CHARTBREAKER
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While visiting Los Angeles in 2022, 26-year-old pop artist Knox was telling a friend that he had recently scored a major-label deal with Atlantic Records. “That’s cool, but you’ll never be Matty Healy,” the friend quipped.
Instead of dwelling on the snide comparison to the frontman of The 1975, Knox remembers thinking, “This could be fun,” and went into the studio with songwriter Spencer Jordan. After recording several versions of what would become his breakout track, the indie rock-tinged “Not The 1975” was released in July 2023 — and has since become Knox’s introduction to the Billboard charts.
Growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Knox (born Knox Morris) showed off his alternative-influenced vocal range at local open mics during his teenage years. Following high school, he attended Ohio University with plans to become a teacher, but his passion for music won out — and by early 2019, he dropped out and moved to Nashville.
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Soon after, Redline Entertainment’s Larry Blackford discovered Knox on Instagram and reached out to the singer for a meeting, along with the company’s Wes Mayers. The three of them instantly hit it off, and Knox signed a co-management deal in 2020. “When he sings, his voice is reverberating. I’ve never heard anything like it,” Blackford says. Adds Mayers, “Knox has one of the best work ethics of any artist I’ve met. He has high energy, high drive and that real competitive streak.”
Aaron Sinclair
Aaron Sinclair
That drive was quickly put to the test when the pandemic forced Knox to get creative with his promotional strategy while building a fan base on social media. He first experienced some significant traction with his 2022 single “Sneakers” before trying the same strategy of consistently posting teasers for “Not The 1975” — particularly leaning into videos about the cheeky chorus.
The rallying track draws in listeners thanks to Knox’s witty songwriting: He references The 1975 hits “Chocolate” and “Oh Caroline” in his verses, then spins that pivotal L.A. conversation into the chorus. (“I said, ‘Girl, I might not be famous yet, but I’m gonna put you in a song that I write’/Then she said, ‘I like your confidence but you’re not The 1975.’ ”) The music video, which arrived the day of the song’s release, plays even further into the bit: Knox dresses in a Healy-inspired black-tie get-up and smokes a cigarette throughout. “I don’t think people understand how many cigarettes I had to smoke,” Knox recalls, laughing. “At first, they were herbal cigarettes, but I could already [imagine] the comments calling me out.”
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Despite the catchy hook, Knox admits that “Not The 1975” was more of a “slow burn” in comparison to “Sneakers,” despite the acclaim he was getting from those around him in the weeks following the former’s release. “Everyone was saying that it’s an amazing song, but the streaming numbers weren’t translating yet,” he says. But after a late 2023 tour, where Knox says the song was “clearly a fan favorite,” it began to take a hold at radio and on digital service providers. “Not The 1975” debuted on Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay in late January, and it reaches new highs of No. 26 and No. 15, respectively, on the March 16-dated charts. Additionally, the hit has 8.5 million total on-demand official U.S. streams through March 7, according to Luminate.
Neither of Knox’s managers are surprised to see the singer-songwriter now experiencing multi-format success. “With lyrics like ‘Vodka soda and baggy jeans/Using none of that art degree,’ how could [radio] not love it?” Blackford asks, with Mayers adding that he often sees a “waterfall effect” for an artist following a tour. “People will be like, ‘I like this guy, let’s check out the rest of his catalog.’ We’re mindful of that.”
Aaron Sinclair
From left: Larry Blackford, Knox and Wes Mayers at The Foundry in Philadelphia on Feb. 3, 2024.
Hunter Wurzelbacher
Knox will go back on the road for a headlining tour across the West Coast beginning in April, hopeful that other songs from his discography will get similar love. “I’m most confident in my live shows,” he says. “Whenever I make a song, I ask, ‘Would this sound sick live?’”
Already this year he has released two new singles, first with the unifying “Here’s to Us” in January, followed by the atmospheric, swoon-worthy track “Me, Myself & Your Eyes” in February. And despite his higher profile, he’s trusting the same approach that has brought him to this point while attempting to follow up his breakout hit.
“There is pressure, of course. At the same time, if I put out music that I love, if it gets a million streams, great; and if it doesn’t, that’s OK,” he says. “I have the coolest job in the world. No matter what happens, I’m going to be fine.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the March 9, 2024, issue of Billboard.
It’s 30 minutes before the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers tip-off for a late January showdown at their shared home of Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and rapper BigXthaPlug is sitting in a purchased box suite with his entire crew. Had he wanted, he could’ve showcased his 6’3”, 400-pound frame in personal courtside seats, but for the Dallas native, it’s a small token of appreciation for those who were with him before he could afford such luxuries. “I’m not finna see nothing for the first time without people that was there when I had nothing,” he says.
