Statues follows in the footsteps of a triple bill of single releases from The Human Demands in 2020: lead track The Hudson, Macdonald’s first top 20 hit in her native Scotland in eight years; country-tinged ballad Crazy Shade of Blue; and Fire, a rugged slice of folk-rock inspired by the songwriter’s relationship with her husband, Partick Thistle footballer Richard Foster. Meanwhile the LP itself secured a number #10 berth in the Official UK Albums Chart, and also performed well on the continent – notably in the alpine nations of Germany, Austria and Switzerland which have been a longstanding hotbed of support for the Caledonian troubadour.

Macdonald has spoken of her pride in the record as a whole, telling The Herald that it encapsulated her unique and evolving style. She said “I am absolutely thrilled with how the album sounds. I can’t think of any other female artist who is sounding like me right now. It just feels exciting and it feels new. It feels a bit different and it is something I am really, really, proud of.”

MacDonald recently spoke out on the potentially detrimental effect of streaming services on the consumption of music. In an interview with Daily Record earlier this month she said: “So many said ‘I’ve heard Amy’s new song ‘The Hudson’ on the radio, I absolutely love it and I can’t stop listening to it.’ But then that was it. They didn’t go and listen to the album which to me is just insane. To me if I hear a song I love, the first thing I want to do is do is go and listen to the full album and I get excited to do so. But it seems with streaming we have come into this world where it’s about one song.”

The Scottish vocalist added: “You get statistics from streaming and there are people that will just listen to one song of mine and don’t ever listen to anything else. You get the emails through that say ‘You’ve had 50 people who have listened to this one song in the past week’ and I’m like ‘What the hell?’ To me it’s mental and it’s probably the downside of streaming. It just made it about one song. It’s like people don’t have the respect for albums anymore and it’s just about ‘I’ll just chuck this one song on.’ It feels like we’ve got to a point where music isn’t as valued as it was.”

The singer-songwriter is due to take The Human Demands on the road this year, with ten tour dates across Europe – culminating in a show at London’s Roundhouse on May 6th – followed by an appearance at Glasgow’s TRSNMT Festival on July 11th. Macdonald shares the bill on the festival’s final day with Lewis Capaldi, Snow Patrol and Rita Ora.

Don’t forget we’re performing on @SusanCalman‘s Hogmanay 2020 tonight!

Tune in to @BBCScotland from 11:30pm or watch online https://t.co/qhpqOZF4Mj

BBC Scotland / Alan Peebles#deaconblue #hogmanay2020 pic.twitter.com/IAuEfUaT4u

— Deacon Blue (@deaconbluemusic) December 31, 2020

2020 has been a busy year for both acts. In October Macdonald released her fifth studio LP The Human Demands, a top ten album in the UK and across Europe. Though the majority of the record was written before the pandemic took hold, the lyrical themes of isolation, depression and ageing it touches on felt increasingly relevant in the context of lockdown life. The Bishopbriggs-born singer acknowledged this in a recent interview with the Glasgow Times, saying: “There’s nothing directly about this situation (in the album) but there are a lot of songs about life and the highs and lows, and the ups and downs, and everything in between. There are definitely tracks that feel extremely pertinent now. If you didn’t know better you might assume they were written about this situation.”

The latest single release from the album is Fire, a soaring, anthemic slice of rugged folk-rock in the same vein as earlier Macdonald hits like Slow It Down and Woman of the World. The Scottish songstress told XS Noise that the track was written for her husband, Partick Thistle football Richard Foster. She said “It was the first song I wrote after getting married, in Las Vegas of all places…I was so happy at the time, just married, that I came up with something that isn’t typical of me at all. I said to my husband: this is the only song you’ll ever get out of me, so enjoy it.”

Macdonald recently told The Herald that she was delighted with the record as a whole and her evolving sound. She said “I am absolutely thrilled with how the album sounds. I can’t think of any other female artist who is sounding like me right now. It just feels exciting and it feels new. It feels a bit different and it is something I am really, really, proud of.”

There was also new material this year from Deacon Blue, with the Glaswegian outfit topping the Scottish Albums Chart in March (and reaching fourth spot in the UK Albums Chart) with their ninth album City of Love. LA Weekly described the record as “spectacularly good“, adding that “everything that made their past work so special shines here too“; while PopMatters opined that the band had delivered “a confident set of arena-friendly songs of hope.”

The veteran pop-rockers, who first shot to international stardom with their 1988 hit Real Gone Kid, will follow up City of Love with a new mini-album, Riding On The Tide of Love, due out on March 5th. A statement on the band’s website says: “‘Riding On The Tide Of Love’ is a continuation of ‘City Of Love’, a companion piece that we recorded piece by piece, going into the studio one by one to record our individual parts. In its own way it’s brought us all together, we hope it will bring you together too.”

The group will play 26 British dates next year as part of their UK and Europe Cities of Love tour, which begins in Brighton on Sunday 6th June. Tickets for all dates are available to buy online here.

