Hayley Williams

Making her name as the fiery, red-haired teenage singer and keyboard player with power pop band Paramore, Hayley Williams developed into one of America's most striking and colourful performers. Born in Meridian, Mississippi on December 27th, 1988, she moved to Franklin, Tennessee when her parents split up when she was 14, by which time she was already writing songs, had sung with funk band The Factory and earned a production deal. She formed the band Paramore with high school friends Jeremy Davis, Zac Farro, Josh Farro and Jason Bynum, with Williams taking her place as the powerhouse focal point, noted for her spectacular voice, charismatic personality and outlandish clothes. Paramore released their debut album All We Know Is Falling in 2005; all the material was co-written by Williams and Josh Farro and its fresh pop-punk style instantly created widespread interest and it ended up reaching number four in the UK Rock Charts. Despite changing line-ups, their following albums Riot! (2007), Brand New Eyes (2009) and Paramore (2013) cemented their popularity as a feisty power pop band, cementing Williams' reputation as a rock icon, winning awards for her looks and fashion. In 2009 she achieved further success when her song “Teenagers” was featured in the film Jennifer's Body and she went on to collaborate with a number of different artists including October Fall, The Chariot, Set Your Goals and New Found Glory. She also joined rapper B.o.B singing on the international hit single “Airplanes”, followed by a sequel single “Airplanes II” which featured Eminem. She also set up her own online business, starred with Taylor Swift in her video for “Bad Blood”, and became something of a TV personality, but remained committed to Paramore. In 2015 she won a Grammy Award for her song “Ain't It Fun” from Paramore's self-titled album. In 2017 they released a new album After Laughter including the hits “Hard Times”, “Told You So” “Fake Happy” and “Rose-Colored Boy”. January 2020 saw her make her full-fledged solo debut with the single “Simmer”, which was promptly followed by her first album, Petals for Armor, in May of the same year. Featuring contributions from folk supergroup Boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus), Chairlift's Caroline Polachek and Paramore’s very own Taylor York, it received widespread praise from critics, peaking at #4 in the UK and #18 on the Billboard 200.