<\/p>\n
Four hours before Sienna Spiro is due to launch her first U.S. headlining tour, the 20-year-old singer and songwriter from London sits upstairs in the Troubadour\u2019s empty balcony, peering down as several crew members wheel a grand piano onstage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that I\u2019m 11-and-a-half hours from home and that this room is gonna be filled with people that have never met me and that I\u2019ve never seen before \u2014 that\u2019s just crazy,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m kind of scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
The song that brought Spiro to West Hollywood this past Tuesday is \u201cDie on This Hill,\u201d a showstopping pop-soul ballad about staying in a toxic relationship \u2014 \u201cI\u2019ll take my pride, stand here for you,\u201d she sings, \u201cI\u2019m not blind, just seeing it through\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s been streamed more than 300 million times on YouTube and Spotify since it came out in October. Built around tolling piano chords and Spiro\u2019s titanic vocal, the song hit No. 9 in the U.K. and broke into the Top 20 of Billboard\u2019s Hot 100; last month, Spiro \u2014 whose famous admirers include SZA, Mark Ronson and Alex Warren<\/a> \u2014 was nominated for the Critics\u2019 Choice prize at England\u2019s annual BRIT Awards.<\/p>\n With its unabashed emotion and its throwback feel, \u201cDie on This Hill\u201d can be heard as the latest in a long line of melodramatic ballads by young Brits such as Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Lewis Capaldi<\/a> and Olivia Dean, the last of whom was just named best new artist<\/a> at the Grammys. Yet Spiro\u2019s voice stands out: Rich and pulpy, with a crack she knows how to deploy for maximum heartbreak, it might be the most impressive instrument to come out of England since Adele emerged nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n