Paloma Faith Blomfield (born 21 July 1981) is an English singer and actress. Her debut studio album, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, was released in 2009 and was certified double platinum in the UK. The album spawned the singles “Stone Cold Sober”, “New York”, and “Upside Down”, and earned Faith her first BRIT Award nomination in 2010.

In 2012, Faith released her second studio album, Fall to Grace, which charted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and earned her a double platinum certification. The album produced her first top ten single, “Picking Up the Pieces”, the top twenty cover version of INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart”, and earned her two BRIT Award nominations. In 2014, Faith released her third studio album, A Perfect Contradiction, which stands as her most successful album to date, also receiving a double platinum certification. The album spawned the hit singles “Can’t Rely on You” and “Only Love Can Hurt Like This”, with the latter also topping the charts in Australia. Her fourth studio album, The Architect, was released in 2017 and debuted at number one in the UK, becoming Faith’s first number-one album. In 2020, she released her fifth studio album, Infinite Things.

In addition to her solo work, Faith collaborated with the duo Sigma on the 2014 single “Changing”, which charted at number one in the UK, and DJ Sigala on “Lullaby”, which reached the top ten in 2018. As an actress, she has appeared in St Trinian’s (2007), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Dread (2009), Youth (2015), and Pennyworth (2019–2022). Faith was a judge on the fifth series of The Voice UK in 2016, and on The Voice Kids in 2020.

Paloma Faith Blomfield was born in the Hackney area of London on 21 July 1981, the daughter of an English mother and Spanish father. Both of her parents were raised in Norfolk. Her parents separated when she was two years old and divorced two years later. She was raised by her mother in Stoke Newington, although she maintains a close relationship with her paternal grandmother. As a child, she took ballet classes in Dalston. After completing her A-levels at City and Islington College, she went on to study for a degree in contemporary dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, while working as a hip-hop dancer at the nightclub LoveDough. She then studied for an MA in theatre directing at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and took various part-time jobs as a sales assistant at Agent Provocateur, a singer in a burlesque cabaret, a bartender, a life model, and a magician’s assistant.

Faith’s first foray into music began when she mimicked famous soul and jazz singers including Etta James and Billie Holiday, whom she admires and cites as influences for her own work. She met her managers Jamie Binns and Christian Wåhlberg of Lateral Management in 2007. Binns had been tipped off by the producer Peanut, a client who had recently worked with Faith in his studio and been impressed. He met up with Faith shortly afterwards and was “completely blown away”, later saying, “I wasn’t sure what this girl was going to do – she was an actress and a singer – but there was just something about her in that artistic realness that when I came out of the meeting I called Christian and said, ‘We have to do something with this girl!”

During her time at college, Faith worked in a pub where the manager asked her to front his band, which they later called Paloma and the Penetrators. During a performance with the band at a cabaret show, she was scouted by an A&R man from Epic Records, who invited her to sing for the manager of the label. 20 minutes into the audition, she asked the manager to turn his phone off; when he refused, she walked out. The manager later called her and offered her a contract, claiming that he had seen many acts since their meeting but none had been as memorable as her. She turned down an opportunity to join Amy Winehouse’s band in order to write and perform her own songs. Her first recognised work was the song “It’s Christmas (and I Hate You)”, which she recorded as a duet with Josh Weller in 2008.

In June 2009, Faith released her debut single “Stone Cold Sober”, which reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart. Her second single, “New York”, was released in September 2009, charting at number 15 in the UK. It was later re-released as an updated version featuring rapper Ghostface Killah. In September 2009, she released her debut album, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, for which she wrote or co-wrote all of the songs in the UK, Sweden and America. It debuted at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart and later peaked at number nine, remaining in the chart for 16 weeks. and becoming BBC Radio 2’s “Album of the Week” from 19 September 2009. She released her third single, the album’s title track in December 2009. The song peaked at number 64 in the UK. In the same year, Faith appeared as a vocalist on Basement Jaxx’s Scars album and American hip-hop artist MF Doom’s album, Born Like This.

In March 2010, Faith released her fourth single “Upside Down”, which reached number 55 in the UK. To promote the album, she embarked on her first headlining tour of the UK and Ireland commencing in March. The Times described the tour as being “full of theatrical artifice, but based on the rock-solid foundation of [Faith]’s sensational singing voice and a personality that sparkled like a rough diamond”. She performed a live set for the BBC’s Radio 2 Introduces… and gave an interview to host Dermot O’Leary. Faith performed at numerous festivals throughout that summer, including T4 on the Beach, the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the 2010 iTunes Festival. In May 2010, Faith featured on the theme song “Keep Moving” to the 2010 British film 4.3.2.1, alongside Adam Deacon and Bashy. In October 2010, Faith released “Smoke & Mirrors” as the final single from her debut album.