Lately, BigXthaPlug has had a lot to showcase: the rapper turned in a banner year in 2023, first with the RIAA-certified gold hit “Texas” that reps his home state, and more recently, with the braggadocious “Mmhmm.” The bass-bumping, sonically nostalgic track, which showcases his bellowing voice adlibbing the song’s title throughout the chorus, broke through on a mainstream level and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in December. “You gotta say it with a little more ‘Mmmhmmm,’” BigXthaPlug instructs with a deep southern drawl that sounds naturally chopped-and-screwed.
Born Xavier Landum, the 25-year-old was raised by his mother — also a Texas native — who put him onto southern rap dignitaries ranging from UGK to Lil Wayne, while his father leaned more into the R&B acts like the Isley Brothers. BigXthaPlug grew up with NFL dreams and only began rapping a few years ago, with his self-released Bacc From the Dead project in 2020. The EP drew the attention of UnitedMasters’ A&R Aaron Hunter, who then peppered the rapper with DMs before ultimately flying to Texas for an in-person introduction at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for the latter’s cousin.
BigXthaPlug signed a deal with the distributor in 2021, and shortly after, he added a manager in Public Figures Management Group founder Kyle Wilson, who first discovered BigXthaPlug on Instagram through his raw track “Safehouse.” (Co-manager Brandon Farmer, a partner at Solid Foundation Management, joined the team in 2023 after watching the rapper’s SXSW set.) “His stage presence, you just don’t really see that,” Farmer says. “You can tell when somebody is a star. X is a star.”
BigXthaPlug photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
BigXthaPlug photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
But just as the pieces of his team were coming into place, BigXthaPlug was arrested on unlawful carrying of weapons and marijuana possession charges and served a 2022 jail stint in solitary confinement. The experience was a wake-up call: instead of spending the hours in monotony, he wrote rhymes on medically issued med-line paper and read the dictionary. “I tried to read the Bible but I couldn’t do it,” he says.
He was released later that year, and by 2023, BigXthaPlug translated inspiration into action: he launched his own independent record label, 600 Entertainment, and subsequently added artists Ro$ama and Yung Hood to the roster. He joined rapper Key Glock on tour that April, where he met hip-hop producer Bandplay and immediately established a rapport. In June, the two went on a creative retreat in Arizona, and one of the first songs that came about during the two-week Airbnb stay was “Mmhmm.” Bandplay first cooked up the funky beat in 2020 after hearing The Whispers’ “And The Beat Goes On” while watching a movie. But upon initially hearing the beat in Arizona — which samples the 1979 track also prominently used in Will Smith’s 1998 single “Miami” — it didn’t register with BigXthaPlug.
“I’m a groovy-ass person,” BigXthaPlug recalls. “Bandplay was playing it and me and [songwriter Ro$ama] got to dancing. Bandplay stopped it and was like, ‘Y’all know what sample this is?’ We was like, ‘Hell nah.’” Still, within 30 minutes, the hit took form.
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BigXthaPlug saw the track as an opportunity to put his friend in a position to win: in a genre where many are shy about their collaborative writing process, he asked Ro$ama to pen the song’s heavy-flexing opening verse. “I had already wrote a verse — the second is my verse,” BigXthaPlug says. “I [told him], ‘Write a verse, and if it’s good, you could get points and get paid.’ A lot of these rappers are using writers. Even if you don’t end up the biggest artist in the world, you might be the biggest writer. It made me bring the energy.”
After finishing the track, BigXthaPlug headed to nightclubs across the country to crystallize his instincts that he had a mainstream hit on his hands. “I’ll go to the club every day of the week to make sure my songs are getting played,” he says. As an unreleased version of “Mmhmm” began to dominate club venues, UnitedMasters had him pump the brakes for the rest of the summer to make sure the licensing rights were in order. But as BigXthaPlug says, he “doesn’t mind paying that bag to get sh-t cleared,” and upon getting the green light, he officially released “Mmhmm” to streaming services through UnitedMasters last October.
Two months later, he released EP The Biggest, which included a remix of the song featuring fellow Texan Finesse2Tymes. By mid-December, amid the influx of holiday songs on the all-genre chart, “Mmhmm” debuted on the Hot 100 where it has since reached a No. 65 high and compiled 75.5 million total on-demand official U.S. streams through Jan. 25, according to Luminate — and importantly, served as a means of validation for the rapper. “I always like to have reassurance,” BigXthaPlug admits. “Sometimes I catch myself like, ‘Why are you still rapping? You know you not a rapper.’ Then you get a Billboard [Hot 100 entry].”
