Nottingham-based five-piece Vona Vella have shared lush standalone single Winter, a beautiful stripped back festive song that’s had spins on 6Music (Huw Stephens, Chris Hawkins), Radio 1 (Jess Iszatt) and Radio X. You can listen to the song here .
Whilst Vona Vella have spent the best past of 2025 cranking their amps as a dynamic rock band, it’s a left turn back to their roots as a duo on this special song, not taken from their forthcoming album. The band’s co-founding members – couple Dan Cunningham and Izzy Davis – are the sole performers here and thanks to the nakedness of the arrangement and gently placed piano underpinning they’ve crafted a number with a Tobias Jesso Jr.-esque tenderness.
Dan of Vona Vella says: “After nearly recording a Christmas cover of Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses, we scrolled through our voice memos and ended up writing our own Christmas song on a long train journey to London. We came home and recorded it live at The Grove in Sneinton Market in Nottingham. We even got a videographer to capture it for us. So here we are, with our (very last minute) Christmas song, being mixed and mastered on the 4th December! Better late than never?”
The release of Winter comes as Vona Vella gear up for the release of their second album, Carnival, which is out 27 February 2026 through Strap Originals and available to pre-order here. The singles Carnival VIDEO, Bear Trap VIDEO and Over And Over VIDEO have earned the adoration of key champions in press and radio, including Clash, Under The Radar, God Is In The TV, Radio 1, 6Music, Radio X, BBC Introducing in the East Midlands and Apple Music 1.
The album Carnival, recorded at Albion Rooms in Margate and produced by Jason Stafford (Jamie T, Sports Team, The Libertines), is a sparkling evolution, a heady distillation of spangling guitars and sumptuous art-pop, those glorious vocals entwined, forever the DNA double helix of their signature sound.
Vona Vella was started by singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Izzy and Dan and officially formed as a band in Autumn 2020, after Ross Godfrey from Morcheeba heard their single Sun and decided to remix it. Once released it proved an instant viral hit, racking up over a million streams in the blink of an eye.
Vona Vella are constantly touring and nurturing their own scene. The band have supported not only Babyshambles and The Libertines but Peter Doherty, Tim Burgess and Hak Baker. The newly-launched grassroots venue and rehearsal space in Nottingham named The Grove is leased and run by Vona Vella themselves. With a full spring 2026 tour TBA, their live dates now are as follows:
December
20th London, Oslo
January
31st Edinburgh, Cowgate Block Party
April
4th Stockton, Stockton Calling
28th Nottingham, Bodega
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Photo Credit: Roger-Sargent.
