Anthony Parsons (musician)

In 2007, Parsons began his music career by posting videos on YouTube featuring himself singing cover songs. These would be recorded in the style of him sitting and facing a camera whilst singing into a hand-held microphone. Most of these early videos were recorded whilst Parsons was working on a night shift as a security guard and the background in his videos often featured various workplace settings. The first song that Parsons covered was "Your Song" by Elton John. The song was recorded a cappella featuring just Parsons' vocals. He received a positive response to this video which prompted him to record and release more videos onto YouTube.

Parsons' videos began to reach wider audiences and his videos for "Wavin' Flag" and "Love Me" achieved views of 23,000 and 97,000 respectively.

In 2015, one of Parsons' YouTube videos, featuring a cover of Celine Dion's "I'm Alive", caught the attention of talent scouts in America. They arranged for Parsons to travel to Florida where he performed a number of live shows for them including at the World of Beer Festival in Florida.[2]

"I'll Be" was his debut single and was released on 8 December 2018. The song was written by Parsons and is a pop ballad.

"Fall For You" is a pop/rock ballad written by Parsons and released on 12 March 2019.

In 2018, Parsons released a YouTube video featuring himself singing a cover of "Never Enough" from the motion picture, The Greatest Showman. The video proved popular and with views of over 300,000 across all platforms it remains Parsons most successful video release. In response to numerous requests from fans, Parsons released "Never Enough" as a single on 19 April 2019. The recording that Parsons used as a single is the same audio performance that featured in the video.

"Summer Rain" is a dance/tropical upbeat song written by Parsons and released as a single on 14 June 2019. "Summer Rain" was picked up by BBC Music Introducing East Midlands and was played on BBC Radio Nottingham, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Leicester and BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

'The Beat' radio show described "Summer Rain" as a 'great track' and it remains Parsons most streamed song on Spotify.

"Gone, Gone, Gone", is a cover of the Phillip Phillips' song and was released by Parsons on 7 August 2019. "Gone, Gone, Gone" was originally recorded in 2013 and was released with a video onto YouTube in that same year. However, the song was not available commercially until 2019. The music video was filmed by Parsons' brother and features different locations around the Bolsover area.

"Doin' It Right" is an original song released by Parsons on 20 October 2019. The song was written by Michael Jay Margules and Chen Neeman. Parsons loved the demo of the song and decided to record and release it as his next single.

Parsons' first release of 2020 was the charity single, "Rise Above It All".[3] This is an original song written by Michael Jay Margules. Parsons was invited to be the lead vocalist on a charity song to raise money for the 'NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal' and the 'Care Workers Charity', with each charity receiving 50% of all proceeds. The song and video was intended to reflect the situation the UK was facing with the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown.

Having listened to numerous demos, "Rise Above It All" was selected to be recorded and released due to the lyrics which it was thought fit the current situation. The song was also upbeat and motivational. Parsons created the accompanying music video by making a request via social media for people to send in their videos of nurses, doctors, emergency services and members of the public taking part in the 'clap for carers'. The official music video features numerous such videos in addition to nurses dancing in various hospital and care settings.[4]

The song received an overwhelming positive reception and was picked up by BBC Music Introducing East Midlands. The song was played by BBC Radio Nottingham, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, BBC Radio Leicester and BBC Radio Suffolk. "Rise Above It All" was named as BBC Radio Derby's Track of the Week[5] and received extensive airplay on that station.

It is Parsons' biggest selling single to date.

"The World Outside My Window" is a pop/rock style song written by Parsons. It was released on 12 July 2020.

He released his debut EP on 30 October 2020. The EP contained four original songs.

Track list:

1. "Outta Nowhere"
2. "Goose Bumps"
3. "The Islands"
4. "More Than You Could Ever Dream"

"Outta Nowhere" was picked up by BBC Radio Nottingham and played on several prime time shows.

Parsons released a cover version of Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" on 20 December 2020.

Parsons released a cover version of I'm Your Angel on 15 March 2021.

Parsons released his first Christmas song, 'So Glad It's Christmas Time', on 17th December 2021. He wrote the song about being a dad at Christmas time and seeing the excitement of his children on Christmas Eve.[6] The accompanying music video was filmed around his hometown of Bolsover.

• Best Songwriter – Nominated
• Best Solo Live Act – Nominated
• Best Original Song (Summer Rain) – Nominated[8]

On 9 September 2020, Parsons was presented with the 'Hero of Bolsover Award' by Bolsover MP Mark Fletcher. This was in recognition of his charity single, "Rise Above It All".[9]

• Best Solo Male - Won
• Single of The Year (Rise Above It All) - Won
• EP of The Year (The End of The Beginning) - Won
• Special Award (given for his charity single, 'Rise Above It All')

Anthony received 4 awards at the 2020 GITM Awards[6]