From left: Kyle Wilson, BigXthaPlug, and Brandon Farmer photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
BigXthaPlug photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
The song’s success propelled “Texas” and featured turn on NLE Choppa’s “Pistol Paccin” onto Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and as the rapper turns the page to 2024, he isn’t resting on his laurels. He will release a collaborative EP with 600 Entertainment artists and follow it with a solo album. He also says he has a collaboration with Rod Wave, and that Megan Thee Stallion recently reached out, too.
It’s all humbling for BigXthaPlug, who’s still getting accustomed to the buzz — but teases everything will get bigger, and better, this year. He’s a Texan, after all. “I didn’t even want to make [‘Texas’],” he reflects. “If I can do this when I didn’t wanna do it, what the f–k could I do when I want to do it?”
A version of this story will appear in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.
In 2019, Alabama-born country–rock quintet The Red Clay Strays were plugging away at building a core fan base, playing small clubs and festivals around the Southeastern United States in hopes of exposure. “We were a bar band at the time, playing honky-tonks [with] no stability, really just chasing the dream,” harmonicist/guitarist/vocalist Drew Nix says. In the same breath, he acknowledges the toll such commitment took on their romantic partners. “We were like, ‘Our women have the short end of the stick of this. I wonder why they even like us.’”
The notion led Nix and the group’s lead singer Brandon Coleman, along with songwriter Dan Couch, to write “Wondering Why,” the band’s breakthrough hit from their 2022 album Moment of Truth, putting them on the mainstream map.
The bluesy romantic ballad depicts a committed, if unlikely, love story between an upper-class woman and a working-class man. (“I don’t know what happened, but it sure don’t add up on paper/ But when I close my eyes late at night, you can bet I thank my maker,” Coleman croons in the opening verse.) More than a year after its release, “Wondering Why” made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 — in late December, no less, even amid the typical influx of holiday songs on the all-genre chart. Now, the band’s first entry rises to a new No. 71 high on charts dated Jan. 20 as it builds at radio and streaming.
Composed of Coleman, Nix, Zach Rishel (electric guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass) and John Hall (drums), The Red Clay Strays have been making music since 2016, with most of the group meeting during college or through prior gigs. Crafting an amalgam of rockabilly, gospel, soul, blues and hints of country, Coleman’s barrel-chested vocal and 1950s Johnny Cash-meets-Jerry Lee Lewis onstage aesthetic shape what he refers to as “non-denominational rock’n’roll.”
While crafting its sound in the local circuit, the independent band began to add pieces to its team, including Conway Entertainment Group’s Cody Payne as manager. He first met the group in 2019 as a booking agent and later began working with the group through the company’s management arm, Ontourage Management. As his position continued to grow, so did the group’s fan base within the community and online: by the time the members felt ready to record a debut album, Payne played an instrumental role in igniting crowdfunding efforts to help with the financial struggles of paying for studio time.
“I built it on their website, straight PayPal,” Payne says. Despite not having an official monetary goal in mind, he recalls thinking that $30,000 would be enough to get the job done — and was floored as the total quickly soared past that number. “The first week we did over $50,000; by the end of it we had about $60,000.”
The Red Clay Strays
Macie B. Coleman
The Red Clay Strays
Macie B. Coleman
Using analog methods at a Huntsville, Ala. studio, the band spent just over a week creating Moment of Truth, which was subsequently self-released in April 2022. Though it was initially met with tepid commercial returns, at the start of the following year, Payne hired Coleman’s younger brother, Matthew — who is also one of the band’s primary songwriters — as a videographer to help grow The Red Clay Strays’ online presence. The band also signed with WME for booking representation in January 2023, and within the span of a few months, announced a series of high-profile opening gigs for Elle King, Eric Church and Dierks Bentley.
In May, the band began taking meetings with a handful of labels, with the members parsing the decision of whether to sign or remain independent — until they met with Thirty Tigers co-founder/president David Macias. “It just made more sense for us,” Coleman says. “Instead of giving us the dog and pony show, David gave us straight advice. There was no pitch. That’s what I wanted to hear. If I’m betting on anybody, I’m betting on us every time.” By September, following months of touring festivals including Lollapalooza and CMA Fest, The Red Clay Strays had officially signed to Thirty Tigers.
With Matthew’s help, the band began to upload an influx of clips, largely consisting of live performances, to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. “He was putting out reels and social numbers kept going up,” Payne says. “Wondering Why” has soundtracked more than 71,000 TikTok videos to date, along with a lyric video for the song that has compiled more than 2.5 million YouTube views.
