The Lumineers officially began their music career in 2011, when they signed a record deal with Onto Entertainment. The five-piece American folk rock band, based in Denver, Colorado, released their first single Ho Hey in 2012 which was taken from debut album The Lumineers. The track debuted at number 90 on the American Billboard Hot 100. By December, the single had sold over two million copies and had climbed to number three on the same music chart; making it their first double platinum single.
The popularity of their debut single continued throughout 2012 when it hit mainstream radio channels. Spending eight weeks on commercial Triple A Radio and reaching number one on the Alternative Radio chart, this began a snowball effect for which the single rapidly spread globally. Second single from chart-topping album The Lumineers was announced later on in 2012 and was titled Stubborn Love.
When the band announced a North-eastern US headline tour for February 2013, tickets quickly sold out. Expanding their success worldwide, the same happened when the band’s tours of Europe and Australia were announced and many of the original shows were moved to bigger venues to accommodate the high demand.
The band’s success has been recognised within the music industry, with 2012 seeing two Grammy Awards nominations for Best New Artist and Best American Album. In the same year, music organisation Spotify announced that Ho Hey had become the most shared song in Manhattan and the third most shared in Brooklyn.
In August 2013 the band released the album Winter, and in 2014 band members composed the melody for the track The Hanging Tree, which was used in the 2014 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. In September 2014, The Lumineers revealed that they were working on their second album.
