Natalia Kills

Natalia Kills is the stage name used by Teddy Natalia Noemi Sinclair, a British singer-songwriter, actress and director from Bradford, West Yorkshire. Born in 1986, she attends Bradford Girls’ Grammar School and later studies classical drama at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She has Afro-Jamaican and Uruguayan family background, and says that growing up between London and Florida gives her a mixed American and English accent.

Acting and early writing

Kills begins acting at the age of nine in 1995, in New Voices. She later has a regular role as Sima in the television sitcom All About Me and plays Amy Franks in the BBC radio drama The Archers. She starts writing songs at 14, and some of those songs are used in films and television programmes including Bring It On 4, Sleepover, Just My Luck and Entourage.

Recording career

After leaving The Archers in 2003, she pursues music more directly and gains attention after winning a Radio 1 MC Battle in Leeds under the name Candy Rapper. She records first as Verbalicious, signs to Adventures in Music, and releases her debut single, “Don’t Play Nice”, in 2005. She later posts the self-produced demo EP Womannequin on MySpace in 2007, where it attracts attention, reaches about 2 million plays and places her at the top of the unsigned artists chart. Following offers for concerts and festivals, she moves to Los Angeles.

Will.i.am Music Group and Perfectionist

In 2008, will.i.am signs her to will.i.am Music Group after hearing the demo. She also co-writes and appears on “They Talk Shit About Me” by French artist M. Pokora and meets director Guillaume Doubet in Paris; he later directs many of her videos. Her record company adopts the stage name Natalia Kills because “Natalia Cappuccini” is difficult to pronounce, while the name itself is based on the phrase “you killed it” and reflects her perfectionist approach.

Her debut album, Perfectionist, appears in 2011. She describes it as a concept album about proving perfection is attainable. It includes production by Jeff Bhasker and Fernando Garibay and is released with the singles “Mirrors”, “Wonderland”, “Free” and “Kill My Boyfriend”. “Mirrors” reaches the top ten in Germany, and the singles gain some attention in parts of Europe but do not chart in the US or UK.

Touring, collaborations and later work

Kills supports and opens for a number of artists around the release of Perfectionist, including Kelis on the All Hearts Tour, Robyn on the Body Talk Tour, Ke$ha on the UK leg of the Get Sleazy Tour, Katy Perry on the California Dreams Tour in Europe and São Paulo, and the Black Eyed Peas in Europe. She also features on Junior Caldera’s “Lights Out (Go Crazy)” with Far East Movement and on Tatana’s “You Can’t Get in My Head (If You Can’t Get in My Bed)”.

She later announces “Controversy” as the lead-in to her second studio album Trouble, which is planned for release through Cherrytree and Interscope Records. She cites Kate Bush and Alanis Morissette as major influences for their emotional honesty, names Gwen Stefani as a hero, and also points to Depeche Mode, Prince, Vanity 6 and Freddie Mercury as inspirations for her live performances.

After Natalia Kills

In 2015, Sinclair says that her next music will feature a band and that her days as Natalia Kills are over. In early 2016 she forms Cruel Youth, whose early releases include “Mr. Watson”, “Diamond Days” and “Hatefuck”, followed by the debut EP +30mg.