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In the time since, “Wondering Why” has grown across formats and genres: on charts dated Jan. 20, the breakthrough hit holds at highs on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts, reaches a new No. 19 best on Adult Alternative Airplay and sits at No. 22 on Hot Country Songs. Labels have again reached out, says Payne, though the band has no plans to move from Thirty Tigers.
Additionally, despite plans to release a follow-up project by early summer, the recent chart success has spurred second thoughts to “let ‘Wondering Why’ and Moment of Truth breathe a bit,” Payne adds. When the new album does arrive, it’ll boast production from Dave Cobb, thanks to Conway Entertainment Group’s Brandon Mauldin setting things in motion with mutual connection Shooter Jennings. “Since we’ve started, the goal from day one was to work with Dave Cobb,” Coleman says. “The fact that it actually happened is surreal.”
The Red Clay Strays
Macie B. Coleman
From left: Drew Nix, John Hall, Brandon Coleman, Andrew Bishop and Zach Rishel of The Red Clay Strays with their manager Cody Payne (third from left) in Red Rocks, CO.
Macie B. Coleman
In the meantime, the band will continue its Way Too Long headlining tour, in addition to more festival dates, including Boston Calling and Hinterland. Coleman knows as the hype for “Wondering Why” mounts, so too may the pressure to follow it up while the iron is hot — but he’s keeping his cool amid the band’s breakthrough moment.
“Everybody yelling at us to play it from the beginning of the show is kind of crazy, but it’s cool. I’m thankful for the recognition, but I always have it in my mind that people [go] viral for a month or two, then the next thing comes along.”
A version of this story will appear in the Jan. 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
In 1978, Kate Bush became the first solo woman to reach No. 1 in the U.K. with a song she wrote, produced and performed entirely by herself with “Wuthering Heights.” Forty-five years later, in October, dance–pop artist Kenya Grace joined her as the second to pull off the feat with the quietly devastating “Strangers,” her major-label debut single.
“There wasn’t too much pressure on that song, to be honest,” Grace says. “I didn’t really have some mad goal in mind — I just wrote it one random night.”
For Grace, 25, that kind of writing experience is the result of skills she’s been honing her entire life: she began creating and performing songs for friends and family at age four, inspired by Norah Jones tracks that her mother would play around the house. By 16, the South Africa-born, Southampton-raised singer was frequenting drum’n’bass parties, baptizing herself in the energy of the U.K. dance music scene that would soon characterize the sound of her own music. “When I start writing something at 120 BPM, I’m like, ‘No, it’s way too slow,’” she quips.
She graduated from London’s Academy of Contemporary Music in 2019 — an institution she likens to a massive networking event — and spent the next few years building an audience on TikTok. Even from her initial videos, Grace displayed a deft understanding of how to present her music, including one clip in which she crafted a beat by using her music production controller to source sound waves from oranges.
The post caught the attention of Day One Music’s Nick Huggett and Nick Shymansky, who have signed and developed British music icons including Amy Winehouse and Adele. By November 2022, two months after she self-released the aptly titled “Oranges,” the two were managing Grace. “We’re seeing someone with a craft [who] knows how to sing and command an audience,” Shymansky says. “We’ve got someone that has earned their stripes and is ready to take on the world.”
They prioritized growing her fan base on an international level, and by July, the two helped her sign a deal with Major Recordings, an electronic dance music label launched by Warner Records. “We knew early on that more than half of her audience was in America; it’s not a coincidence the deal was signed there,” Shymansky says. “We had offers for shows in Los Angeles prior to ‘Strangers’ — that’s not typical for a British artist at such an early stage.”
Kenya Grace photographed on November 20, 2023 at SOUTH56 studio in London.
Bex Day
The partnership quickly paid huge dividends in “Strangers” — though a different song nearly took its spot. “I signed my deal about two weeks before I posted [a snippet of] ‘Strangers’ online,” Grace recalls. “The month before that, we were lining up a different song,” which ultimately became its follow-up single, “Only In My Mind.”
Nonetheless, when a teaser of “Strangers” connected with listeners on a musical and lyrical level, the label pivoted, with Grace still meticulously poring over the song’s final mix. “I was rewriting the lyrics to make it rhyme,” she says. “I’m always really funny and picky about vocal production. I spend the longest on the vocals.”
Sonically, the song is steeped in drum’n’bass and aligns with the current U.K. dance music revival in the U.S. led by artists like Fred Again.. and PinkPantheress. The song’s vulnerable lyrical bent (“And then one random night when everything changes/You won’t reply and we’ll go back to strangers”) plays to Gen Z’s penchant for unflinchingly honest pop songwriting.
