Simone Murphy

Simone Murphy (born 29 July 1993) is a Scottish musician and former model. Born in Edinburgh, she started modelling aged two, before setting up several events while at the University of Edinburgh; after moving to London, she was scouted while working at Harvey Nichols, and later applied for Cycle 11 of Britain's Next Top Model, on which she placed fifth. She diversified into DJing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom and released a remix of Lana Del Rey's "Say Yes to Heaven" and several original compositions under the name Sim0ne.

Life and career

Early life and Britain's Next Top Model

Murphy was born 29 July 1993^[1] in Edinburgh, Scotland, and attended George Heriot's School. Her father was a photographer, and her first modelling job was with The Scotsman fashion magazine aged two.^[2] As a teenager, she modelled for local clothing brands.^[3] She read Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh,^[4] during which time she worked as an events manager^[2] and ran club nights,^[3] and spent time on the door of Fly Club^[5] and helped set up Fly Festival.^[3] Her first job in the fashion industry was a job in Hollister Co. aged nineteen, which she walked out of after three weeks.^[6] After graduating in 2014, she moved to London, and took a post on the third floor of Harvey Nichols, at which she was scouted as a model^[2] aged 21;^[3] she later worked in the hospitality and events industry.^[2]

In 2016, she used a spare hour to apply for the eleventh cycle of Lifetime's Britain's Next Top Model, a local derivative of the American series America's Next Top Model.^[2] At the time, she was signed to an agency in Manchester, having moved to them from an agency in Glasgow, on the grounds that Manchester was a bigger city, and that more work was available down there.^[6] Her participation was announced in early 2017, at which point she had spent the previous three summers working in Ibiza.^[7] The only Scot in the lineup,^[2] Murphy left the competition during episode after eight ending up in the bottom two,^[8] ultimately finishing in fifth place,^[9] and later that year, she was nominated for PETA UK's hottest vegan, having adopted the lifestyle after being horrified by a social media clip exploring a chicken hatchery.^[10] She later modelled for Karl Lagerfeld and appeared in music videos by The 1975.^[3]

Music and presenting

Murphy spent the first four months of the pandemic in Bali, having moved there with a boyfriend just before lockdown, and having signed with an agency in Sydney with the intention of travelling. After returning to Scotland, she broke up with him via FaceTime, and after struggling in Scotland, she moved to London with a friend.^[6] During the pandemic, modelling work dried up,^[3] and Murphy realised that she wanted to make music,^[11] so spent lockdown teaching herself;^[3] she also came out to her followers as bisexual during this time,^[12] and quit the modelling industry after finding success as a DJ. She told Yazzi Gokcemen of Notion in February 2024 that she was proud of being able to withdraw from the industry on her terms, due to the industry's practice of withdrawing from models.^[5]

In 2022, after being scouted via her TikTok,^[6] she presented PGTV, a music show jointly produced by Pure Groove, an independent music shop in London, and Locked On Recordings, a record label;^[13] around this time, she played a set at Snowbombing in Austria.^[14] Her first release was a remix of Lana Del Rey's "Say Yes to Heaven", which aired on SoundCloud in 2023, and premiered at HÖR Berlin. Around this time, she began a residency at Rinse FM,^[15] and that autumn, she launched Club Zer0, a club night. After being named BBC1’s Future Star of 2024, she released "Halo", a collaboration with Remedy Club,^[5] and then later that year she released "Work It", a combination of techno and trance.^[16]

Personal life and artistry

Murphy suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder^[6] and dyslexia,^[8] and was living in Camden Town in July 2022.^[14] She spent time on Hinge in 2022 after a long dating pause after dating people in the modelling industry.^[17] In April 2023, Megan Wallace of Planet Woo noted that she had over 120,000 followers in Instagram, with her social media content comprising humorous videos, modelling looks, and advocacy "on the pressing political issues of the day – from the injustices of Conservative party austerity, to the need to advocate for trans rights amid a context of increasingly overt hate and discrimination".^[11]

In March 2017, The Scotsman reported that Murphy had described herself as being influenced by the flower power movement.^[7] In April 2022, she told Mixmag that many of the DJs she looked up to were in both the music and fashion worlds, with Peggy Gou starting off in fashion and Virgil Abloh and Dimitri from Paris starting off by mixing for Chanel shows,^[3] and in July 2022, she told Gay Times that she was inspired to become a DJ by Peggy Gou and that she took inspiration from the fashion choices of Alexa Chung and from the way Jameela Jamil "uses her platform and her voice to speak up for what she believes is right".^[14]

Writing in April 2022, Becky Buckle of Mixmag wrote that a normal day for Murphy involved "playing mixes of camp icons such as Kylie, Lady Gaga and Charli XCX while dressed head-to-toe in Fiorucci".^[3] Yazzi Gokcemen used a February 2024 Notion interview to note that her sets "sprawl[ed] techno, hard house, trance and other pulse-raising genres", which Murphy explained as being made out of a desire to make punters move;^[5] AGZ of Guettapen wrote in January 2024 that her sets were inspired by hyperpop, hard house, and trance,^[18] while Laviea Thomas of Skiddle described a 2024 International Women's Day set at The Thekla in Bristol as a "concoction of mainstream pop hits, OG club classics and a whole lot of spontaneity".^[19]

References

This page was last edited on 18 April 2024, at 18:56