in 2011. [11]

Her third solo album was recorded in a studio in Brooklyn, the first to be entirely studio-based, which she described as "one of the most stressful experiences of my life". [4] She published The Official Sophie Madeleine Ukulele Tab Book in 2013. [12]

She became a copywriter at a Brighton-based advertising company in late 2014. [13]

In 2015 she announced her retirement from music. [14]

Performances

She supported Gruff Rhys, the lead singer of Super Furry Animals, on tour. [15] In 2010, she performed at FestiFeel! along with Newton Faulkner and Babyhead to raise awareness of breast cancer [16] and she performed at The Great Escape Festival's launch. [17]

Reception

Madeleine's success on YouTube has led to her being called an "internet sensation". [6] Her music is covered by other artists so often that Finger magazine crowned her "Queen of the Ukulele". [18] She has over four million views on her YouTube channel. [19]

Frank Turner is a fan of Madeleine's and has played her single "Oil and Gold" on his Steve Lamacq's BBC Radio 2 show. [20] Brighton Source wrote that Madeleine's second album, The Rhythm You Started, is "a ray of sunshine every time we press play". [21] The magazine Computer Music ran a full-page feature on Madeleine in its 2010 "How To Make It in Music" February special. [22]

Internationally

On 8 July 2010 "Take Your Love With Me (The Ukulele Song)" reached number 4 on iTunes' New Zealand Singer-Songwriter Music Chart. [23] In 2012, Madeleine was interviewed on a Portuguese television documentary about ukuleles called Apanhei-te cavaquinho, for RTP2, where she also performed her song "Take Your Love With Me (The Ukulele Song)". [24] Madeleine appeared on MTV Brasil in a short feature dedicated to her career. [25]

Soundtracks

Her songs have been used on the soundtracks of several TV advertisements, notably on adverts for Postbank (You Make Me Happy), [26] Pets at Home (You Make Me Happy), [27] Macy's (Take Your Love With Me) [28] and A1 Telekom Austria (One Fine Day). [29] Her music has also been used on the soundtrack for the BBC programme The Great British Home Movie Roadshow in a segment featuring Spike Milligan. [30]

In 2025, Madeleine's cover of "Bring Me Sunshine" was featured in the DCU's Superman reboot. [31]

Discography

Albums

References

  1. ↑ Ukulele Video of the Year: Sophie Madeleine, Jocelyn Mackenzie & Emily Hope Price – Bei Mir Bist Du Schön. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  2. ↑ Jennifer Bowen and Allison Scott, "Your week in music: Stream the new Sara Bareilles album before you can buy it" FOX6 News. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  3. 1 2 "New album for 2013!", Pledge Music, 8 October 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Rigby, Nic (22 March 2014). "Interview: Sophie Madeleine". Songwriting. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  5. ↑ "Somerset Sounds – Oriole". BBC News. 3 May 2005. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  6. 1 2 BBM, 'Single Review: Sophie Madeleine Ball – Spooky' Archived 10 April 2013 at archive.today . Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "Sophie Madeline – You are my Favourite". Uketoob. 20 June 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  8. ↑ "The Rhythm You Started". Bandcamp. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  9. ↑ Frauenfelder, Mark (21 July 2011). "Sophie Madeleine plays 30 uke songs in 30 days". Boing Boing. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  10. ↑ "10 Qs with Rocky and Balls (EXCLUSIVE)". Build-a-Beard. 22 March 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  11. ↑ Grant, Hamish (21 March 2011). "Rocky and Balls pay a visit to Toronto". BlogTo. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Frauenfelder (10 June 2013). "The Official Sophie Madeleine Ukulele Tab Book". BoingBoingfirst=Mark. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  13. ↑ Ball, Sophie (3 December 2014). "Why songwriters write good copy". Lark. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "Sophie's retirement FAQs".
  15. ↑ Sophie Madeleine's Xtra Mile Artist Details Archived 3 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  16. ↑ Virtual Festivals, 'Newton Faulker, Babyhead to headline FestiFeel!' Archived 17 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  17. ↑ "The Great Escape Pre-Party", XYZ magazine, May 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  18. ↑ Sophie Madeleine interview, Finger magazine, no date. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  19. ↑ "Sophie Madeleine". YouTube. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  20. ↑ BBC Radio 2 – Steve Lamacq – 04/06/2011. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  21. ↑ James Kendall, "Sophie Madeleine Interview", Brighton Source, no date. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  22. ↑ Computer Music, "How To Make It in Music", (Future plc, February 2010)
  23. ↑ Sophie Madeleine's Chart History Archived 12 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  24. ↑ "4th part of the documentary 'Apanhei-te cavaquinho' – YouTube video" (Madeleine appears between 52.32 – 54.37). Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  25. ↑ Sophie Madaleine on MTV Brasil [ permanent dead link ]. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  26. ↑ February Postbank Advert. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  27. ↑ Pets at Home Advert. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  28. ↑ Macys Tahiti Advert. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  29. ↑ A1 TeleKom Advert. Retrieved 17 March 2014
  30. ↑ The Great British Home Movie Roadshow – August 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  31. ↑ "Superman soundtrack: Which songs appear in James Gunn's DC relaunch?". www.radiotimes.com. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
  32. ↑ Love. Life. Ukulele, iTunes [ dead link ]. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  33. ↑ "We Like Cake And Beards And Stuff". Rocky and Balls. Bandcamp. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  34. ↑ The Rhythm You Started, iTunes. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.