Singer in talks with major labels after Love Island feature sends track soaring

An unsigned singer-songwriter whose track shot into the charts after it was featured on Love Island has said he is in talks with a clutch of major record labels.

ITV bosses used Luke Burr’s cover of Bobby Caldwell’s What You Won’t Do For Love to soundtrack a pivotal moment in Michael Griffiths and Amber Gill’s doomed romance.

Soon the 24-year-old Essex native’s song had been searched more than 25,000 times on the Shazam app, knocking Shawn Mendes and Stormzy from the top of its chart.

And at the time of writing, the soul-style track sat at number 64 in the iTunes chart.

Burr told the PA he had been swapping emails with major labels but refused to name which.

He said his priority was keeping his feet on the ground and building a team who understood his vision.

He said: “In the last week there have been some emails and there have been some conversations with some labels.

“That’s exciting and if that’s the right move for me to make then potentially I might.

“But I’m keeping my feet on the ground because I just want to make the best decision for me.

“It’s great to get interest and it’s great for people to want to be part of it.

“But at the moment I just want to select the best team that are going to heighten me and really understand my vision rather than someone who wants to mould me into something. I’m not interested in that.”

Asked which, if any, major labels he had spoken to, he said: “There has certainly been conversations with those big guys over the past week.

“But I’d probably prefer not to say because, well, you don’t know. But there has been.”

Burr, who grew up listening to his father’s soul collection, earned a bevvy of celebrity fans through his Love Island feature.

Maverick Sabre and Marvin Humes tweeted praising his voice, and Towie stars Ferne McCann, James Argent and Gemma Collins also posted about the song.

The self-taught singer and pianist began making music aged four and after winning a local talent competition at 13 decided to pursue music.

He said it was only this year that he caught the Love Island bug from his mother, an eager fan of the show.

“I said at the beginning of the series that I’m not watching it,” he said.

“But my mum is an avid watcher so I knew I would be getting sucked in, that’s for sure.”

“I was getting sucked in just about the time that Amber and Michael stuff was going on. The fact that my song was played over that was pretty wild.”