Alice Merton is a German-Canadian-British singer and songwriter. Merton was born in Frankfurt, Germany to a German mother and an Irish-born father. Merton’s family moved frequently due to her father’s job as a mining consultant.] When she was three months old, Merton moved to Connecticut. Shortly thereafter, they relocated to Oakville, Canada where she was raised until the age of thirteen, learning classical piano and singing. Her family then relocated to Munich. Merton’s return to Germany prompted her to learn German which enabled her to speak with her German grandmother whom she had only seen once annually growing up. While in Germany, Merton wrote her first song and attended a German-language high school before graduating and moving to England. In 2013, she started her studies at the Popakademie Badeen-Wurttemberg in Mannheim, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in composition and song writing, and met the members of her future band.
Merton first drew major attention in 2015 as a songwriter and singer on Fahrnhaidt’s album The Book of Nature. In November 2016 while in Hamburg she won the annual award for the promotion of talented newcomers in the category Acoustic Pop. After moving to Berlin, Alice and her manager Paul Grauwinkel founded the record label Paper Plane Records International, and released the song “No Roots” at the end of 2016. The song’s lyrics were inspired by her feeling of “There’s no one place where my home is.” On Spotify’s Global Viral 50 charts the song reached number one, and was soon included on the “Hit Play” lists of several radio stations.
On the basis of this success, Merton officially released her first EP, No Roots, on 3 February 2017. No Roots reached number one on the French charts, number two on the German charts, number three in Austria, number 25 in Switzerland and number one in US alternative radio charts. Vodafone Germany even included the song in one of its commercials. Alice signed with Mom+Pop Music in August 2017 for marketing within the United States, and in August 2017 she released her second single Hit the Ground Running with her new record label.
She performed at the Life Ball in Vienna in June 2017, and ended the year touring throughout Germany, appearing as opening act for Bosse and Philipp Poisel, among others. In late 2017 she won the 2018 European Border Breakers Award. In September 2018, Merton released “Why So Serious”, the lead single from her debut album, Mint. She released two other singles since then. The album was released in January 2019. Second official single is Funny Business and was released at the end of November. The video for the single was premiered in January.
In February 2019, Merton released the first part of the Making of Mint documentary and announced an April 2019 USA concert tour. She also acted as a coach on ninth series of The Voice of Germany, and became the first female coach to win a series with Claudia Emmanuela Santoso.
In October 2019, Merton released her album Mint again with four additional songs (Back To Berlin, PCH, Easy and Keeps Me Awake). Later, in the beginning of 2020, she toured across Europe singing these new songs, as well as the ones from her previous album. Her latest offering Vertigo was released in 2021. The track was inspired by a dizzying experience Merton had while waiting in line for a club. She channels this unease into a dense drum beat and cathartic guitar riff reminiscent of Muse as she tries to grapple with the unpleasant sensation.
