Sarah Grace McLaughlin,[1][4] (born 18 July 1992) known by her stage name Bishop Briggs, is a British-American musician and singer-songwriter. She is best known for her single “River”.[5] She is set to release her debut album Church of Scars on April 20, 2018.[6]
Briggs was born in London to Scottish parents from Bishopbriggs, Scotland, which inspired her professional name. At age four, she moved to Tokyo with her family. She sang in public for the first time at a Tokyo karaoke bar, and immediately realized she wanted to continue performing throughout her life. Growing up with the city’s karaoke bar traditions and hearing music ranging from Motown musicians to The Beatles at home also influenced her to pursue music. She started writing her own songs at age seven, which she would perform for her family. She moved to Hong Kong at age 10, where she had her formative years and lived until she was 18. After graduating from Hong Kong International School she moved to Los Angeles, California, and attended college at Musician’s Institute.
After moving to Los Angeles, Briggs started her career by playing in any venue that asked her to perform, often for crowds as small as three people. Shortly after a 2015 performance in a local bar that gained the attention of former A&R representative George Robertson, Briggs recorded her first single “Wild Horses” under the name Bishop. The song was produced by Mark Jackson and Ian Scott.[8] Many users found Briggs via Shazam when seeing an Acura commercial which features the song. In late 2016, “Wild Horses” began climbing the charts again, entering the top 30 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and top 13 on the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artist charts.
In January 2016, Briggs released the single “River” and changed her recording name to Bishop Briggs to avoid confusion with a heavy metal band of the same name.[1] The song was a commercial success. Shortly after its release, the song quickly made it to number 1 on Hype Machine’s Popular charts and reached number 1 on Spotify’s US Viral 50 and #2 on the Global Viral 50.[9] It also received an Honorable Mention on Shazam’s predicted Songs of the Summer 2016, which was featured in Billboard. As of May 2016, “River” was steadily climbing the Shazam Future Hits charts.[10] “River” climbed into the top 3 on the ‘Billboard Alternative Songs chart and top 10 on the Billboard Hot Rock, Rock Airplay and Twitter Emerging Artist charts.[citation needed]
In May 2016, she released her third single, “The Way I Do”. It was also announced that she would open for Coldplay in the fall of 2016 on nine of their tour dates,[11] as well as open for Kaleo throughout their fall tour.[12] Briggs made her television debut on August 1, 2016, performing “River” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[13] She released her fourth single, “Pray (Empty Gun)” on 12 August 2016.[14] The song was featured in the season 2 finale of the MTV show Scream.[15] On 23 September 2016, Briggs released the single “Be Your Love”.[16] Her first physical release was a self-titled 12″ vinyl EP in a limited-edition run of 1,200 copies, released on Record Store Day Black Friday in 2016.[17]
In December 2016, Briggs released the official video for “Wild Horses” through W Magazine.[18]
Bishop Briggs opened on the main stage at the 2017 Panorama Festival in New York City and played Coachella 2017.[19] Briggs contributed to the soundtrack of xXx: Return of Xander Cage with her song “Mercy”. She featured in Cold War Kids’ song “So Tied Up”, released in March 2017.[20]
Bishop Briggs’ second self-titled EP was released on April 14, 2017, featuring four songs released on the vinyl EP and two previously unreleased songs, “Dark Side” and “The Fire”.
In February 2018, Republic Records released Briggs’ cover version of the 1988 INXS hit “Never Tear Us Apart” as a single cut from the soundtrack to the film Fifty Shades Freed,[21] which she also sang as part of a duet on Season 16 of American Idol.
Briggs’ debut album, Church of Scars, is due for release on April 20, 2018.
Briggs has stated that she uses her piano skills frequently when writing songs
