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HOLLY HUMBERSTONE RELEASES HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SECOND ALBUM CRUEL WORLD

WATCH THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR THE SUBLIME
“BEAUTY PAGEANT”
LIVE AT 10AM EST TODAY
DIRECTED BY SILKEN WEINBERG

USA HEADLINE TOUR IN JUNE, EUROPEAN HEADLINE TOUR IN SEPTEMBER AND SET TO PLAY BRITISH SUMMER TIME, READING & LEEDS, MAD COOL, GOVERNORS BALL, COACHELLA, RADIO 1’S BIG WEEKEND AND MORE FESTIVALS THIS SUMMER


Download image and artwork - credit Silken Weinberg

 “This song is a reflection of my exasperation of the baggage that being a woman comes with in our society. This song is a moment of vulnerability and raw ugly truths. Beauty Pageant is about the unattainable standards we hold ourselves to - how long can you maintain the illusion of composure before you unravel and come undone? It’s about the fragility of your own image when it's based upon the opinions of others.

The sound of the song mirrors that feeling, like a dancer in a broken music box or a wind-up doll performing under a single spotlight. I was thinking a lot about I, Tonya, The Red Shoes, and Black Swan while writing it. It’s the moment after the show when you’re taking off your makeup in the mirror and there are no distractions left. It’s brutally real, a little ugly, and painfully honest - crying alone in your room because you can’t keep the performance going forever.” - Holly Humberstone

10 APRIL 2026 (TORONTO, ON) - Today, award winning artist Holly Humberstone releases her highly anticipated second album Cruel World, alongside lead single “Beauty Pageant” — a stark, unravelling portrait of womanhood under pressure. Written about the expectations of image, performance and perfection, “Beauty Pageant” confronts the “unattainable standards we hold ourselves to”, and tells the story of a girl who has travelled far from home. The final track on the record, “Beauty Pageant” reflects “the moment after the show when you’re taking off your makeup in the mirror and there are no distractions left. You’re crying alone in your room because you can’t keep the performance going forever.”

Showcasing Holly’s forensic songwriting ability and confirming her place as one of the UK’s most gifted singer songwriters, Holly’s second album Cruel World explores the line between pain and pleasure -— tracing love in all its forms as both a source of euphoria and instability. The beguiling visual world Holly has created with her sister Eleri Humberstone and Silken Weinberg (Ethel Cain) draws from rediscovering dark fairy tales and cinema; from Brothers Grimm to James and the Giant peach, Nosferatu to the Red Shoes and Black Swan. Across Cruel World, Holly steps into a gothic-leaning world shaped by memory, girlhood and self-reclamation.

LISTEN TO CRUEL WORLD
LISTEN TO "BEAUTY PAGEANT"
WATCH "BEAUTY PAGEANT"

TRACKLIST FOR CRUEL WORLD

  1. So It Starts…
  2. Make It All Better
  3. To Love Somebody
  4. Cruel World
  5. Die Happy
  6. White Noise
  7. Lucy
  8. Red Chevy
  9. Drunk Dialling
  10. Peachy
  11. Blue Dream
  12. Beauty Pageant

Following title track “Cruel World”, a song that captures the emotional centre of the record and addresses the euphoria and pain of long-distance love, to up-beat anthem “To Love Somebody”, which Holly performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the album marks a turning point in Holly Humberstone’s writing and a shift from searching for home to finally defining it.

Place has always anchored Holly’s lucid storytelling. From her breakthrough EP Falling Asleep At The Wheel, which is a portrait of a girl growing up in a “haunted house” in Grantham - through The Walls Are Way Too Thin and her #3 debut album Paint My Bedroom Black, Holly documented the dislocation of leaving home, capturing life in fragments: hotel rooms, late-night messages, and new cities. Now 26, Holly has built a home of her own in South-East London, restoring a dilapidated house alongside her sisters and best friend Scarlett. Where her debut was steeped in turbulence and longing, Cruel World is anchored in stability and routine. Also written with the live experience in mind, the album layers backing vocals, shaped by years on the road, from festival stages to stadium tours with the likes of Sam Fender, Olivia Reodrigo and Taylor Swift.

