Victoria Christina Hesketh (born ), known professionally as Little Boots, is an English singer, songwriter, and DJ. Formerly the lead singer and keyboardist of Dead Disco, she started her musical career in 2005, and rose to prominence after releasing her single, "Stuck on Repeat" (2008). Little Boots is known for her blend of electropop, synth-pop, and disco, with her music focusing on lyrical themes of love, heartbreak, and personal acceptance.
Originally from Blackpool, Little Boots moved to Los Angeles and began to produce music under the labels IAMSOUND and 679. In 2009, she released her debut studio album, Hands, with the songs "Remedy", "New in Town", "Meddle", and "Earthquake" topping the UK Singles Chart. Her second studio album, Nocturnes (2013), topped both the Billboard's US Top Dance Albums and Heatseekers Albums. Starting in 2014, Little Boots began producing music under her own label, On Repeat Records. Her fourth studio album, Working Girl (2015), also topped the Billboard charts, with her lead single "Better in the Morning" receiving high praise.
Little Boots began to disappear from mainstream attention, starting in 2017. After the release of Working Girl, she began releasing several standalone singles and extended plays, which included collaborations with other artists. After a hiatus, Little Boots announced her fourth studio album, releasing the single "Silver Balloons" (2021) a few days later. Hesketh also stated that the album was entirely directed, produced, and written by herself. Her fourth studio album, Tomorrow's Yesterdays, was released in 2022.
Since beginning her solo career, Little Boots has released four studio albums, with Hands, Nocturnes, and Working Girl topping several charts. She has also released numerous singles, extended plays, and remixes. She is the recipient of numerous nominations from several music publications, including those from the BRIT Awards, NME Awards, and the UK Music Video Awards. In 2009, Little Boots was named the "most promising new music talent" by BBC, winning herself the Sound of... music award.
Early life and education Victoria Christina Hesketh was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, in . Her father operates a motor vehicle dealership, and her mother is a writer. Hesketh has three younger brothers, and was raised in Thornton, Lancashire.
From the age of five, Hesketh played the piano and began lessons at six with Ruth Birchall, eventually winning a music scholarship. During this time she was taught how to play the flute, was a member of the school choir and travelled regularly to Manchester to take lessons on her harp. Trained initially in classical singing by Janet Wunderley, by the age of thirteen Hesketh was writing her own songs.
Hesketh attended the private Rossall School in Fleetwood, and then the state Blackpool Sixth Form College; it was around this time that she entered the ITV talent competition search Pop Idol aged 16. Reaching the third round, she was eliminated by the producers of the show and did not reach the panel of judges.
After singing with the Lancashire Youth Jazz Orchestra and performing with a jazz trio for some time, Hesketh decided to prioritise her education and studied cultural studies at the University of Leeds, attaining a first-class honours degree. She subsidised her course by playing "awful, schmoozy lounge versions of Norah Jones songs" in hotels around the north-west. It was during her time at Leeds University that Hesketh, along with two of her fellow students, formed the all-female band Dead Disco, Hesketh herself eventually becoming the lead singer and keyboardist.
Career 2005–2008: Dead Disco
While studying at the University of Leeds, Hesketh answered an online advertisement posted by Lucy Catherwood and Marie France looking for a lead singer to start a band. Sharing an interest and love of The Killers, Ladytron, The Rapture and Siouxsie & the Banshees, they formed the electropunk band Dead Disco in August 2005, The band got their name through randomly picking words from a hat. With Dead Disco, Hesketh sang lead vocals and played synth, while Catherwood and Franceon played guitar and bass, respectively.
With only a few songs written, Dead Disco began playing gigs around the north of England; their live gig in the headline slot at the "In the City" event in Manchester gained them enough recognition to get a recording stint with James Ford. Working with Ford in his London attic studio, the band issued a limited release of their debut single "The Treatment" in April 2006 on the record label High Voltage. Their second release "City Place" was a digital-only release through Playlouder Records.
With the success of several sell out gigs and an appearance at the Leeds Festival, the band moved to Los Angeles to begin recording their debut album with Greg Kurstin. However, it was around this time that Hesketh herself began to write songs not in keeping with the band's "indie" style. Choosing a new musical direction, Hesketh left Dead Disco; they officially revealed their disbandment on their Myspace blog in December 2008. In an interview with The Times, Hesketh spoke about her gradual shift away from the band: "All the time I'd been hiding my own songs and finally I had to make the sort of music I actually wanted to listen to. [...] Before I used to always think, 'What would a jazz performer do?' or 'What would the band do?'—Now it's so easy because it's 'What would I do?' It's just me." In a later interview Hesketh noted that the bands' label was pressuring the group to have a certain style and that her bandmates lost confidence in her because she wanted to write "cheesy" songs.
