Kamille
Kamille is one of those people who has an endless list of talents, being not only a songwriter and producer, but a singer herself too. The BRIT Award winning Londoner has collaborated on many tracks, including Selfish Love with pop sensation Mabel for her 2019 album High Expectations. Kamille also helped write several songs for the album, such as Mad Love and Don’t Call Me Up. But maybe you best know Kamille from British success Little Mix, who have openly credited her for writing an entire index of their songs for them or alongside them, the most famous hits being the likes of Shout Out To My Ex and Love Me Like You. They have even often referred to her as their ‘fifth member’.
Jack Antonoff
Any music fan will have heard of Jack Antonoff or at least his band fun, who had a number one hit with their 2011 release We Are Young. He fits into a certain niche of musicians who all help each other in the writing and production of their songs. For example, since writing and producing St. Vincent’s 2017 album Masseduction and Taylor Swift’s Indie project Folklore in 2020, the three of them teamed up to create a fantastic second single for musical newcomer Olivia Rodrigo, entitled Deja Vu. I also can’t write this article without mentioning his relation to two of my favourite artists Lana Del Rey and Lorde. In an interview with The Rolling Stone, Antonoff revealed that he had a group chat with Lana, Lorde and Taylor where they would all help him evaluate his work.
Linda Perry
Linda Perry is arguably more notorious for her lead singer role in the Californian Rock band 4 Non Blondes, but her writing and producing work in the music industry should not go unrecognised. Looking at the top hits she is credited on like Get The Party Started by Pink, which reached number 4 in the Hot 100, or Beautiful by Christina Aguilera, which was a UK number one, we can clearly see that her music writing skills are extremely versatile, seeing as these songs are so different from her own.
Fred Again
In spite of being the youngest person on this list, Fred Again still has a lengthy discography shrouded in hit singles, album tracks and non-album singles. Through being a faithful music partner to Ed Sheeran, Fred Again has likely introduced Maisie Peters to his record label in 2021 after writing a pop single called In My Head for her 2018 EP Dressed Too Nice For A Jacket. More recently he has been credited for writing/producing a Pop/Rap/Hip-Hop blend entitled West Ten by Mabel ft AJ Tracey for her album High Expectations, just like previously mentioned fellow singer-songwriter Kamille.
Ester Dean
To call Ester Dean talented would be an understatement, given the fact she is an actress, voice actress, singer and songwriter. She has blended her film and music career together, making her acting debut in the musical-esque comedy film Pitch Perfect in 2012. Prior to this, Dean had already been nominated for album of the year as a producer on Rihanna’s 2010 album featuring hits Only Girl (In The World) and S&M. Through recording so many songs for Katy Perry, Rihanna and Mary J. Blige, Ester Dean has earned the name ‘The Music Factory’ from the music industry.
Max Martin
It’s no secret that Sweden dominates the world of pop, with ABBA, Avicii and Swedish House Mafia being just some of the successful musicians based in Stockholm. Max Martin, also born in Stockholm, was first recognised for his work in the late 90s to early 2000s with top-selling hits …Baby One More Time (Britney Spears), I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys) and It’s Gonna Be Me (NSYNC). Since then he has won a countless number of awards, including ‘Songwriter Of The Year’ at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards for seven consecutive years.