Having just headlined a sold-out O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and UK out-store tour, Holly is ready to perform the record to audiences globally, with major festival appearances at Coachella, Governors Ball, Mad Cool and Reading & Leeds this summer. Over the past few years, Holly has already sold out Brixton Academy and Eventim Apollo, to sold-out headline tours in North America and Europe.

WATCH CRUEL WORLD
LISTEN TO CRUEL WORLD

Nominated for an Ivor Novello for her debut EP and winning the BRIT Rising Star in 2022 — Holly has grown into a global force, whose lucid storytelling resonates far beyond her own walls. Holly’s story began with Falling Asleep At The Wheel, the breakthrough EP that revealed a young woman translating her haunted childhood home and three-sister household into vivid, unforgettable songs like “Vanilla,” “Overkill” and “Deep End.” The intimacy and precision of her lyrics marked her as a diarist of the small details that make up big emotions. That voice quickly carried her from her gothic family home to the international stage: performing “London Is Lonely” live to millions at the BRIT Awards in 2022, supporting Olivia Rodrigo and Girl in Red across North America, and releasing her acclaimed debut album Paint My Bedroom Black in 2023, written partly in hotel rooms while living the dream she had imagined as a girl.

Entering Cruel World, Holly escapes into a dark fairytale world of her own making, where childhood relics, monsters and memory collide. Cruel World was written with a new discipline through daily studio sessions with collaborator Rob Milton and draws deeply on love - romantic, platonic, and feminine. Raised among strong women, Holly speaks to the way girls are taught to see one another as competition, unlearning that instinct and reclaiming solidarity as survival.

WATCH AND LISTEN “TO LOVE SOMEBODY”
ALBUM ARTWORK

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES

  • 3 June - Boston, MA
  • 4 June - Montreal, QC
  • 6 June - All Things Go, Toronto
  • 7 June - Governors Ball
  • 9 June - Philadelphia, PA
  • 10 June - 9:30 Club, Washington
  • 12 June - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta
  • 13 June - Bonnaroo Fest
  • 15 June - Saint Andrew’s Hall, Detroit / Majestic Theatre, Detroit
  • 16 June - The Vic Theatre, Chicago
  • 19 June - Varsity Theater, Minneapolis
  • 21 June - Gothic Theatre, Englewood
  • 22 June - The Complex - The Grand, Salt Lake City
  • 24 June - The Showbox, Seattle
  • 25 June - The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
  • 26 June - Roseland Theater, Portland
  • 28 June - The Fillmore, San Francisco

*BOLD indicate Canadian dates.

FESTIVAL TOUR DATES

  • 12 April — Coachella, California
  • 24 May — Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Sunderland
  • 07 June — Governors Ball, New York City
  • 4 July – London, BST Hyde Park
  • 10 July – Madrid, Mad Cool Festival
  • 14 July – Athens, Ejekt Festival
  • 14 Aug – Tokyo, Summer Sonic Festival
  • 15 Aug – Osaka, Summer Sonic Festival
  • 23 Aug – Darmstadt, Golden Leaves Festival
  • 27-30 Aug - Reading & Leeds

EUROPEAN TOUR DATES

  • 15 Sep – Paris, Trabendo
  • 16 Sep – Amsterdam, Paradiso
  • 17 Sep – Brussels, Botanique
  • 20 Sep – Cologne, Stollwerck
  • 22 Sep – Copenhagen, Amager Bio
  • 23 Sep – Oslo, Parkteatret
  • 24 Sep – Stockholm, Nalen
  • 26 Sep – Hamburg, Gruenspan
  • 27 Sep – Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg
  • 28 Sep – Munich, Technikum

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