Cruz Beckham is set to release his first album soon. Photo / AP
After his parents spent a ‘fortune’ on top songwriters, the 19-year-old is gearing up to launch his debut album.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Cruz Beckham is reportedly gearing up to release his first album. The 19-year-old has been not-so-quietly pursuing a career as a recording artist for years. At 3, he appeared on stage with the Spice Girls, at 11 he had released his first Christmas single for charity, at 17 he had signed with TaP Music, who also managed Dua Lipa. What is surprising about Cruz’s first album though, is that it might actually be good.
Victoria and David have reportedly spent a “fortune” drafting in a crack team of hit-makers to help perfect their youngest son’s sound. He’s rumoured to have been in the studio with Ed Drewett, who has written hits for Little Mix, The Wanted and One Direction. He has also been teaming up with producer Fred Ball, who has worked with Rihanna, Beyonce and Mariah Carey, and Joe Rubel, who has engineered records for Ed Sheeran. Last year, Cruz reportedly approached the producer Wolfgang, known for creating hits for Little Mix, Kylie Minogue and Rudimental, after hearing his work with Sam Ryder at 2022′s Eurovision Song Contest.
It’s enough to make every struggling musician want to weep in envy, but clearly par for the course when your last name is Beckham. An insider has said: “The plan is to launch this year to let people hear what he has been working so hard on for years. There is a lot of excitement around him as a singer but he is also acutely aware that he really needs to prove himself so he isn’t just accused of being a nepo baby, which is why he has spent so long perfecting the music.”
“If anyone has a shot at being the next huge pop star it’s Cruz Beckham,” says Rachel Richardson, a media consultant and editor of the pop culture newsletter Highly Flammable. “He’s got the looks, the social media following, the name recognition, the talent. So it all comes down to the song and it sounds like he’s got all the right people helping him with that. Yes, people will be ready to slate him because of who he is, but if he can produce a pop banger it will be a smash hit. If I was advising him, I would tell him to embrace that and write a song called Nepo Baby.”
Like his older brothers, Cruz has dabbled in modelling and football (playing for the Arsenal youth team), but he’s decided music is his calling. He has played the guitar, piano and the mandolin for years. In August 2023, Victoria shared a video of Cruz strumming Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles on his guitar and it’s pretty good. His voice is certainly better than Victoria’s. The artist formerly known as Posh Spice once admitted that her vocal talents were so non-existent that they used to turn her mic off during Spice Girls’ concerts, but that didn’t stop them selling 105 million records.
He won’t have girl power on his side though, so what will Cruz’s tunes sound like? When he was 17, he told ID magazine that he was “making the music I love” in studios in Los Angeles, London and Miami. He said he was creating songs based on “personal experiences, real experiences” and cited Oasis, Usher and Beyonce as influences.
Perhaps Mum and Dad are sparing no expense to try to turn Cruz into a pop star, because their other children’s attempts at hitting the big time have somewhat stalled. Brooklyn may only be 24 but he has already tried his hand at being a footballer, a model, a photographer, and a chef.
In 2018, he was widely-mocked and much-memed when his photography book What I See came out. It featured ahem, iconic images, such as a silhouette of an elephant with the caption: “Elephants in Kenya. So hard to photograph but incredible to see” or a blurry dinner with the words “I like this picture – it’s out of focus but you can tell there’s a lot going on”.
He then decided to become a chef, and got his own Facebook Watch show, Cookin’ with Brooklyn. But his culinary efforts have been beset by criticism. In 2021, foodies fumed about how simplistic his cooking is when he just “assembled a sandwich” on a Today Show cooking segment. Earlier this year, he collaborated with Uber Eats – with Mum and Dad popping up in the Superbowl advert – to launch a pop-up menu of deliverable dishes, including a £12 bacon sandwich. “I was still trying to find that one thing I would literally die for, and I found that with cooking,” Brooklyn told Variety.
“None of the Beckham children need to work but David and Victoria have obviously instilled a strong work ethic in them,” says Richardson. “Yes, in a way they’ve under-delivered given the opportunities they’ve had and who their parents are, but it all depends on how you measure it. Brooklyn Beckham will be making a lot of money through his social media deals, so he may not have much credibility as a chef, but financially he’s having the last laugh.”
Meanwhile, Romeo, now 21, has decided to follow in his father’s sporting footsteps. He gave tennis a go, reportedly training five times a week and even getting the chance to warm up with Andy Murray. But now he’s set his sights on football and at 19, he joined Fort Lauderdale CF, the sister club of Inter Miami CF, which just so happens to be co-owned by his dad. He recently split from his model girlfriend Mia Regan.
It remains to be seen what direction Harper, 12, will go in. David and Victoria have shared photos of her playing football with Dad, horse riding and training for judo. Although she loves fashion like her mum and celebrated her 12th birthday at the Prada Caffe in Harrods, Victoria has said she isn’t one of the kids “who are going out with a full face of makeup and a crop top” and that Harper thinks some of the outfits Victoria wore in her pop star days were “inappropriate”.
“I think Harper will be the most successful of all the Beckham children,” says Richardson. “There’s so much fascination with her because she’s the only girl. Plus, the youngest member of the family is often the most interesting. She’s the one to watch in my opinion.”
All the Beckham kids have been born into a life of immense privilege and career opportunities. But if Cruz is going to make it as a pop star, he needs to shake off the curse of the nepo baby. Anna Mathur, a psychotherapist who specialises in parent-child relationships, says the offspring of celebrities often find it hard to get out of their famous parents’ shadow.
“Finding your own distinct role in the world is a natural part of growing up, but that can be very difficult if you want to follow in your parents’ footsteps,” says Mathur. “Add a famous parent to the mix – let alone two – and there’s a huge weight of expectation there. Everyone else gets to practice and hone their craft in the low light, but the children like Cruz don’t get that same progression and growth. Their every move gets maximum exposure.”
And even if Cruz does have a multi-platinum, number one album, there’ll always be nay-sayers claiming his success is just because of his surname and connections. “It can be really tough for nepo babies to ever take ownership of their accomplishments and their hard work often gets devalued,” she says. “I certainly don’t envy Cruz Beckham trying to make it in the music business. He’ll have to work very hard to overcome the nepo baby accusations and we love to see people like him fall and fail. His family name might have got him the record deal, but ultimately it’s his talent that will make him a success.”
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