BACKSTORY: Brooke Combe bounced back and forth between Scotland and Liverpool following the pandemic, plotting her musical journey alongside producer James Skelly
FROM: Edinburgh, Scotland
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: Opening for Lionel Richie on his Say Hello to the Hits Tour
NOW: Following the 2025 release of her debut album Dancing at the Edge of the World, the songwriter is growing her fanbase at home and in the US, offering a playful, modern twist on classic soul music
Brooke Combe’s career has skyrocketed since she released her breakthrough LP Dancing at the Edge of the World at the top of 2025. The Edinburgh-born songwriter has quickly become a star in the UK, one of the most exciting voices in a modern soul revival that imbues the genre’s classic sounds with contemporary touchstones. The project climbed all the way to #4 on the UK Independent Albums chart, and was bolstered by subsequent singles from the era like “How Can I Tell You? (To Love Me More),” “Tears Won’t Lie,” and “Love Was Made of Stone.”
Combe has quickly become one of the most exciting songwriters on either side of the pond, but it wasn’t any of these career milestones that cemented this upward trajectory in her mind. Rather, it was a cosign from a legend, a nod to the music her parents raised her on and the sounds that informed some of her earliest forays into songwriting. “When I got offered to open on the Lionel Richie tour, that was amazing,” Combe explains via Zoom, recalling their shared May and June 2025 tour dates. “I grew up listening to the Commodores. I’m pretty sure my mom and dad’s wedding song was Lionel Richie and Diana Ross,” she adds. “It was just a massive moment for me.”
Additionally, it offered her some insight into the way the industry normally operates, and how the perception of the way success is earned may not always be how artists come across these game-changing opportunities. “It was the first time I was made aware that people can actually buy their way onto massive tours. I didn’t know that. Quite naive, I guess. But we didn’t do that, which is why it was even cooler. Out of everyone in the world, it was me.”
“Something we found while creating this style of music is if we want to be like our heroes, it’s got to be within those same limitations that they had.”
The legions of fans are one thing, but being handpicked by one of her heroes gave her a level of confidence that’s impossible to replicate. It’s intuitive, and it animates her new music—such as the single “Love Was Made of Stone,” which was released in August. The track features simple, upbeat instrumentation that serves as a nice point of tension to Combe’s vocals as she sings of a relationship gone wrong. Over a skipping drum groove, smooth harmonies, and handclaps, she sings: “Once I was your girl / Wrapped inside a lie / The memories still burn / Of the night I said goodbye.” It’s instructive of what Combe does best: namely, an ability to dictate emotion through the sheer power of her delivery. The words, always potent but sometimes secondary, accent the emotional heft she can carry in the way she sings. It’s a transcendent voice, the sort of instrument that would stop a producer in their tracks and garner her record deal offers on the spot.
Those moments only happen in movies, though, and Combe’s ascent was harder earned, which makes this all the sweeter. She moved to Liverpool from Edinburgh after spending a few years traveling back and forth between the cities. She was initially invited by her now-manager to record some sessions in Liverpool after they stumbled upon the videos that Combe was making during the COVID-19 lockdown. After one too many commutes, she relocated full-time to the home of The Beatles last year. It was there that she and her producer James Skelly (known for his work in The Coral) began forging the sound that would shape her 2025 debut and 2026 singles.
One of the big questions Combe faces—especially as she gears up for a sprawling tour of the US, UK, and Europe with vintage-soul maestro Jalen Ngonda—is how she balances honoring the music she grew up on while still forging ahead and establishing her own identity as a songwriter. But much of that, she explains, comes down to Skelly. “He nerds out a lot over old analog gear, so luckily he teaches me quite a lot in that regard.” They discovered that in order to make music that tapped into the past, they had to embody the spirit of those eras. “Something we found while creating this style of music is if we want to be like our heroes, it’s got to be within those same limitations that they had. Everything is recorded with a live band within three takes or so, live to tape, and all the reverb and things like that are recorded live.”
Combining the old with the new, Combe explains, is what makes her sound modern. This, coupled with her background, helps ground her music firmly in the present. “My story is a bit of a mad one in itself, anyway,” she says. “Being a mixed-race Scottish girl spins a few heads. My own experience is quite authentic within the genre. It’s quite cool to put my stamp on it. I try to do it in the way that I would talk to my mates or I’d talk to the people closest to me. That’s how I want it to sound.”
“Being a mixed-race Scottish girl spins a few heads. My own experience is quite authentic within the genre. It’s quite cool to put my stamp on it.”
What’s most special about Brooke Combe’s rise is that it reflects all the people who have impacted her life and career. “My brother influenced me a lot through rap music and hip-hop,” she explains. “I loved 50 Cent, Nas, Snoop Dogg—Biggie Smalls was a big one. Then, as I got older, I loved Arctic Monkeys. A lot of my friends back home are quite indie—Stone Roses, Oasis, they love all of that.”
All of that works its way into Combe’s music, but the most direct influence is a more recent discovery: “I got really into Fleetwood Mac during lockdown, and that was the moment I was like, ‘I love music, I’m obsessed with it.’” It was the catalyst for her career, the beginning of an obsession that’s fueled one of the most exciting comeups in recent alternative music history. “I just don’t want to stop recording. I’m going to keep going,” she explains. “I love releasing physicals. I love collecting vinyl. I just love making and creating art.” FL
