Emmy the Great

English singer songwriter

Emma Lee Moss (born 4 November 1983), known by her stage name Emmy the Great, is an English singer songwriter. She has released four studio albums, First Love, Virtue, Second Love and April / 月音. She sings in English and in Chinese.

Moss was born in Hong Kong to an English father and a Chinese mother. Interested in music from a young age, she used to go by train to her nearest Tower Records shop so that she could buy the only non Chinese music they had and, as a result, she developed a liking for bands such as Weezer, The Smashing Pumpkins, and The Lemonheads. A British citizen through her father, she moved with her family to London at the age of 11.

Moss has collaborated with several other artists, most notably Dev Hynes and Fatboy Slim (the latter as part of the Brighton Port Authority project). She has also worked with alternative rock band Ash on an acoustic studio re recording of the single "D" – "Tracers" and also performed with them on their A Z tour. Moss recorded a cover of Ash's song "Burn Baby Burn" which was the B side to her single "First Love". Moss and Ash singer Tim Wheeler collaborated on a Christmas album, This Is Christmas, in 2011. In 2013, she announced on her Facebook page that she had contributed vocals and lyrics to Gabriel Bruce's debut album. In 2011, Moss performed with Elizabeth Sankey of Summer Camp as a "super duo" singing "I've Never Had Sex" at the London Word Festival in 2011. Later that year, a portrait of Emmy the Great painted by British artist Joe Simpson was exhibited around the UK including a solo exhibition at The Royal Albert Hall. On 31 October 2012, Moss teamed up with Kate Nash on Halloween in a re enactment of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode (Once More with Feeling) with herself as Willow. In 2013, Moss recorded original songs for the soundtrack for Sony Pictures' Austenland, which appeared in the film alongside an original score by Ilan Eshkeri. In 2015, she wrote the end song for Mystery Show, a podcast by the broadcaster Starlee Kine. In 2017, she wrote original music for Strangers, a series by the filmmaker Mia Lidofsky, as well as the original songs for comedian Sara Pascoe's stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Moss has written for The Guardian, Vice Media and for music magazine The Stool Pigeon. An article of hers, based on her time in Omaha with Lightspeed Champion, is featured in the Stool Pigeon compilation book Grace Under Pressure. Her writing style has been praised as poetic.

During the writing of her second album Virtue, Moss' atheist fiancé underwent a religious conversion and left her as a result, moving abroad to serve as a Christian missionary. Her song "Trellick Tower" is thought to have been inspired by this. She has since dated collaborator Ash frontman Tim Wheeler.