Though Grace admits feeling pressure ahead of its release, “Strangers” officially arrived through Warner Records/Major Recordings on Sept. 1. By the end of the month, it became her first entry on the Hot 100 (since reaching a No. 52 high). The track has also climbed to No. 1 in the U.K.; reached the top 5 on the Billboard Global 200; and spent five weeks atop Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, marking the first time in the ranking’s decade-long history that a track solely written, produced and sung by a woman has reached the summit.
Says Huggett: “We had no expectations other than, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if this did better than the last release, which was really nowhere near there?’ That was the benchmark. Every time we put out some music, we want to improve on it incrementally.”
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While social media helped buoy “Strangers,” the resources of a traditional label drove the song at radio and helped place it on editorial playlists on digital service providers. The song has earned 773.7 million on-demand streams through Nov. 23, according to Luminate. “The label used this explosive moment to make sure there’s a proper campaign globally,” says Huggett. “We’ve been blown away with how brilliantly the label has worked the record with their understanding of the complexity of radio and traditional media.”
In October, Grace released the trance-driven “Only In My Mind,” and three weeks later, followed it with a “sad acoustic version” of “Strangers” as the song continues to chart. At the top of December, she detailed a biting take on modern love with “Paris” and, come 2024, she expects to release her “dark, moody [and] dance-inspired” debut album.
In the meantime, she’s on her first tour, with stops in London, New York and Los Angeles — though Shymansky has his sights set on even brighter lights: a Las Vegas residency 10 years from now. “There’s a long road to get there, but we think she has the goods to do that,” he says. “That’s gotta be the ambition.”
From left: Nick Huggett, Kenya Grace and Nicholas Shymansky photographed on November 20, 2023 at SOUTH56 studio in London.
Bex Day
A version of this story will appear in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.
At the height of the pandemic, singer-songwriter Laufey spent her free time outside of classes at the Berklee College of Music taking hours-long meetings with industry executives. With only two self-released singles out at the time, the modern jazz artist was already fielding emails from managers, labels and publishers interested in signing her — but for Laufey (pronounced Lay-vay), the conversations were about understanding the inner workings of the music business.
“I had a second education talking to so many people,” she says. “I would take meetings on my own and say, ‘I’m not signing anything, but tell me everything you know about the music industry.’”
Three years later, Laufey has taken that information and built a team to help bring her pop-infused style of jazz to the top of her genre. In September, her second album, Bewitched, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts, fueled by the success of catchy bossa nova-inspired lead single “From The Start.” Her prior releases have subsequently soared up the rankings, prominently stamping the 24-year-old’s name across charts otherwise filled with legacy acts including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Miles Davis. Thanks to her confident and dreamy voice and social media savvy, she’s now crossing into the mainstream as one of the biggest jazz stars of the streaming era. And following a year in which fellow jazz artist Samara Joy won best new artist, appetite for the genre seems at its hungriest in decades.
Long before she dedicated herself to learning the industry, Laufey understood life as a musician. Her maternal grandparents were both professors of music in China, and her mother is a classical violinist. (She has appeared on a few of her daughter’s songs, such as the titular track from 2022 debut album, Everything I Know About Love). Born in Reykjavík, Laufey began playing piano at four years old, picked up cello at eight, and started singing jazz a few years after that, all while moving between Iceland and Washington, D.C., and spending her summers at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. “My mom could tell that I had a natural inclination for music,” Laufey says.
While studying as a cello student at Berklee, Laufey knew she wanted to mix her jazz and classical background with her own contemporary voice. As she grew into her own at school in Boston, she gained confidence and began writing her own songs. She recorded her first track, “Street By Street,” on the last day before campus shut down due to COVID-19 restrictions. A few weeks later, she uploaded it on DistroKid. “It got some attention,” she remembers. “I started growing a social media following online and it all snowballed from there.”
Laufey photographed October 29, 2023 at The Wilbur in Boston.
She continued to hone her songwriting skills amid her virtual college experience, challenging herself to pick up her guitar, create catchy hooks and pen “cheeky” lyrics every time a Zoom class ended (“Listening to you harp on ’bout some new soulmate/ ‘She’s so perfect,’ blah, blah, blah,” she sings on “From The Start”). She began posting videos of her singing jazz standards by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and more on Instagram and TikTok. The clips quickly became a refuge for people seeking levity during the pandemic. “I was freaking out,” she acknowledges. “I was like, ‘OK. I have a duty to fulfill.’ It was such good practice for me.”
Later in 2020, her social media success led to inquiries from top music executives. Following months of meetings, she signed a global recording deal with AWAL and added a manager in Max Gredinger from Foundations Artist Management. “I saw her building this insane online audience on her own and thought, ‘We could build on that,’” says Gredinger. He acknowledges that there wasn’t much precedent for breaking jazz artists into the mainstream today — but if anything, he notes, they used it to their advantage.