2008–2010: Mainstream success, Hands and Illuminations
With her departure from Dead Disco in August 2007, Hesketh decided to begin a new solo career in pop. She returned to her parents' house to begin writing her own songs and posting covers on social networking sites such as YouTube and Myspace. Within a year she had narrowed down a list of her songs to create an album and by getting in touch with Greg Kurstin, with whom she had previously worked with Dead Disco, Hesketh started production on her debut album Hands. In early 2008 she began using the stage name Little Boots, which came from a nickname given to her by a friend, a reference to her unusually small feet. She shares her nickname with the ancient Roman emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who was better known by his nickname Caligula (Latin for "Little Boot").
After appearing on several shows including Later... with Jools Holland and Last Call with Carson Daly, Hesketh entered production on her debut album Hands. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with Greg Kurstin and Joe Goddard, and by January 2009 she had begun to compile the album's track listings. With increasing media attention regarding her then-yet-to-be-released debut album, Hesketh topped the BBC Sound of 2009 poll and received a Critics' Choice nomination at the 2009 BRIT Awards.
Hands was released in June 2009, accompanied by a limited edition 12-inch vinyl release (limited to 1000 copies). The album peaked at number five on the UK Albums Chart and has produced the top twenty hit "New in Town" and top ten hit "Remedy". The album also did well in Europe and Japan. Also in June 2009, Little Boots released an EP titled Illuminations in the United States and Canada. It includes "Stuck on Repeat", "New in Town", "Magical", "Love Kills" (a cover of Freddie Mercury's 1984 song) and "Not Now" (which is only available on the US edition). Designed to help relaunch Elektra Records, the EP peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
Critical response to the album was generally favourable, generating a score of 70 on Metacritic. In a review for musicOMH, Michael Cragg called it "a well-crafted, glorious pop record." Clash Music reviewer Joe Zadeh disagreed, writing that the album "falls victim to attempts to reach beyond more boundaries than necessary, and thus ironically loses the concentration of the more earnest listener." David Renshaw of Gigwise.com described Hands as "a big pop album" that "rival[s] Lady Gaga, Girls Aloud or Lily Allen." Ben Thompson of The Guardian wrote that the album's production was "diverse" and called the song "Symmetry", a duet with Philip Oakey, a "joyous cross-generational head-to-head." NME reviewer Emily Mackay wrote that "Little Boots gives us an inspiring story of self-realization" and called the album "brilliant". Pete Paphides of The Times named "Stuck on Repeat" the album's "best moment" due to its "exquisite vulnerability". Little Boots was also nominated for Critics' Choice at the 2009 Brit Awards. She was included on Esquire magazine's list of sixty "Brilliant Brits 2009", and was named a 2009 artist to watch by American magazine Rolling Stone.
Little Boots collaborated with illustrator and artist Chrissie Abbott for the artwork of the album. The artwork for the album has been compared to Pink Floyd's 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon because of its geometric design and fairytale imagery. The album was released in the United States on 2 March 2010, debuting at number seven on the Heatseekers Albums chart. With the release of her debut, she became linked to a recent wave of breakthrough female artists in their twenties playing 1980s-influenced music, including Lady Gaga, Ladyhawke, Florence and the Machine and Elly Jackson of La Roux.
2010–2013: Nocturnes In an interview with music website Artistdirect in March 2010, Little Boots stated that her second album would be "rawer and a bit more down-to-earth. It'll still be magical, but quite dark and spooky at the same time." She added that she had drawn inspiration from the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. In May 2011, she performed at China Music Valley Music Festival in Beijing, during which she performed a new song called "Crescendo". In late September 2011, Little Boots performed several old and new songs acoustically at the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. In October 2011, she released a mixtape called Shake Until Your Heart Breaks and announced that she would embark on an international DJ tour to promote her new material. She released the song "Shake" digitally and on a limited edition vinyl in November 2011. Little Boots collaborated with English electronic producer Michael Woods on the song "I Wish", which premiered during Woods's set on BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix on in December 2011.
Little Boots unveiled her third mixtape, Into the Future, in March 2012 via her official SoundCloud page. The mix includes re-workings of Azari & III's "Reckless with Your Love" and Kylie Minogue's "Slow", and a Tensnake remix of "Every Night I Say a Prayer", a song she wrote with Andy Butler of Hercules and Love Affair. "Every Night I Say a Prayer" was released in April 2012 as a free digital download and—to coincide with Record Store Day—on limited 12-inch vinyl via 679 and Trax Records. She supported the launch with a short live set at Rough Trade East in London. This was followed by "Headphones", released in June 2012, with the accompanying music video inspired by Paris, Texas. Little Boots toured internationally in late 2012, including performances at San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair and Ibiza's Space.