Grace McLean

Called “electrifying” by The Huffington Post and “phenomenal” by The New York Times, Grace McLean is a multi-hyphenate actor-singer-writer. Stephen Holden of The New York Times proclaims, “Ms. McLean’s voice [is] a flexible instrument with unexpected reserves of power…behind her playful adventurousness lies a well of passion.”

Now, with a newly-inked record deal to Meridian/ECR Music Group (Sony) and her debut full-length album My Lovely Enemy set for release in early 2024, McLean’s lead single “Reckless” is out now. An accomplished performer (and currently on Broadway in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical Bad Cinderella), McLean’s songwriting has been praised as, “Savvy” by Vulture, and “Musically complex, dramatically abstract and...intensely intimate in style” by Broadway World.

Much like recording-artist contemporaries St. Vincent and Tune-Yards, McLean pursues both the visceral and intellectual on her forthcoming debut album, and its lead single “Reckless.”

“There’s an intentional rub and cognitive dissonance built into the song like a secret that’s too big to share but too big to hold alone,” explains McLean. “The track rides the tension between raging desire and polite restraint, while the lyrics belie ferocity (‘lionesses are lying in wait, they paw the ground / licking their lips and shaking their manes, they’ll hunt you down’), and the dreamy and intimate delivery and orchestrations imply softness and subtlety.”

Producer Justin Goldner adds, “This song jumps between verses that are very colorful with clear lines––centered around what I think of as a vocal ‘kalimba’ loop––into choruses that are much more impressionistic, that bleed from watercolors into pastels.”

Mixed by Jack DeBoe (Jean Baptiste, Tyler the Creator, Yebba) and mastered by Blake Morgan (Lenny Kravitz, Lesley Gore, Janita), “Reckless” is accompanied by a stunning music video directed by Preston Martin to be released June 9th. Grace McLean’s debut album My Lovely Enemy will be out in March of 2024 with multiple single releases and videos slated for release in advance of the album launch.

Grace McLean is a Writer In Residence at Lincoln Center Theater where her first original musical In The Green was commissioned and produced, received a 2020 Richard Rodgers Award, and a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical. McLean was awarded Best Score from the Brooklyn Film Festival in 2021, and the Black Bear Award for Best Sound (Score) at the Athens International Film Festival in 2022. She has had two artistic ambassadorships with the US State Department touring Pakistan (2015) and Russia (2018), and her band performed in both the 2015 and 2016 Lincoln Center American Songbook series. She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant from the American Theater Wing (2021) and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Emerging Artist Award (2017). Grace is one of Broadway Women’s Fund’s Women to Watch (2021), a member of The Civilians R&D Group (2019-2020), and a MacDowell Fellow (2018).