“I hear a lot of artists talk about other artists like, ‘What’s the blueprint?’ Laufey doesn’t really do that. Of course, there are artists that are massively inspiring to her. Norah Jones, Adele, Chet Baker, all the jazz greats [and] a lot of classical composers. But she always knew that what she was doing was one of one and something that hadn’t been done before.”
Max Gredinger and Laufey photographed October 29, 2023 at The Wilbur in Boston.
Without a definitive outline to follow, Laufey primarily focused on further developing her social media presence, specifically on Instagram and TikTok. In addition to teasing music and responding to fans’ comments and DMs, she livestreamed weekly sessions of her performing lullabies. “If you gave me all the money in the world, I don’t think I could come up with a better social strategy than Laufey,” Gredinger says.
Following the August 2022 release Everything I Know About Love, she toured 250-to-500 capacity rooms in the U.S. — a crucial component to Laufey’s development, stresses Gredinger, and a way for her to build buzz amid her growing fan base. By the middle of 2023, she was ready to start the rollout of her follow-up album, beginning with her biggest hit to date, “From The Start.” After writing the entirety of the song in half an hour, she released the charmingly upbeat song last May, and it immediately took off on TikTok, though she initially brushed aside the numbers.
“Sometimes you put a song on TikTok and it does well because it’s visually stimulating or it has a hooky lyric, but it won’t go past that,” Laufey says. However, once it eclipsed a million streams in a 24-hour period and tripled her previous record, she knew that she had something special.
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Laufey continued to grow momentum with new singles throughout the summer — and expanded her team as well, signing a global publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music in August. The following month, Bewitched arrived through AWAL and has since spent eight weeks atop both Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums. Following its first tracking week, “From The Start” also hit No. 1 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Through Nov. 2, the song has 3.5 million official on-demand streams, according to Luminate.
Amid her current 30-date sold-out North American tour, Laufey earned her first chart entry on Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs with her seductive beabadoobee team-up, “A Night To Remember.” On Friday (Nov. 10), she’ll drop two holiday tracks: Her rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and an original titled “Better Than Snow,” both with jazz-pop icon Norah Jones. And as she continues to carve her own path and expand her audience across genres, Laufey is more confident in her future than ever before.
“When I started out, people were always asking me, ‘Who do you want to be like?’” Laufey reflects. “I had no idea what to say. I still have no clue what to say. The difference is, now I don’t need to. I’m just going to keep making the music I want and hope that it reaches as many ears as possible.”
Laufey photographed October 29, 2023 at The Wilbur in Boston.
A version of this story will appear in the Nov. 18, 2023, issue of Billboard.
In February, during a writing camp in Palm Springs, Calif., singer-songwriter Teddy Swims had a professional breakthrough — amid a period of personal turmoil, following a breakup. “I was so unhinged at the time,” he remembers. “I just needed to say a lot of stuff.” Over the course of five days, he poured his emotions into half of the songs that would ultimately comprise his debut album, including his biggest hit to date, “Lose Control.”
Rooted in piano-driven production — and an impressive ability to stretch his vocal runs — the R&B-pop ballad details a relationship that’s been tainted by substance abuse. “Lose Control” has steadily grown since its release in late June, leading to Teddy Swims’ first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. “When it was finished, I was showing everybody before the song came out,” he says. “I just felt that energy, like, ‘This is lighting in a bottle.’ I knew this was going to change my life.”
Born Jaten Dimsdale, the 31-year-old began performing a decade ago at his suburban Atlanta high school, trading football for musical theater (he joined with a friend, who still plays guitar in his live band today). His senior year was particularly pivotal: he helped the theater department out of debt prior to graduation with an in-school production of a Star Wars musical parody he created with his teacher. That same year, his band at the time, Heroic Bear, released its first EP, a hardcore project he now deems “really bad.”
In the years that followed, he explored countless genres including country, alternative, funk and metal in various musical projects. “He was in, I kid you not, like eight bands,” says Luke Conway, who started managing Teddy Swims while he was touring as an opening hip-hop act in early 2019. “He was doing every single thing that you could possibly do.”
From left: Teddy Swims and manager Luke Conway photographed on September 15, 2023 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
In June 2019, on the 10th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death, Teddy Swims uploaded a YouTube cover of “Rock With You” that soon went viral. The success prompted him to ask his friends for a six-month commitment to help him keep momentum. During that time frame, he sang classics (Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”) and hits of the moment (Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved”) alike, with his spins on Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One” and Mario’s “Let Me Love You” each eclipsing 100 million YouTube views. Publishers called first, then booking agencies, and before long, a dozen record labels had made offers. On Christmas Eve 2019 — a day short of six months from when he uploaded “Rock With You” — he signed to Warner Records.
