Emily Portman

Emily Portman is an English folk singer, songwriter, and musician known for her unique songwriting style and haunting vocals. She is also an accomplished banjo and concertina player, as well as an experienced educator and workshop leader.

Early life and education

Emily Portman was born in Glastonbury, England. Her interest in folk music was prompted by her college tutor, Howard Harrison, while she was studying in Taunton. She subsequently studied folk music at Newcastle University. She has since written about folk music for magazines including fRoots.

Career

Emily Portman began her music career in the early 2000s as a member of various bands and ensembles, including the acoustic trio Devil's Interval. In 2010, she released her debut solo album, "The Glamoury", which was inspired by fairy tales and received critical acclaim.

In 2012, Portman released her second album, "Hatchling". The album was praised for its ethereal and dreamlike quality, and earned Portman a nomination for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Original Song ('Hatchlings').

Portman's third album, "Coracle", was released in 2015 and featured new compositions drawing on British ballads and folktales. The album explored themes of motherhood, death, and other worlds, and received widespread critical acclaim. Emily released a new album of original songs in May 2026 called "Dominion of Spells", her first solo album in a decade.

In addition to her solo work, Portman is also a member of the traditional song band The Furrow Collective, which won the BBC Folk Award for Best Band in 2017. She has collaborated with a number of other musicians, including Martin Simpson and The Watersons Family.

Artificial intelligence impersonation In July 2025 Portman became aware that music distribution platforms including Spotify and iTunes were distributing music developed by artificial intelligence and impersonating her. The impersonation included an AI-generated album with songs that convinced some of her fans of its authenticity with how realistic and similar the vocals, instrumentation, song titles, and overall presentation of the music. A month later, Youngs has not gotten any information about who put the album up or why they did this. The impersonation is part of a contemporary trend where AI impersonates musicians on a platform. None of the songs had more than 2,000 plays, so in this case, whomever uploaded them did not receive much money for the hoax.