MAKING yourself stand out as a young female singer-songwriter is becoming progressively harder, but Sophie Frances Cooke, who performs as Frances, has got as far as iTunes chart success, which has earned her a tour taking in Sage Gateshead in May.

After an incredible six months, Frances recently released a new single, called Borrowed Time, through Capitol Records.

She wrote the track with Howard Lawrence from Disclosure in his garden studio at home in London. The 22-year-old from Newbury said: “It was amazing to write Borrowed Time with Howard. We were able to create something that stretched me and introduced me to new ways I can use my voice and my sound. It’s also a song we both relate to so that made the writing process so rewarding.”

Frances released her debut EP Grow, on Communion Records, in June. She raised her status as a rising star by gaining nominations for both the Brits Critics’ Choice and BBC Sound of 2016 poll as well as tips for 2016 from Buzzfeed, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, and Spotify’s Ones to Watch. Her first headline tour (which included three sold-out London dates) also saw her as the support act for James Bay in the US and led to a performance on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.

Frances actually started out as a violinist and her teacher managed to get her a meeting with a film composer for career advice. She decided to play him a pop song of her own and she told Q Magazine that the performance moved him to tears. "He said, 'You should just do that. It's great."

The singer describes herself as "a little ginger cookie" and her singing style has been described as husky confessional vocals with rolling piano figures that easily compare with Carole King.

She captured the hearts of the iTunes audience when Grow was used on an Amazon Prime advert, where a father was shown buying a Superman suit for his son after watching the boy fail to make friends on his first day – one of the youngsters looking uncannily like a young version of Frances.

She said: "This is so surreal. So pleased to say that my song Grow is on the latest @amazon advert. I cried the first time I saw it. It’s just the cutest advert ever. Very weird catching myself singing out of the TV."

As a result, she was signed by Sam Smith's management team which gave her support slots with him and a festival appearance alongside Tenterhook on the Communion New Faces tour.

Now, her spring tour takes in Paris, Lille, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin and Cologne before she arrives back in the UK. Frances has also announced that she's been booked for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, in April, playing alongside Elle Goulding, The Kills and Foals.

n Frances Plus Special Guests, Sage Gateshead, Monday, May 16, 7.30pm. Box Office: 0191-443-4661 or Sagegateshead.com