Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall (born 23 June 1975) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained attention with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland and has subsequently also appeared in two episodes of the comedy series This is Jinsy on Sky Atlantic. In 2025 it was estimated that Tunstall's accumulated record sales totalled seven million. Her accolades include a Q Award, European Border Breakers Award, two Ivor Novello Awards, a UK Music Video Award, and a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist. Additionally, she has been nominated for a Grammy Award, Mercury Prize, World Music Award, and a Hollywood Music in Media Award.
The name of her debut studio album, Eye to the Telescope, was inspired by her childhood experiences at her father's physics laboratory at University of St Andrews. Released in 2004, the album was a strong seller worldwide, selling over five million copies internationally, and ultimately became the 51st best-selling album of the 2000s decade in the United Kingdom. The single, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", was given the Q Magazine Award for Best Track in 2005, and "Suddenly I See" won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song in 2006. "Suddenly I See" became a popular hit and was featured in the hit film The Devil Wears Prada and adopted as a campaign song for the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign. Her second album, Drastic Fantastic (2007), features some tracks written prior to the release of Eye to the Telescope and was supported by the singles "Hold On", "Saving My Face", and "If Only". She began the 2010s decade with the release of her third album, Tiger Suit (2010).
In April 2013, she released "Feel It All" as the lead single from her fourth album, Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon (2013). From 2016 until 2022, she released three albums as a trilogy – Kin (2016), Wax (2018), and Nut (2022). Singles released during this period include "Maybe It's a Good Thing" and "It Took Me So Long to Get Here, But Here I Am". In 2023 she partnered with American singer and bassist Suzi Quatro on the collaborative album Face to Face.
Tunstall was born to a half-Chinese, half-Scottish mother, Carol Ann Orr, who was from Hong Kong, and a Northern Irish father, John Corrigan, from Belfast. Her parents met while her mother was working as a waitress in the Penthouse bar in Edinburgh, where her father was a barman. She was born at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital and at 18 days old was placed for adoption by her mother with a family in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. She never met her biological father.
Her adoptive father, David Tunstall, was a physics lecturer at the University of St Andrews, and her adoptive mother, Rosemarie Tunstall, was a primary school teacher. They already had adopted another child who became her older brother Joe and went on to have another son Dan. Tunstall has said: "My earliest memories are Californian", from a sabbatical that her father took at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1979. She was musically oriented and her parents supported her interest. She recollected that she asked for a piano when she was four.
Tunstall grew up in St Andrews, Fife, attending Lawhead Primary, then Madras College in St. Andrews and the High School of Dundee, but she spent her last year of high school in the United States at the Kent School, a selective boarding school in Kent, Connecticut. She spent time busking on Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, and at a commune in rural Vermont. Tunstall studied at Royal Holloway, University of London. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama & Music in 1996. Royal Holloway conferred an honorary doctorate in science on her in 2011 for her work on environmental issues as a musician.
Throughout Tunstall's twenties she played in indie music bands including Elia Drew and Tomoko. She focused on songwriting, as well as performing with members of the fledgling Fence Collective. Tunstall lived with Gordon Anderson of the Beta Band and the Aliens, whom the song "Funnyman" on her second studio album Drastic Fantastic (2007) is about. She toured with the klezmer band Oi Va Voi and stayed with them while they were making their second studio album, Laughter Through Tears (2003).
When British label Relentless Records put forward an independent offer, Tunstall opted to sign with a U.S. major label instead. However, when that deal did not work out, she decided to go with Relentless. Although Relentless co-founder Shabs Jobanputra recognised the potential in the quality of Tunstall's voice and songs in the early 2000s, his assessment then was that she "wasn't ready yet", and so together with Tunstall's manager, Jobanputra discussed "the process of how we saw her happening and how we would work, why we thought the songs were great, why we thought she was great, and why it could really work if we took enough time."
Eye to the Telescope and breakthrough (2004–2007)
Tunstall's debut studio album, Eye to the Telescope, was first released in late 2004, entering the UK Albums Chart at number 73. Tunstall's first appearance of note was a solo performance of her folk blues song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland. She had only 24 hours to prepare after scheduled performer Nas cancelled. She performed as a one-person band using a guitar, a tambourine, and a loop pedal.
Shortly after the Later appearance, Eye to the Telescope was re-released and shot up the British charts, peaking at No. 3 and certified 5× Platinum by the BPI; it was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize. The album was released in the U.S. on 7 February 2006. On the UK Singles Chart, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" made it to No. 28, and on the US Billboard Hot 100 it charted at No. 20. The next release from the album in the United Kingdom was "Other Side of the World", whilst "Suddenly I See" was released in the United States and used in the opening credits of the film The Devil Wears Prada (2006), as well as in the television series Ugly Betty. Further singles released from the album were "Under the Weather" and "Another Place to Fall", which were also successful.
Tunstall released an acoustic collection album on 15 May 2006, KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza, which was first available only via mail order from her website. The album was re-released in stores worldwide in October 2006. Tunstall's North American break came when American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee contacted her asking to use "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" as her choice for a Billboard-themed week. At the time, the song was No. 79 on the Billboard charts. Tunstall had not been shy with her opinions regarding shows like Idol, saying "The major problem I have is that it's completely controlled. They're told what to say. They're told how to sing." She chose to license the song as she felt that "no one on that show told Katharine McPhee to sing my song because no one knew it". Tunstall's belief was correct—the song was suggested to McPhee by Billboard columnist and author Fred Bronson. The song immediately jumped to No. 23 on the Billboard charts the week following McPhee's performance.
Tunstall sang with Scottish band Travis on their fifth studio album, The Boy with No Name (2007), on the track "Under the Moonlight", a song written by Susie Hug, formerly of Katydids.
Drastic Fantastic and Tiger Suit (2007–2012)
Tunstall's second studio album, Drastic Fantastic, premiered on 3 September 2007 in Scotland, followed a week later on 10 September 2007 with the London release for Britain and then on 18 September 2007 in the U.S. In its first week Drastic Fantastic reached No. 1 on the Scottish Album Charts, No. 3 on the British Charts, and No. 9 in the American Charts. The album's lead single, "Hold On", was released in the UK in August 2007, debuting at No. 34 before peaking at No. 21. The song was also very successful in certain European nations, peaking at No. 19 in Italy, No. 19 in Norway, No. 26 in Switzerland, and No. 39 in Ireland. The album's second single, "Saving My Face", was released in December 2007. The song did not reach the UK Top 40 Singles Charts but did peak at No. 50, managing three weeks on the UK Charts. Despite missing the UK Top 40, the song made the Top 40 in Italy at No. 23 and in Switzerland peaking at No. 93. The album's third single and final worldwide single, "If Only", was released in March 2008, becoming the second single from the album to miss the UK Top 40; it managed to reach No. 45.