There are some voices that genuinely make you stop in your tracks – and Courtney Hadwin is one of them. Seven years after her unforgettable America’s Got Talent audition in which she blew away the judges with her take on Hard To Handle, 20-year-old Courtney now announces she will release her long-awaited debut album later this year. She previews the album by sharing its first single Spellbound.
Courtney Hadwin
Hadwin’s once-in-a-generation talent is showcased with her brand new single Spellbound. Written and produced in Minneapolis with the GRAMMY®-winning Kevin Bowe (Etta James, Joe Cocker), Courtney’s thunderous voice and swaggering attitude hollers “I’m spellbound baby and I can’t say no / Follow you to hell if it’s where you wanna go”. Snarling guitar riffs and thumping stop-start rhythms are the name of the game in Spellbound, a powerful punk rocker with a pop sensibility. It’s the most cathartic way to exorcise the demons of a messy teenage crush.
The singer explains: “I’d been in this situation where I was completely obsessed with someone, and ‘Spellbound’ kind of wrote itself in the studio. We weren’t really expecting it to be a favourite or even a contender for this album, but it’s here and I’m so excited for people to hear it!”
From a young age, Hadwin demonstrated a curiosity and understanding of music beyond her years and has led to her being compared to Janis Joplin. From the age of three she would belt out Aerosmith hit Crazy around the house, driving her family, well, crazy. When she was just nine years old, she realised that becoming a musician was her dream, and she began to pursue it with true conviction – music at the expense of everything else. She was particularly inspired by Janis Joplin, James Brown, Little Richard and Tina Turner, but it wasn’t just their singing that captivated her – these were entertainers, whose charisma and magnetism were as much a draw as their astounding voices.
After America’s Got Talent and the follow-up America’s Got Talent: The Champions, she was placed in sessions with pop-oriented songwriters but never felt as if they were able to help unlock her sound. Instead she stepped back, vowed to prove herself, just as she did when she first performed in working men’s clubs as a child, and eventually connected with someone who understood her in the shape of Kevin Bowe. And with more new music coming soon, Courtney Hadwin is ready to soar. Just watch her go.
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