The Next Big Thing: Chlöe Howl Has The Charm and Talent Of A True International Star

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Chlöe Howl has mastered being the pop star next door. Ms. Howl and I are almost the exact same age (3 days apart), which makes her signature brand of honest storytelling so relatable. She kind of came out of nowhere last year with a couple of really great songs that reminded me a lot of Lily Allen and Charli XCX's early songs (the three divas with the best British accents). For example, let's listen to "No Strings."

It's pretty apparent that this girl can write a super catchy pop song. Like most creative minds, Chlöe's strength lies in her ability to observe interactions amongst people and capture the essential components of those relationships in music. This can all be heard as soon as the first line of the chorus comes with "FUCK your no strings, and your 'Hey, I'll ring.'" Come on y'all, girl is speaking the truth. After listening to this song a good 20 times in a row, I did some research and found out a couple of tidbits about her:

1. The accent in her name was a mistake on her birth certificate. This was a smart decision by the Howl family.
2. She was in a band called TrollMates and met David Hasselhoff when she was 11. What did you do at that age?
3. She has made her own Christmas CD which should be released internationally.
4. Her Soundcloud only has bits of songs, which gives you enough to want to buy her music without downloading anything illegally. Good marketing Chlöe!
5. Her ballads are just as good as the upbeat stuff, which is a rare thing for a popstar to master (for example Neon Jungle…)

The music world promptly took notice and big names like Eg White (Florence + The Machine, Celine Dion, Rebecca Ferguson) and Justin Parker (Sia, Lana Del Slay) had the honor of working with our little Howlo. She even snagged a supporting slot for Ellie Goulding! If that wasn't enough, Chlöe decided to go and create 2013's best music video to one of the best songs of that year as well.

Clearly, her sense of humor, charm, and knowledge of pop culture will keep Chlöe Howl at the forefront of music for quite some time. With that said, Ms. Howl has already been nominated for awards! For those who don't know, the BBC Sound of… Poll tips off the top 15 musical acts for the upcoming year based on various blog reports. The Sound of 2014 included many artists like Jungle, Chance The Rapper, FKA twigs, and our very own Chlöe Howl! Along with that, she was also nominated for the Critics' Choice Award at the BRIT Awards, which pretty much gives the winner a successful career (Adele and Jessie J won in years' past). Unfortunately, Chlöe lost both to Sam Smith, but I suppose that makes sense. Still, I'd prefer Howling rather than crying to Sam all night.

Her first "official" single Rumour was released earlier in the year, and despite it's obvious brilliance and ingenuity (when she talks about the chick who lost weight and may not be straight, I think Chlöe just read my autobiography at that point), it only reached 84 on the charts. Foolishness really. That hasn't stopped Howl from preparing her self-titled album in September and new single "Disappointed" may just be the hard-hitting tune that pushes Chlöe into international pop territory that she deserves.