Big winners at the event were Lewis Capaldi, who won The Best UK Artist Award and Biffy Clyro who picked up the Best Album Award for their album A Celebration Of Endings that came out in August of this year. They shared a video acceptance speech saying; “Thank you so much for the Scottish Music Award Album of the Year, it means a lot to us. When we started recording this record last year, I guess like everyone else, we had no idea what 2020 held in store, but you know what, the power of music and art feels more important than ever this year.”

Scottish band, Texas were honoured with The Icon Award. Frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri said in their acceptance speech that the award was “very, very special, especially after the amount of years as a band that we’ve been together.” She added: “To be given this and for everybody to think that we deserve it, it means a lot. To be relevant, still making records and be successful this far down the line, for over 30 years, we feel very very lucky.”

A very special acoustic performance from @LewisCapaldi was exactly what we needed this year

A longtime supporter of our music therapy work, Lewis wins the Best UK Award sponsored by @yourSSE #ScottishMusicAwards

Watch live https://t.co/GYIQc0PDUd pic.twitter.com/hnn978hiSz

— Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy (@NordoffRobbins1) November 28, 2020

Lewis Capaldi also shared a special at-home acoustic performance. There were also socially distanced performances from Amy Macdonald, Texas, Wet Wet Wet, Dougie Maclean, Luke La Volpe, HYYTS and more, they all also picked up awards on the night.

The awards show aim is for Scottish Artists to come together to raise money for Nordoff Robins, which is the UK’s largest independent music therapy charity, they use music to enrich the lives of people with life-limiting illnesses, disabilities and feelings of isolation. The charity expects to lose 50% of its income in 2020 due to the coronavirus.

Speaking on the event, Donald C MacLeod, chairman of the Nordoff Robbins Fundraising Committee Scotland said; “Like so many charities, Nordoff Robbins have been severely impacted by COVID-19 and we truly can’t thank everybody who came together to make this event happen enough. From Scottish music legends like Dougie MacLean and Wet Wet Wet, superstars like Lewis Capaldi and Biffy Clyro, and not to mention rising stars like Stephanie Cheape and Luke La Volpe – music has been a lifeline for so many of us during these unprecedented times and their support is so appreciated.”

A list of the winners is below.

Best UK Artist Award - Lewis Capaldi
Best Album Award – Biffy Clyro – A Celebration Of Endings
Icon Award – Texas
Women In Music Award – Amy Macdonald
Outstanding Contribution Award – Wet Wet Wet
Best Male Breakthrough Award – Luke La Volpe
Best Female Breakthrough Award – Kitti
Best Pop Act Award – HYYTS
Special Recognition Award – Dougie MacLean
Ambassadors of Rock Award – Gun
Nordoff Robbins Legends Award – George Bowie
Innovation Award – Graeme Park
Song Writing Award – Young Fathers

Lead single ‘The Hudson’, premiered back in August, which introduced the sound and lyrical themes. Inspired by her parent’s stories of their time in New York in the ’70s, the single is reminiscent of Macdonald’s debut single ‘Mr Rock & Roll’, released in 2007. This was followed by folk-ballad ‘Crazy Shade of Blue’ in September.

According to a press release, ‘The Human Demands’ “rediscovers, from a grown-up perspective, that magic youthful moment of excitement and discovery we can all relate to.” The singer herself said that the themes include getting older, depression, and life’s “many ups and downs,” but it always comes back to the idea of togetherness and love. She explained, “It’s OK to feel a bit crap, and it’s OK to talk about it as well.”

View this post on Instagram

‘The Human Demands’ is out!  I’m so pleased to finally share it with you all. It’s been a very difficult year for all of us, we’re not all in the same boat but we’re facing the same storm. This is an album about life and its many ups and downs. It’s not always straight forward and everyone is facing their own battles. I hope this album can be a comfort in these turbulent times. I am extremely proud of it. It feels like a special record coming out at an important time. Thank you so much for all your support over the past 15 years. I wouldn’t be anything without you. X #thehumandemands

A post shared by (@amy__macdonald) on Oct 30, 2020 at 2:03am PDT

This Sunday, Macdonald will hold an online album release party via live-stream this Sunday, 1st November, at 7pm GMT. Dubbed ‘An Evening With Amy Macdonald’, the event will be ticketed and priced at £15 per person, with all profits going to the #WeMakeEvents campaign. Set up during lock-down to support the live events sector and show that it needs urgent government support, #WeMakeEvents are raising money to help those in need.

The singer will also be going on a UK and European tour in 2021 once it is safe to do so; tickets are on sale now and include dates in Germany, London and Glasgow. Find more information on her website.

Check out the full track-list for the album below.

1. ‘Fire’
2. ‘Statues’
3. ‘Crazy Shade Of Blue’
4. ‘The Hudson’
5. ‘The Human Demands’
6. ‘We Could Be So Much More’
7. ‘Young Fire, Old Flame’
8. ‘Bridges’
9. ‘Strong Again’
10. ‘Something In Nothing’

(Deluxe Only)
11. ‘Bridges’ (Acoustic)
12. ‘The Hudson’ (Acoustic)
13. ‘Fire’ (Acoustic)
14. ‘Statues’ (Acoustic)
15. ‘We Could Be So Much More’ (Acoustic)
16. ‘The Human Demands’ (Acoustic)

Pre-sales will open at 9am BST (10am CEST) on Wednesday 9th September, and general sale tickets will go on sale at the same time on Friday 11th September. Macdonald exclaimed in her post that she’s “very excited to announce that (she) will be heading back out on the road, playing actual live concerts across the UK and Europe in 2021!!”  The artist has been hinting at this for a while, with some cryptic social media posts over the past few weeks.

