Cat Burns, 26, is a south London singer-songwriter. A former Brit school student, she went from busking on Southbank to amassing half a million followers on TikTok during lockdown after her song “Go” went viral on the platform. She is now a triple-platinum-selling artist with three Brit Award nominations and a Mercury Prize nomination. Last year, she earned millions of new fans on the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors. Burns is in a relationship with Welsh make-up artist and influencer Sarah New, and is now preparing for her upcoming UK and Ireland tour.
Here, she looks back at the moments that shaped her – from being diagnosed with autism and ADHD, to coming out to her family during lockdown.
I never really struggled with all the lying on Traitors. I was very aware that it was a game and a show that we were all filming. The hard part was the social aspect of being around people you don’t know for a really long period of time, having to mask, converse, and think of things to say.
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I thrived off the rules of the show – knowing what I could and couldn’t do was great for my neurodivergency. But naturally being away from home and little things like the lighting or the set I found more overwhelming than other people. Everybody really wanted to be friends with each other and got along really well – so much so that we thought, how are they going to make a show out of this? It was a big moment when Lucy [Beaumont] found out I was a traitor, she was so shocked. We were really close. She was definitely a person I could lean on. I also got along really well with Alan Carr.
