Rianne Downey: Glasgow singer who has gone from busking to Glastonbury

BBC News

10-07-2025

When Rianne Downey headed off to America to record her debut album last year, she found herself working in a secluded studio near Seattle."It was in the middle of a forest and I lived there the whole time I was there, so it was like I was living in a fairy tale," laughs the Lanarkshire singer.It is not the only fantastical moment in her career so far, as the 26-year-old has gone from busking on the streets of Glasgow to performing on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage alongside ex-Beautiful South singer Paul Heaton.The former Housemartins vocalist praised Downey on social media in 2020 after she covered his band's song Rotterdam - and three years later he asked if she would be willing to sing with him on tour.
Since then she has toured across the country with him while also working on her own music.Her debut album is released in October, and before that she will perform at TRNSMT on Sunday afternoon."I still don't think it has sunk in, to be honest", admits the singer, who is from Bellshill. "Sometimes I'll be walking down the shops or cooking my dinner, and it pops into my head what my job is now. It takes the breath away, it's such a dream come true. "As a musician you dream of getting to do this for a living, but you never fully believe you're going to get there."
Downey started busking in her teens, was playing pubs as soon as she turned 18 and was quick to upload material to YouTube when the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020."My mum always says I could sing before I could speak," she recalls."But none of my family are actually musical, other than my granny holding a tune. I don't really know where I got it from, but there was always music on around the house."It's always been the way I express myself. I just love performing, whether it was forcing my granny to watch me sing or being up on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury - I'm happy with whatever I can get."That Glastonbury appearance came alongside Heaton, who approached her about joining him when his regular collaborator Jacqui Abbott had to step away from the band for health reasons."I feel very lucky to have met people like Paul and Ryan Hadlock (producer of her album), who are gems in the industry," Downey said."I'll always aim to be as kind and giving as they are, and hopefully as talented as they are too. Paul is an amazing role model and I couldn't ask for a better sort of mentor."
Her country and folk-flavoured pop will be fully heard in the autumn, when she releases The Consequence of Love, the record she decamped to Bear Creek Studio in the USA to work on.Having spent most of 2024 touring with Paul Heaton and his band, both the album and this weekend's TRNSMT appearance will put her own material in the spotlight again."It's definitely a coming of age album," she says. "It's the chance to tell where I came from and where I am now, as well as looking at friendships, relationships, my family and different things that happened on the way. "I've kind of grown up in front of people and it's the truest, most authentic version of me that's there in the songs."
Downey believes that authentic nature comes from busking as a teenager - when she cut her teeth as a performer.While she stresses that most of her experiences were positive, it also taught her a lot about performing and winning over crowds."That was me serving my apprenticeship," she said. "It's been great character building and it's given me such strength, because when you're stepping out onto the streets of Glasgow to busk there is no-one there to listen to you at first. "It helped build a thick skin but it also taught me about what crowds like and helped me hone in on my performance."Her busking years were before Glasgow City Council decided to implement a code for street performers that came into force last year.Downey is uncertain whether the changes will actually make any difference. She said: "There was always a sort of code anyway when I was doing it, so you knew to keep enough of a distance so everyone had a fair chance of being heard. "It's always a bit mad putting rules in for music though, so hopefully buskers don't have to worry about volume too much."
'I ruminate on negative comments'
Volume levels will be less of an issue at TRNSMT's King Tut's stage on Sunday.Downey's headline tour in the autumn will then wrap up back in Glasgow, at the Old Fruitmarket. Her profile is continuing to rise, which Downey says brings both praise and attention and abuse from internet trolls."I still ruminate on negative comments but you realise a lot of the time it isn't personal," she says. "It just comes with the territory – in a way it's like you're doing something right. It's a horrible thing to deal with but it's about turning that into a positive."She has the same approach with her song-writing, which she says is a form of therapy for her."Sometimes you sit down with your guitar and feel you don't have anything to write about, then within a few hours you've vocalised an emotion you didn't realise was eating away at you," she says."Putting it out of your head and onto paper or into song can really take a load off, and it's so rewarding when people then respond to that and relate to it. "It's like knowing you're not alone – that's the beauty of music."