While the covers helped grow Teddy Swims’ audience on a global scale, his priority upon signing was to create an identity all his own. “Some people get stuck in that world and never really make it out,” he says. “There was a lot of fear in no one caring about my [original] songs. I wanted to be an artist with my music.”
Warner placed him in rooms with veteran songwriter-producers like Julian Bunetta and John Ryan to help him hone his voice, and over the next few years, he wrote hundreds of songs, releasing singles across four EPs (including the holiday-themed A Very Teddy Christmas) and getting featured on tracks by Meghan Trainor, X Ambassadors and others. “I go back and listen to some songs that I did four years ago,” Teddy Swims reflects. “They started this idea of the signature Teddy sound that I feel like I’m finally nailing now.”
Teddy Swims photographed on September 15, 2023 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
That “signature” sound punctuates his September debut album, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1), which is full of “sad boy breakup songs,” as he puts it. His powerhouse vocals (“Some Things I’ll Never Know,” “The Door”) and poignant writing chops (“Suitcase”) are on display throughout its 10 tracks, but no song better illustrates the style he’s created than “Lose Control.” After its June release, he shared three new versions — live, strings and piano — as the song gained steam on digital service providers and radio. By the end of August, “Lose Control” debuted on the Hot 100, where it has since reached a No. 67 peak. On Adult Pop Airplay, it climbs to a new No. 26 high on the Oct. 7-dated chart.
As the hit keeps growing, Conway says the strategy isn’t to strike while the iron is hot with unrelated follow-up content. In fact, it’s the opposite: he hopes the song becomes “cemented in culture” in the months to come, likening “Lose Control” to Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”
“We have to be protective,” he says. “It’s his story. This is the golden egg we’ve been searching for and fighting to dig out of the ground for five years. There have been a lot of conversations about finding a feature, but we see the lifespan of this song. We can’t dilute it by giving it anybody else’s identity.”
Teddy Swims is currently on a 43-date North American tour in support of the project, studying how each city reacts to the new material. “There’s no A&R that [compares to] when you’re at a show and you see what really moves people,” he says. As the title of his album suggests, there are plans for another installment. He says it could arrive by the middle of next year, though both he and Conway share that the writing likely won’t begin until after the tour wraps.
However, Teddy Swims does suggest that, if all goes well, the follow-up will contain brighter content. “I’m really hoping the next time is me falling back in love and moving on,” he says, taking a beat and then laughing. “Or it’s more sad s–t. You never know. Life is happening to us, what are you going to do?”
Teddy Swims photographed on September 15, 2023 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
A version of this story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Although British rock band The Last Dinner Party scored a top 10 alternative hit with their debut single, for the five women that comprise the group, they’d been preparing for this moment for years. Just before beginning university in 2020, lead singer Abigail Morris, bassist Georgia Davies and vocalist/guitarist Lizzie Mayland crossed paths and became fast friends, bonding over musical interests. (Morris and Davies attended King’s College London; Mayland at Goldsmiths.) “We would go to gigs all the time, researching and thinking about starting a band,” Morris explains. “We were very intellectual about it for a long time.”
They soon recruited lead guitarist Emily Roberts and vocalist/keyboardist Aurora Nischevi, both of whom were involved in the local music circuit. The five began writing music together at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, though their first release wouldn’t come for nearly three years — but the wait paid off. “Nothing Matters,” the cinematic alt-rock debut single that arrived in April has become a force at radio, reaching a new high of No. 8 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart dated Sept. 23.
While fleshing out its sound, the group built a fan base by testing its material in pubs and small venues around London. “In the age of TikTok, people thought unless you have a song go viral, there’s no way of generating a following,” Morris says. “Ours just felt like a more natural thing. We had much more of a jumping off point from playing shows to seven people who don’t give a f–k to [then] playing much larger shows.”
From left: Georgia Davies, Emily Roberts, Abigail Morris, Aurora Nischevi, and Lizzie Mayland of The Last Dinner Party photographed on August 30, 2023 in London.
Nicole Nodland
From left: Emily Roberts, Lizzie Mayland, Georgia Davies, Abigail Morris and Aurora Nischevi of The Last Dinner Party photographed on August 30, 2023 in London.
Nicole Nodland
As the band’s stature in the local scene grew, it wasn’t long before it gained traction in the industry, too: after Q Prime’s Tara Richardson heard about The Last Dinner Party through an audio engineer that worked with the act in the studio, she received four “very impressive” demos, she says. Subsequently, she saw the band perform live in early 2022, and almost immediately, she signed the act to the management firm. By May, the group had scored a record deal with Island. “It’s just so refreshing to see young, strong women,” Richardson says. “They’re not arrogant; they’re not out to prove themselves. They’re just doing what they do, and if you don’t like it, they’re completely fine with it.”
