Laura Beatrice Marling (born 1 February 1990) is a British folk singer-songwriter and musician from Eversley, Hampshire. Her debut album Alas, I Cannot Swim, her second album I Speak Because I Can, and her fourth album Once I Was an Eagle were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2008, 2010, and 2013, respectively. She won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards, and was nominated for the same award at the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 Brit Awards. Her sixth record, Semper Femina, is nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Folk Album category.
Marling was born in Berkshire, England, the youngest of three daughters. Her mother is a music teacher; her father, Sir Charles William Somerset Marling, the 5th Marling Baronet, ran a recording studio, introduced her to folk music and shaped her musical taste, an experience that Marling later described as, "a bit of a blessing and a bit of a curse.... I couldn’t slot myself into the age-appropriate genre". She learned guitar at an early age.