Oh Wonder are an English, London based alt-pop duo, consisting of Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht. Before the duo was formed, Vander Gucht was a solo artist, first going by her own name and then later under the alias of “LAYLA”. Anthony West was originally part of the groups Tonight Is Goodbye, Futures, and We the Wild. The two first met in High Wycombe in March 2010 when West was in the audience at one of Vander Gucht’s solo gigs. A year later Vander Gucht attended one of his gigs, talked with him, and they began writing songs and making music together. The duo released their first two songs under the name “Wonder Wonder” but changed it to “Oh Wonder” when they learned of another band with a similar name.
Oh Wonder had an unorthodox approach to releasing their eponymous debut album, Oh Wonder. Over the course of a year, the duo released one new single each month, beginning in September 2014., having written, produced and mixed each song in their home studio in South-East London. These monthly installations culminated in the 2015 release of that first album, which also included two previously unreleased songs. The album reached number 26 on the UK Album Chart, number 16 in Canada and number 80 on the US Billboard.
The album sold over 1 million copies worldwide (the first ever album to do so on an independent label) and has been certified gold in the UK, Canada, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Denmark and platinum in Russia and the Philippines. Oh Wonder gave their debut live performance for BBC1 at Maida Vale Studios, after receiving avid support from BBC Introducing and DJs Huw Stephens and Greg James. The band’s first TV performance was on Conan, which aired in the US in January 2016. They performed their single “Lose It”.
Since their debut album release, Oh Wonder has toured internationally. Their performance in Manila was their first show in Asia. Oh Wonder enjoyed success in Thailand where it has garnered much social media fame which they even filmed the music video in Chinatown, Bangkok as a gift for Thai fans. They also toured as the opening act on the final installment of the Badlands Tour with Halsey from July to August 2016.
In March 2017, they announced that they’d finished their second studio album which was to be titled Ultralife. The album’s lead and title track “Ultralife”, was released the day after. As with their previous album, the group released new singles every two weeks in the run-up to the album. After “Ultralife” the band released the songs “Lifetimes”, “My Friends”, “Heavy”, and “High On Humans” along with acoustic and piano versions of “Ultralife” and “High On Humans” recorded at Abbey Road. The band embarked on an Ultralife World Tour in 2017 that saw them play a long run of headline shows in 34 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. They also played three shows with Beck on his 2018 North America Tour.
On 5 September 2019 the duo released “Hallelujah”, the first single off their upcoming album, followed by “Better Now” in October and “I Wish I Never Met You” in November. The same day they announced via Twitter their album titled No One Else Can Wear Your Crown, also released in November. This was followed by a Christmas single, and finally “Happy” on 3 January, and one day before the release In And Out Of Love. As part of the press coverage of the release of their third album, Vander Gucht and Westand revealed they were in a relationship, and had been for the past seven years.
The pair were to embark on a tour to support their album throughout Europe and North America in March 2020, however the latter part of the tour, including the entirety of the North American segment, was postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic. Whilst subject to the UK lockdown related to the novel coronavirus, Oh Wonder released a series of new tracks under the name “Home Tapes”.
