2006–2007: Breakthrough Macdonald sent a demo CD in response to an advertisement placed in the
NME Wilkinson said he was "literally aghast" at her songwriting abilities when first he heard Macdonald play the songs "This Is the Life" and "Mr Rock n Roll". She has claimed that she feels she was "in the right place at the right time" by answering the advertisement in
NME, later claiming that the subsequent success she endured to be "a weird life". Macdonald has been described as "one of the last artists" to gain a recording contract by sending a demo to record companies, with Macdonald claiming it to be "mental", citing the music industry changes since 2007. Macdonald claims that "what's funny is even then, everyone found it bizarre that I got a record deal from sending a demo, because this was when people were being discovered on MySpace — Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys; they were all doing it that way".
2007–2011: This Is the Life and A Curious Thing , 2009 In 2007 Macdonald released her debut album, titled
This Is the Life. The album sold three million copies, and reached No. 1 in the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark.
This Is the Life reached No. 92 on the US
Billboard 200. The single, "This Is the Life" reached No. 25 on the US
Billboard Triple-A radio airplay charts. In her native Scotland, it achieved considerable success, peaking at number seventeen. The single was awarded Platinum in Germany and Belgium and Gold in Spain and Switzerland. It was also the theme song of
True Law (
Prawo Agaty), a Polish legal drama TV series. The fifth single, "
Run", gave Macdonald her second lowest chart position in the UK at No. 75. However, "Run" charted at No. 36 in Germany. The sixth and final single was the re-release of "
Poison Prince"; it charted at No. 148 in the UK, Macdonald's lowest chart position. The album's track "Youth of Today" was chosen as the first single featured on
Bebo/iTunes' "Free Single of the Week" program. She appeared as a musical performing guest on British and foreign shows including
The Album Chart Show,
Loose Women,
Friday Night Project,
Taratata (France), and
This Morning. She won the best newcomer award at the
Silver Clef Awards. She has appeared on several US talk shows such as
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2008), where she performed "
Mr. Rock and Roll" and also
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2008) where she performed her hit single, "
This Is the Life". , Sweden, 2010 Macdonald began working on her second album in 2009. She said "Some of the sounds are just amazing and we've managed to persuade one of my favourite artists to whack some stuff down on them, but you'll have to wait and see." The artist in question was
Paul Weller, who contributed electric guitar on the track "
Love Love" and piano and bass guitar on the track "
This Pretty Face". Titled
A Curious Thing, it was released on 8 March 2010. The album was preceded by the release of the first single from it, "
Don't Tell Me That It's Over", a week earlier on 1 March 2010. The single was released to UK radio on 11 January, and Amy performed it that same day on the
Simon Mayo Show on
BBC Radio 2. "Don't Tell Me That It's Over" was also released to radio in countries like UK, Switzerland, Germany and France. The album's second single "
Spark" was released on 10 May 2010 on digital download format. Macdonald also confirmed that she would tour the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe in 2010. The album's third single "
This Pretty Face" was released on 19 July 2010 after Macdonald confirmed she would embark on a tour entitled
The Love Love Tour. Also that year, she was one of a number of artists who recorded with
Ray Davies on his 2010 album
See My Friends, in which she sang with him on "
Dead End Street".
2011–2015: Life in a Beautiful Light Macdonald's third album,
Life in a Beautiful Light, was released on 11 June 2012. Two songs from
Life in a Beautiful Light were begun before Macdonald's break. "In the End" was written with Macdonald questioning herself whether being a musician was a worthwhile occupation. Three songs from the album were released as singles: "
Slow It Down", "
Pride" and "
4th of July". On 2 June 2012 she sang her song "Slow It Down" with the finalist of the
second season of the
Polish version of
The X Factor, a girl group the Chance. She co–presented the
Real Radio Breakfast show alongside
Ewen Cameron in 2012 whilst regular presenter Cat Harvey was on holiday. In 2014, she performed at the
2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. In the television broadcast of the event, Macdonald performs "
Rhythm of My Heart" in the middle of
George Square with Glaswegians, before panning to Macdonald performing the song live in Celtic Park during the opening ceremony in which she was later joined by
Rod Stewart.
