Georgia Nevada: Littleport singer making waves in the UK country charts
Producing a sound steeped in American country music and southern rock, Littleport-based Georgia Nevada has put out a string of singles and has also been recognised by the British Country Music Association (BCMA).
Since September 2020, Georgia has enjoyed two number one singles on the UK iTunes Country Chart, reached number 36 on the iTunes all-genre chart, and released a further three top three singles, two of which were collaborations.
These were followed by Sin on a Shoestring, which climbed to the second spot in the UK iTunes Country Chart.
The singer, who was born Georgia Heppelthwaite, was also nominated for UK Female Vocalist at the BCMA Awards in 2021, among various other award nominations.
“My family were quite musical, my dad did a lot of musical theatre and things like that,” explains Georgia, who joined forces with fellow UK country singer Emma Moore last year on catchy single Saving Grace, “so I was a bit of a ‘touring baby’ for the first year of my life. It’s always been something that’s very close to home.
“And I have American family; my nan would go out there quite a lot and would bring back all the newest country CDs and my dad would play them in the car on repeat – and we’d all have to learn lines! So that’s kind of what got me started, and it just carried on all through school and ever since really.”
Georgia, whose husband is the drummer in her band, remembers performing in a lot of talent competitions growing up and says singing professionally was always the ultimate goal.
“There’s never been a moment where I haven’t wanted to sing,” she notes, “it’s kind of all I know – and it’s the only thing I can solidly say that I’m decent at!
“I don’t really know what else I would do, to be honest.”
Georgia has appeared at some of the UK’s biggest country music festivals, including Buckle and Boots and the Millport Country Music Festival.
She has supported the likes of Katy Hurt, Kezia Gill, Jade Helliwell and Ags Connolly, and has also been played on Absolute Country and Countryline Radio (formerly Chris Country), as well as being an ‘artist of the day’ on BBC Introducing.
On how she chose her stage name, the singer says: “A friend of mine came up with it in school. I was in a class trying to work out a stage name and she suggested it, because I was looking at the Sierra Nevada waterfalls, and she mentioned Nevada and it’s just stuck since.
“It’s been a really long time that I’ve had that stage name now – it feels like just as much a part of me as Heppelthwaite is, which is quite nice.”
Georgia grew up in Stevenage, moving to Brighton at around the age of 19, before relocating to Littleport “a year and a half ago”.
She recently performed at a fundraising gig for the Six Six Bar in Cambridge and will be appearing again at the same venue on 31 March (Easter Sunday), as part of the ‘Cambridge Rocks’ all-dayer.
For more on the event, tickets for which are priced at £12 (in advance) and £16 (on the door), visit thesixsixbars.com.
She then has a show at the Hanks Dirty Cambridge vegan restaurant on Lensfield Road on 7 May, opening for Americana duo Two Ways Home. For more on that, go to hanksdirty.com/cambridge. To find out more about Georgia, visit georgianevada.com.
