Ashley Hicklin

Ashley Hicklin was raised in his parents’ pub on the North-East coast of England in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. He first began as a singer-songwriter performing at open mic nights in the pub, at the age of 13.[1][2]

In 2008, the European CEO of EMI Publishing (Peter Ende) saw a live video of Hicklin performing for BBC Introducing.[2] Hicklin signed a deal with EMI Publishing and in less than six months had co-written several chart hits for other artists across Europe, including Johan Palm's single Emma-lee which reached No. 1 in Sweden.[3][4]

Hicklin went on to collaborate with the teams behind Lana Del Rey, Felix Jaehn, Tiësto, Natasha Bedingfield, James Morrison, Hurts, Amy Winehouse, Sugababes and various other international acts.[2] Hicklin is very active in the dance music scene as a writer and vocalist under the moniker Bright Sparks.[5] Notable releases include the Tiësto song On My Way, the Hardwell song Summer Air, the Feder song Keep Us Apart, the Klingande song Messiah and Lost Kings release Feather.[6]

In 2010, Hickin co-wrote the Belgium entry for the Eurovision Song Contest "Me and My Guitar", sung by Tom Dice.[7] It was a No.1 hit in Belgium and also a top-ten chart hit in many countries across Europe.[8] He also composed the following Eurovision song entries Universo, Run with the Lions, Mother. In 2018, Hicklin wrote two songs for Eurovision: You Decide. 'You' performed by Jaz Ellington and 'Astronaut', which was sung by Liam Tamne.

In 2015 Hicklin co-founded Hit My Heart Songs, an independent music publisher & management company based in Edinburgh. They have residential recordings studios where they regularly host songwriting camps.[9]