Revised February 2025

Born in London and raised there and in Liverpool, D.P. MacManus later came to be known as “Elvis Costello”, a writer and part-time musician who made a number of records in the 20th Century, some of which are still remembered today.  He has been performing in public for over fifty years.

Starting out in 1977 with his band The Attractions and has played for the last 23 years with The Imposters. Costello has shared many stages with pianist Steve Nieve and appeared with the Mingus Big Band, the Metropole Orkest, The Jazz Passengers and on one occasion in 1983, for a television appearance with the Count Basie Orchestra with Tony Bennett. He has performed as a solo artist since 1969.

Costello has sung in many symphony halls including with the orchestras of San Francisco, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Nashville, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu and Tokyo as well as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

He made his Carnegie Hall debut as the guest of Spinal Tap in 2001 before making his own solo concert debut in 2014 with a two-night stand shortly before his 60th birthday.

Elvis Costello is the composer and lyricist of over six hundred published titles, including fifteen songs co-written with Paul McCartney and renowned collaborations with Allen Toussaint, the Brodsky Quartet, T Bone Burnett and his wife, Diana Krall.

Costello has composed songs for Roy Orbison, Georgie Fame, Chet Baker, Dusty Springfield, Solomon Burke and Johnny Cash and has written songs with Carole King, Loretta Lynn, Bill Frisell, Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson. His compositions have been recorded by George Jones, Linda Ronstadt and Bjork, while his lyrics for “Shipbuilding” with music by Clive Langer was originally written for Robert Wyatt, while Costello’s own recording features the trumpet solo by Chet Baker.

Elvis Costello has written lyrics for the music of Billy Strayhorn, Oscar Peterson and for twelve Charles Mingus compositions, as well as writing music for twelve unpublished lyrics by Bob Dylan.

He is the author of “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink”, a more than six-hundred page memoir which has been translated into six languages and the composer of two ballet scores - “Il Sogno” for Aterballeto of Reggio Emilia and “NIGHTSPOT” for Twyla Tharp and the Miami City Ballet - and an unfinished opera - “The Secret Songs” - a commission from the Royal Danish Opera, as well as a musical adaptation of Budd Schulberg’s “A Face In The Crowd”, which was produced by the Young Vic in London in September 2024.

He has written many songs for motion pictures including, “The Scarlet Tide”, his Academy Award nominated collaboration with T Bone Burnett for “Cold Mountain”. His songs and performances have been heard in the movies of the Coen Brothers, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Robert Altman.

Making his debut in 1977 with the Stiff Records release, “My Aim Is True”, Costello’s recording catalogue now runs to more than thirty-five titles, including “Get Happy”, “Imperial Bedroom”, “King Of America”, “All This Useless Beauty”, “North”, “National Ransom” and “Wise Up Ghost” with The Roots.

Costello has worked occasionally as a record producer for other artists, producing The Specials debut album in 1980, “East Side Story” by Squeeze and “Rum Sodomy and The Lash” by The Pogues before leaving the task of producing of other artists in 1986, while remaining the co-producer of most of his subsequent record releases.

Between 2008 and 2009, Costello hosted twenty episodes of the conversation and performance television show, “Spectacle”, commissioned by the Sundance Channel in the U.S. and CTV in Canada and later aired by Channel 4 in the U.K. and around the world. Guests included Sir Elton John, President Clinton, Lou Reed and Tony Bennett taped at NBC Studio 8-H where Costello had made his notorious U.S. television debut on “Saturday Night Live” in 1977.

Subsequent episodes were taped at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem with guests including Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, James Taylor, Smokey Robinson and The Police, in their final television appearance. Other shows featured musical numbers by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny, Levon Helm, Allen Toussaint, Richard Thompson, Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Nick Lowe and John Prine.

A conversation with Bruce Springsteen went so well that the guest agreed to stay on the stage for over three hours and the resulting interview and performances generated two full episodes before taping two shows in Toronto, the first featuring, Bono and The Edge and the second in which Costello himself was interviewed by Mary Louise Parker.

Between March 2020 and November 2022 Costello recorded, and co-produced the following record releases with Sebastian Krys.

“Hey Clockface” - an album recorded in Helsinki and Paris and completed over “electrical wire” between Vancouver, Los Angeles and New York City.

“Spanish Model” - a Spanish language adaptation of the 1978 album “This Year’s Model” with a guest cast of Latin music vocalists.

“La Face de Pendule à Coucou” - a French language E.P. of songs from “Hey Clockface” featuring Iggy Pop, Isabelle Adjani, Tshegue and Emma Somatis et AJUQ.

“The Boy Named If” - a new album by Elvis Costello and The Imposters. This release garnered a Grammy nomination in the Best Rock Album category.

“The Resurrection Of Rust” - the debut recording of the Liverpool-founded outfit Rusty accompanied by The Imposters, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his partnership with singer, Allan Mayes with whom Costello had last performed in 1973 at the age of 18.

November 2022 saw a special edition release entitled, “The Boy Named If (Alive At Memphis Magnetic)” - for which he and The Imposters were recorded live at Memphis Magnetic Studios and which also included a Japanese language remodel of the song, “Magnificent Hurt” by the Tokyo-based duo, chelmico.

Costello has written the scripts for two wireless addresses on audible.com - “How To Play The Guitar & Y” and “The True Story Of The Coward Brothers” - directed by Christopher Guest with a 20 song soundtrack album performed with T Bone Burnett in the guise of “Henry & Howard Coward”.

Costello is a two-time Grammy Award winner - firstly with Burt Bacharach for the song, “I Still Have That Other Girl” as Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 1999 and then in 2019 for his 30th album release, “Look Now”, in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal category. Costello has received, a BAFTA award in collaboration with the composer Richard Harvey on the music for Alan Bleasdale’s eleven-hour drama serial, “GBH”, two Ivor Novello Awards for his songwriting catalogue and two Dutch Edison Awards, firstly with the Brodsky Quartet for “The Juliet Letters” and then with Anne Sofie von Otter for their collaboration, “For The Stars” and, perhaps most surprisingly, a 1989 VMA Award for “Veronica” as “Best Male Video”. 

He is a member of both the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2020, Costello was awarded an O.B.E. for his services to music.

He holds two honorary doctorates in music, one from the University of Liverpool and another from the New England Conservatory. Despite this, he is known for playing the guitar with almost no regard for common sense.