Victoria Hesketh (born 1984)[1], known professionally as Little Boots, is an English electropop musician.[3] She sings, plays synthesizers, Japanese electronic instrument the Tenori-on,[4] piano and the stylophone.[2]

Hesketh was born in Blackpool on the Fylde coast in Lancashire and now lives in London.[5][6] Her father is a businessman and her mother is an author of children's books. She has three younger brothers.[1] She attended Elmslie Girls' School[citation needed], Rossall School,[7] Blackpool Sixth Form College[8] and then the University of Leeds, where she gained a first-class honours degree in Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on the concept of originality in jazz, which referenced Jamie Cullum amongst others.

At the age of 16, Hesketh took part in the ITV television talent show Pop Idol, being eliminated after three rounds.[9] She went on to form a Jazz trio, toured Europe with a big band, and later formed the dance-pop band Dead Disco.[10] Her solo stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend after watching the film Caligula (the Latin name Caligula translates as "little boot").[11][12] She appeared on Later... with Jools Holland in November 2008. She has collaborated with electropop band Hot Chip.[6]

In January 2009 she came top of the BBC's Sound of 2009[13] and second in the BRITs Critics' Choice Award behind Florence and the Machine.[14] In an interview in January 2009, Hesketh explained that she originally wrote Stuck on Repeat with the intention that Kylie Minogue would sing it.[15]

On 4 March 2009 Little Boots was the subject of the entire late night talk show program Last Call with Carson Daly in the US. Hesketh was interviewed by Daly and several clips from a Los Angeles nightclub performance were shown.[16]

In March 2009 Little Boots played the SXSW event in Austin, Texas. She is scheduled to many of major festivals in the UK during the summer of 2009.[17]

Hesketh has confirmed that she will collaborate with American rapper Kid Cudi on a new version of his single Day N' Nite to be used to promote his debut album.[18]

Hesketh is a self professed pop musician:
“ I wanted to make a pop record. I don’t care about being cool or edgy. I wanna reach people and I wanna make music that people have fun to and have a good time.[19] ”

Hesketh says that she retains creative control over her music by choosing her own producers and putting tracks on MySpace. She has been linked to a wave of female pop musicians in their 20s who have "distinctive fashion sense, saturated by 80s references and insouciant androgyny".[20]