Benedict Cork

Cork was born Benjamin Mark Cork to Andrew Cork and Julia (née Kornberg). His maternal grandfather, Sir Hans Kornberg, was a German-born British-American biochemist whose parents were killed in the Holocaust. Cork has two older brothers and one older sister, SuRie, who represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal.^[2][3] Cork was educated at The Bishop's Stortford High School and Hills Road Sixth Form College.

Cork's official recording career began with a collaboration with Simon Jefferis, Easy^[4] on Deep Matter Records. His first solo release was Piano Tapes in September 2018, a live five-track EP recorded at Red Gate Recorders in Eagle Rock, California.^[5] Elton John, on hearing the EP, referred to Cork as "sensational" and "a name to look out for".^[6][7] The single Mama Said was described as "devastatingly beautiful" by Billboard.^[8]

Cork's second EP, Letters To Strangers, was released in 2019^[9] and third EP, Piano Tapes Volume II, in 2020. During this time, Cork supported Emily King and Tom Walker and appeared at British Summer Time in Hyde Park^[10] supporting Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie. Cork also supported Duncan Laurence on his European Tour^[11] and appeared in a campaign for French fashion house Mugler alongside English National Ballet dancer Precious Adams performing his song Wildfire.^[12]

Cork’s fourth EP Secrets I’ll Never Tell was released in 2021 alongside a miniseries podcast^[13] by the same name featuring conversations with several collaborators from the world of entertainment including Adam Lambert, MNEK, Sophia Thakur, Duncan Laurence and Kyle Hanagami. The guests came from various ethnic and social backgrounds, and discussed topics such as mental health, authenticity, sexuality and specific challenges for artists arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Cork released his fifth EP If These Walls Could Talk in 2022.

Cork spent 2023 recording his debut album in London. During the summer of 2023, he supported Adam Lambert at the Royal Albert Hall^[14] and Tors^[15] on their UK tour before signing to Kartel Music Group and releasing the first single, Soulmates,^[16] from his album. Cork embarked on his We Coulda Been Soulmates European tour October 2023^[17] and announced his first US headline tour for February/March 2024.^[18]

Cork announced his debut album Notes On A Hopeless Romance January 2024^[19] before releasing the second and third singles Reasons I Loved You (I Can't Think Of One)^[20] and Nice Guy accompanied by a live headline tour running through May/June 2024.^[21]

Notes On A Hopeless Romance was released May 2024 and was supported by BBC Radio 1, BBC Introducing 3CR, Spotify’s GLOW campaign^[22] and F Word Magazine’s first digital cover story.^[23] Benedict also supported Tors throughout their European tour September 2024.^[24] In May 2025, Cork announced the deluxe version of his debut album, Footnotes On A Hopeless Romance for release July 2025^[25] featuring two new singles, Deep Dive and What It Is To Be Loved,^[26] plus an interlude featuring Irish actor Andrew Scott.^[27] During this time, Cork also wrote and produced music for a production of Four Play^[28] at The King's Head Theatre, London.