ABOUT
British singer-songwriter Olivia Broadfield has spent the last 15 years honing her craft of writing for television. In 2008 a placement on the cult MTV show The Real World landed her a record deal in The States with Vagrant and the US TV syncs kept on coming; Grey’s Anatomy, The Vampire Diaries, Arrow, The Ghost Whisperer, 90210, Melrose Place, About A Boy.
It was in 2015 that Olivia’s songwriting came to the fore in her own backyard when she co-wrote “Bird” with a then 16-year-old Billie Marten. It was Radio 1’s Hottest Record in the World and Jo Whiley’s New Favourite Thing before Ed Sheeran tweeted “Bird is stunning”; with uses on Virgin River and The Vampire Diaries, Olivia cemented her talent of writing songs that music supervisors couldn’t get enough of.
Her piano playing has been likened to Carole King’s and her writing is similarly emotive. She knows that the key to writing for TV is to support and enhance the emotion on screen without detracting from it. Olivia’s music moves people, she admits that her slightly twisted creative M.O. is to reduce people to tears.
In 2020 Olivia was asked by Sister Pictures (Chernobyl, Landscapers) to write the songs for the second series of their hit BBC show The Split written by Emmy-award winner Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady, The Hour) and starring Nicola Walker. The series was streamed over 19 million times and Olivia was invited back in 2022 for the final series. In total she wrote 13 songs for the show. Her song Faultline closed the series finale and was played by Radio 2’s Claudia Winkleman, Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary. The album peaked at Number 2 on the iTunes charts.
It was in 2015 that Olivia’s songwriting came to the fore in her own backyard when she co-wrote “Bird” with a then 16-year-old Billie Marten. It was Radio 1’s Hottest Record in the World and Jo Whiley’s New Favourite Thing before Ed Sheeran tweeted “Bird is stunning”; with uses on Virgin River and The Vampire Diaries, Olivia cemented her talent of writing songs that music supervisors couldn’t get enough of.
Her piano playing has been likened to Carole King’s and her writing is similarly emotive. She knows that the key to writing for TV is to support and enhance the emotion on screen without detracting from it. Olivia’s music moves people, she admits that her slightly twisted creative M.O. is to reduce people to tears.
In 2020 Olivia was asked by Sister Pictures (Chernobyl, Landscapers) to write the songs for the second series of their hit BBC show The Split written by Emmy-award winner Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady, The Hour) and starring Nicola Walker. The series was streamed over 19 million times and Olivia was invited back in 2022 for the final series. In total she wrote 13 songs for the show. Her song Faultline closed the series finale and was played by Radio 2’s Claudia Winkleman, Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary. The album peaked at Number 2 on the iTunes charts.