2016–2020: Under Stars and Woman of the World , Germany, 2018 Macdonald began writing songs for a new album in early 2014, 2 years following the release of her previous album,
Life in a Beautiful Light. In May 2014, she performed 4 new songs live. She also sang "Leap of Faith" during the
Scottish independence referendum in September 2014. In March 2015, Macdonald announced via
Twitter she was finishing the songwriting of the album, but had not yet started recording. On 28 October 2015, she announced via Twitter she started the recording sessions for the album. Later, she stated on 9 December 2015 via her
Instagram account that she had finished the songwriting for the album and that she hoped the album would be finished sometime in 2016. On 9 August 2016, Macdonald announced via Instagram her fourth album was finished and would be released early 2017. Macdonald said although it was two and a half years in the making, which is the longest she has ever taken with an album, she was glad to have taken the time and she feels the album has "the TLC that it deserves". Macdonald released the new album entitled
Under Stars on 17 February 2017. A video of an acoustic version of new album track "Down by the Water" was also released. She performed live on ''
BBC Scotland's Hogmanay'' 2017 show where she debuted her upcoming single "
Dream On". In September 2018, Macdonald announced her first greatest hits album,
Woman of the World (The Best of 2007–2018), which includes all of her successful songs, plus a previously unreleased song, "Woman of the World". The album was released on 23 November 2018. Macdonald also announced a European tour, which she embarked on during March and April 2019. The album includes hits, like "
Mr Rock & Roll" and "
This Is the Life", plus two new songs, "Woman of the World" and "Come Home" from the film
Patrick. Talking about the album, Macdonald said, "I remember the week of the 30th July 2007 – I released my first ever album
This Is The Life, and I wasn't quite sure how I found myself in that position. My album was number 1 in countries I'd never even been to before [...] 10 years later people were still interested. I just felt that after such an incredible journey it was time to look back and feel proud of everything that has happened." Upon release,
Woman of the World achieved moderate success in continental Europe. It charted at number 46 on the UK Albums Chart, where it spent one week within the UK Top 100. In her native Scotland, it charted at number 19 on the Scottish Albums Charts, remaining in the top 100 of the Scottish Albums Charts into January 2019, spending a total of nine week on the chart. Elsewhere in Europe, it charted at number 19 on the
Swiss Hitparade Albums Chart, spending a combined total of ten weeks on the chart, re–appearing in the top 100 at number 94 in April 2019. In Germany, it peaked at number 22, spending four weeks on the German Albums Chart, number 29 in Austria, number 93 on the
Ultratop Flanders Chart and 130 on the Ultratop Wallonia Chart in Belgium. Macdonald, a prominent fan of popular Scottish sitcom
Still Game, made a cameo appearance as herself in the episode "Hitched" in the ninth and final series of
Still Game, broadcast on 21 March 2019 in Scotland, and 26 July 2019 elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
2020–2025: The Human Demands " in July 2022 Macdonald started writing songs between 2018 and 2019 and she started the recording of her fifth studio album in February 2020. After an interruption caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic in March, she resumed recording in June 2020. She signed a new record deal for the release of
The Human Demands, with Macdonald claiming that signing a new record deal was "actually great" and that it "gave that feeling during the first album". Macdonald also announced a European tour, which she will embark on between April and July 2021. Macdonald discussed the album, and performed an acoustic version of the track "We Could Be So Much More", on BBC Radio 4's
Front Row in November 2020. On 15 May 2021, she represented Scotland at the
Free European Song Contest 2021, hosted in
Cologne,
Germany. Her song "
Statues" ultimately finished in fourth place with 77 points. In July 2021, she hosted her own radio show on
BBC Radio Scotland entitled
Life Tracks with Amy Macdonald where she played a selection of her favourite songs, explaining what each song meant to her and why she considered it a favourite. Ahead of her European touring schedule through the summer period of 2022, Macdonald released the
extended play ''
Don't Tell Me That It's Over'' on 7 July, which includes three re–recordings of previous singles "
Run" (2008), "
Don't Tell Me That It's Over" (2010) and "
Slow It Down" (2012). Macdonald claimed that she had chosen the three songs based on fan reaction during live performances, claiming that they are "fan favourites". Macdonald recorded each of the songs for the extended play in a live performance style, based on the way she performs the songs whilst touring.
2025–present: ''Is This What You've Been Waiting For?'' On 24 April 2025,
BBC Radio 2 debuted Macdonald's new single, "
Is This What You've Been Waiting For?", her first single release since 2021. Speaking to
BBC Scotland, Macdonald claimed that hearing the new song on the radio for the first time was "strange to me because I have been doing this for 18 years and I have heard my songs played on the radio all over the world, and it still never feels normal". The same day, she announced that she would be commencing a European tour to support her upcoming album, with the tour beginning on 24 May 2025. The album, ''
Is This What You've Been Waiting For?'', was released on 11 July 2025. Additionally, it reached the top ten in Australia, Germany and Sweden. ==Artistry==