Griff Talks Touring with Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and 'Generous' Chris Martin — Who Gave Her Feedback on 30 Unreleased Songs!

Griff might be a bit of a newcomer on the music scene, but she’s got some seriously talented star power in her corner. 

Over the last two years, the English singer-songwriter (full name Sarah Faith Griffiths) has traveled around the world supporting stars like Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay on their stadium and arena tours, and she tells PEOPLE that she learned something different from each megastar. 

Griffiths, 22, admits she’s been “very, very privileged to be on tour” with some of the “biggest” names in music right now.

“It's so surreal to be like, I've been on all these tours and been endorsed by all these crazy superstars,” the singer says. “Being surrounded by it is quite inspiring — to just see where this job can take you, in so many different ways.”

She spent several months in the spring of 2022 opening up for Lipa, 28, on her Future Nostalgia tour throughout Europe, and says one of her main takeaways was the “Dance the Night” singer’s work ethic. 

“You watch Dua and she's so f---ing hardworking and kind, and it's so inspiring to see a pop show at its highest level.”

Of Sheeran, 32, whom she opened up for in September and October last year on his + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) Tour, she says his innovative stage presence is what stuck with her. 

“You watch Ed and it's just him on his loop station. That's also pop, but in his own way.”

Perhaps the most notable help she’s received throughout her bout of world tours, though, was from Coldplay’s leading man, Chris Martin. Griffiths spent the last several months as an opening act for the band’s Music of the Spheres world tour, and says that Martin, 46, was a source of particularly helpful insight and support.

“Chris Martin has been really, really generous with his time and investment in my music,” she says.

“On tour, he was like, ‘Oh, let's listen to some of your songs.’ And I didn't think we'd actually ever get around to it, but we did.”

The pair “ended up listening to maybe 30 unreleased songs,” and the Grammy winning songwriter got out a “pen and paper” as he dug deep into Griffiths’ sound. 

“He was writing me loads of encouraging things,” she says, adding, “He's been really kind.”

Being an opening act was a mixed bag for the “Walk” singer, who says it was “fun, because if you mess up, there’s no pressure,” but still a bit “strange.”

“My method is just — cut out all the slow songs and make sure people have a good time. My only job really is just to warm up the audience, and if I’m lucky, maybe they’ll like what it is I do.”

She continues, “You just try and get people going and put some smiles on people's faces. That's kind of my only job.”

The challenge she faced was in deciphering whether she’d broadened her fan base at all from the run of shows, as she says there was “no tangible way of knowing how successful” the opening act slot had been.

Just weeks after she wrapped up her time on Coldplay’s tour, though, Griffiths dropped her first single of 2023, “Vertigo,” and within days, she’d secured the support of yet another mega star: Taylor Swift.

Swift, 33, shared the song on her Instagram Story, writing, “Damn Griff I love this one.” To say it was a pinch-me moment for Griffiths is an understatement.

“Her popping up the other week and posting ‘Vertigo’ is the most crazy thing because it's like — she never posts and she really doesn't have to do that. So it's really kind of her to be so generous with promoting that.”

She says the singer is “like this fairy godmother” figure in her life who “pops up and makes things amazing for me and then I just live in that for the next period.” 

She adds, “It’s still the most crazy thing in the world, because I’m such a Swiftie.”

On Friday, she released Vertigo Vol. 1, a project containing her Swift-approved hit “Vertigo,” along with two new tracks: “19th Hour” and “Into the Walls.”

“All of these songs are me just trying to keep up with my own emotions and figure out what I’m thinking,” she says. “I feel like I’ve written all of them from a place of feeling a bit upside down and a bit lost, which I think is a natural feeling when you’re a young woman entering adulthood.”

The feeling of vertigo in particular — the inspiration for which she got from a huge spiral staircase in Imogen Heap’s cottage, where she spent time during a bout of "heavy writer’s block”  — resonated with Griffiths because she says, “Often when you’re heartbroken, it does feel like you’ve got emotional vertigo.”

“I got to this house and it just had this huge spiral staircase in the middle of it, and I was just talking to my friend about how it kind of gives you vertigo looking at it or being on it. And I think it's funny sometimes that's how inspiration comes — it's in the most mundane things that you talk about.”