Sam Lee

Lee reached a broader audience with his performance of "The Tan Yard Side" to the accompaniment of nightingale song in a BBC Radio 4 broadcast on 19 May 2014, marking the 90th anniversary of the first broadcast of Singing with the Nightingales by cellist Beatrice Harrison on 19 May 1924, which was the first-ever BBC live wildlife outside broadcast (i.e. not from a radio studio), becoming a regular annual BBC radio event until interrupted by World War II. Lee's radio work continued in 2019 when two programmes called "The Song Hunters" were broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Continuing his interest in birds, Lee helped produce "Let Nature Sing", a collection of bird song for the RSPB which reached number 18 in the UK singles chart.

Sam Lee and Friends were sent by the British Arts Council to visit Sudan to perform at the Khartoum International Music Festival, which was being staged for the first time in 13 years. As well as performing a set of his own material, Lee also worked on a collaborative performance with two of Sudan's most talented musicians, Omer Ihsas and Dr Alfateh Hussain. In 2012, Lee's debut album, Ground of Its Own received a Mercury Prize Album of the Year nomination. The album also won the Froots Critics Poll 2012 award for Best Album of the Year. In 2016, the album The Fade in Time won the Songlines Music Award in the category Europe.

In 2010, Lee's folk club-night, The Magpies Nest, won Best Folk Club in the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Lee was nominated in the 2013 BBC Folk Awards for best folk singer of the year, best album and best original track for "Wild Wood Amber". In 2011, the Arts Foundation Award honoured folk music amongst the art forms for the first time, with Lee going on to win.

Lee grew up in North West London and later studied art at Chelsea College of Art. Both of Lee's parents are Jewish. In 2008 Lee met Stanley Robertson, nephew of Jeannie Robertson, Scottish Traveller and ballad singer. Robertson took Lee on as a student and apprentice, teaching him many of his songs before his death in 2009.

Sam Lee (born 6 July 1980) is a British folk singer and traditional music specialist. His debut album, Ground of its Own was shortlisted for the 2012 Mercury Music Award. Lee performs as part of an ensemble, Sam Lee and Friends.