View this post on Instagram

LIVE NEWS! Very excited to announce that I will be heading back out on the road, playing actual live concerts across the UK and Europe in 2021!! In the UK there will be shows at London’s @Ro@roundhouseldn on May 6th and Glasgow’s @trnsmtfest on July 11th. And I will be performing my biggest shows in Germany since 2010, as well as concerts in Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.  UK Fans – Pre-order my new album The Human Demands from my official store to access an exclusive pre-sale for the London Roundhouse date  EU Fans – Sign up to my mailing list to access the pre-sale for all European tour dates! Link to do both are in my bio. I really can’t wait to see you all again, gonna be so excited that you might even catch me crowd surfing!

A post shared by (@amy__macdonald) on Sep 7, 2020 at 2:03am PDT

This tour will include some of the biggest dates of the singer’s career, at The Roundhouse in London and five shows around Germany, including Barclaycard Arena. It will finish at TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow, where she will perform on the main stage, headlined by Lewis Capaldi.

The new album, ‘The Human Demands’, will be released on 30th October 2020 via Infectious Music who Macdonald recently signed with, making this her first full-length album with a new label, but fifth in her career. According to a press release, the album “rediscovers, from a grown-up perspective, that magic youthful moment of excitement and discovery we can all relate to,” continuing, “Its themes include getting older, dealing with depression, and falling in love with someone you want to spend the rest of your life with.”

Some of these themes can be seen in lead single ‘The Hudson’ which was shared for the first time just a couple of weeks ago on 27th August. With lyrical comparisons such as “I seen the girls in their high heeled shoes/Looking for love, they’ve got nothing to lose” and “What happened to the confidence?/I’m older now,” the song explores the self-confidence many have when they’re young, which can get lost over the years.

Check out the full tour dates below.

22/04/2021 – AB – Brussels, Belgium
23/04 – Samsung Hall – Zurich, Switzerland
26/04 – Jahrhunderthalle – Frankfurt, Germany
27/04 – Rockhal – Luxembourg
29/04 – Zenith – Munich, Germany
30/04 – Max-Schmeling-Halle – Berlin, Germany
02/05 – König Pilsener ARENA – Oberhausen, Germany
03/05 – 013 – Tilburg, The Netherlands
04/05 – Barclaycard Arena – Hamburg, Germany
06/05 – Roundhouse – London, UK
11/07 – TRSNMT Festival – Glasgow, UK

The Scottish-born, Macdonald will be playing a headline show in London at Hammersmith Apollo, on the 21st of March 2019, and in Manchester at the O2 Apollo, on the 22nd of March 2019. The shows will see her play a set of her greatest hits, accompanied by a special musical set up including a string section.

The soft rock singer/songwriter has also shared the title track ‘Woman Of The World’, one of two new songs on the album, alongside ‘Come Home’. Both tracks were included in the recent Disney movie ‘Patrick’. The super-deluxe version of the record will include another new song, ‘This Time’s Everything’. As well as the new tracks, the album features Amy’s most popular songs from the past ten years, including ‘Mr Rock & Roll’, ‘Dream On’ and ‘Poison Prince’.

MacDonald from Dunbartonshire, Scotland, started her music career in 2007, when she released her debut album, ‘This is the Life’, which hit Number one in the UK Albums Chart. This was followed by ‘A Curious Thing’ in 2010, which hit Number four and her third album, ‘Life in a Beautiful Light’, was released in 2012 and reached Number two. Her latest album, ‘Under Stars’, was released in February 2017. Macdonald is best known for singles such as ‘Mr Rock & Roll’ and ‘This Is the Life’.

Speaking about the collection, Amy said: “I remember the week of the 30th July 2007 – I released my first ever album ‘This Is The Life’, and I wasn’t quite sure how I found myself in that position. My album was number 1 in countries I’d never even been to before and I was so busy that I did not have time to take it in at all!”

Amy Macdonald UK Tour Dates 2019:

21/03/2019 – London Hammersmith Apollo – London
22/03 – Manchester O2 Apollo – Manchester

International Tour Dates 2019:

24/03/2019 – Ancienne Belgique – Brussels
25/03 – Tivoli Verdenburg – Utrecht
26/03 – Elysee Montnartre – Paris
28/03 – Osnabruck Halle – Osnabruck
29/03 – Georg-Friedrich-Händel – Halle
31/03 – Alte Oper – Frankfurt
01/04 – Colosseum Theatre – Essen
02/04 – Admiralspalast – Berlin
04/04 – Halle 622 – Zurich
05/04 – Teatro Dal Verde – Milano
07/04 – Gasometer – Vienna
08/04 – Circus Krone – Munich
09/04 – Den Atelier – Luxembourg