Biig Piig

Jessica Smyth, known by the stage name Biig Piig, is an Irish singer and rapper, based in West London. She performs in English and Spanish and is signed to RCA Records.

Early life[]

Smyth was born in Cork, Ireland, but lived in Spain from the age of four to twelve,^[1] after her family had moved on advice that the climate would be better for her brother's asthma.^[2] Upon moving with her family back to Ireland, she was at first able to read and write only in Spanish, and had to reintegrate into Irish culture. After living in Waterford and then Kerry, she moved with her family to West London at the age of 14^[3] where Smyth worked as a late-night poker dealer,^[4] and where her parents continue to run a pub.^[5]

In her first six months in London, prior to starting school, Smyth began writing folk-style songs on guitar and ukulele,^[6] influenced by acoustic balladeers like Lewis Watson and Ben Harper.^[7] While taking a music technology class at Richmond College, Smyth met Lava La Rue, the founder and Creative Director^[8] of NiNE8, a collective of like-minded young DIY musical artists.^[9] Smyth subsequently joined NiNE8, and during this period, performed at Soho open mics, finding a new voice at a freestyling session in 2015.^[10] It was at this freestyling session where Smyth also met Mac Wetha, with whom she began writing and who became a major producer for her.^[11]

Career[]

In 2016 Smyth began uploading her music to Soundcloud. In 2017 her single "Vice City" caught the attention of digital music platform COLORS, who invited her to record a live video session of the song at their Berlin studios. Released on 13 April, it was a breakthrough for her, and has been viewed over seven million times on YouTube^[12] and streamed more than five million times on Spotify. She followed it up with the singles "24K" and "Perdida". The latter gained her further notice and has netted more than eleven million Spotify streams.

On 27 April 2018 she released the first of a trilogy of projects, the five-track EP Big Fan of the Sesh, Vol 1.^[13] Its sequel, A World Without Snooze, Vol 2, followed on 22 March 2019. In June of that year she signed to RCA Records.,^[14] releasing the track "Roses and Gold" 2 October 2019 in advance of a headlining European tour^[15] and her first official label release "Sunny",^[16] produced by Zach Nahome.

The third in her trilogy, No Place For Patience, Vol. 3, her first EP on RCA, was released in November 2019.^[17]

Stage name[]

Smyth found the pseudonym 'Biig Piig' on a pizza menu.^[18] She has explained that the name 'puts no pressure on me to be a certain way – I can be a mess, and I can also be cute and put together.'^[19]

Discography[]

Extended plays[]

Singles[]

References[]