Coburn was born in
Great Dunmow, Essex. Coming from a musical family, with her mother once working as a backing singer for bands
Duran Duran and
the The, Coburn learned to play the
guitar and
piano when she was six years old. On
Boxing Day 2007, Coburn played a song she had been writing called "Hurt" to family and friends. A friend of her mother's, Matthew Marston, heard the song and invited her to his home studio to record it. Coburn and Marston later wrote together on her debut album,
Rush. After picking up widespread promotional coverage in the media from
The Times, the
BBC, and
The Guardian as a young artist to watch for in 2010, Coburn was signed to a record company. She was managed by Empire, and signed to Jive, a subsidiary of
Sony Records. There was reportedly a 'bidding-war' to get Coburn to sign up to a record company. She mainly used social networking websites to broadcast her music, such as
Myspace, where she posted demos, and her YouTube channel, where the video for her songs "Daisy Dares You" and "Rosie" can be found. Coburn's first single, "
Number One Enemy", featured British rapper
Chipmunk and reached the top 20 in the UK. "Rosie" was released as the second single, however, the album
Rush was not released for unknown reasons. ==Songwriting, genre and influences==