By the start of 2023, with a team in place, the group prepared to officially launch its recording career with “Nothing Matters.” “We built a reputation around the London live circuit and had a bit of buzz around our first release,” says Davies. “This wasn’t a dress rehearsal.” Adds Morris: “You only get one debut.”
With a swelling bridge and a cheeky hook, “Nothing Matters” originally began as a “slow, sad ballad” that Morris wrote about a then-current romantic relationship. “I very rarely write love songs — I only write about heartbreak,” she says with a laugh. “It’s just easier and more dramatic. [But] I was with my boyfriend at the time and I was very happy.” Davies remembers the bandmates then “throwing everything at” the simple piano ballad in the studio, playing around with guitar solos, horn sections and vocal tones. “It was really a song that became itself once it was in the hands of the band,” Davies says. “It was one completely different thing when it first started and it needed to be played live and have everyone’s input.”
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The song officially arrived on April 19, and was paired with a Pride & Prejudice-coded music video that delivered dark academia with an edgy girl-band twist. “It captures the spirit of what we’re doing now,” Morris says. “ ‘Nothing Matters’ has that maximalist, tortuous freedom that we have and want for the rest of the record.” By the summer, “Nothing Matters” had become a radio hit: in early July, it debuted on Adult Alternative Airplay; the following month, it did so on Rock & Alternative Airplay.
Since the breakthrough hit arrived, The Last Dinner Party has grown its touring platform well beyond the pubs from their early days, supporting Florence + the Machine and Hozier on separate runs and performing at major festivals including Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds. The band will soon embark on a 10-stop U.K. headlining tour, followed by five dates in the U.S. It’ll have two other singles in tow for the trek: The bouncy pop-rock “Sinner” dropped in late June, and its next release, which the band calls a “left turn,” is due to arrive by the end of September.
With a debut album expected sometime in 2024, The Last Dinner Party’s members seem completely in sync: Morris and Davies finishing each other’s sentences multiple times during our interview, including when discussing what keeps the band’s emotional bond so strong. “I think what’s missing in a lot of artists [is] a commitment to themselves because they want to seem cool or ironic,” says Davies. “I want people to see our sincerity and be themselves too.”
“We advise them, but at the end of the day, they know what they’re doing,” says Richardson. “They have mood boards — everything has already been discussed. Excuse the French, but they’re not f–king around.”
From left: Georgia Davies, Lizzie Mayland, Abigail Morris, Emily Roberts and Aurora Nischevi of The Last Dinner Party photographed on August 30, 2023 in London.
Nicole Nodland
From left: Georgia Davies, Abigail Morris, Emily Roberts, Aurora Nischevi and Lizzie Mayland of The Last Dinner Party photographed on August 30, 2023 in London.
Nicole Nodland
A version of this story will appear in the Sept. 23, 2023 issue of Billboard.
Sexyy Red isn’t concerned with chasing hits. “I’m not even trying,” she tells Billboard over Zoom. “You just gotta be yourself and then they gonna f–k with you.”
She’s living proof: the 25-year-old (born Janae Wherry) is currently enjoying a breakout year thanks to her sexually explicit, Tay Keith-produced “Pound Town.” Since the trap single arrived in January, Sexyy Red has formed bonds with some of R&B and hip-hop’s biggest names, befriending Travis Scott and Drake (the latter has posted a picture with her on Instagram, and Sexyy Red has teased music together), and collaborating with Summer Walker and Nicki Minaj.
Her “Pound Town 2” remix with Minaj dropped in late May and became Sexyy Red’s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 the following month, debuting at No. 66. Still, she remains blasé toward her A-list interactions. “I already know I’m a cool, f–k-witable person,” she says.
It’s not surprising that the St. Louis native has maintained her nonchalant attitude amid her rise. After all, it’s what helped put her on the map: According to co-manager Caprie Poe — who is also general manager at Miami-based label Rebel Music — Sexyy Red first caught the attention of an A&R rep at the label in 2021 with her 2018 single “Free Smoke.” “[She] was super raw and authentic,” says Poe. “She always says what’s on her mind.” Case in point: the “Pound Town” lyric that has taken the internet by storm (“I’m out of town, thuggin’ with my rounds/My c–chie pink, my booty h–e brown”).
Cartier eyewear from Spencer Shapiro.
Devin Christopher
The rapper signed to Rebel Music and released her debut project, Ghetto Superstar, that December to local acclaim. But co-manager and Rebel Music founder/CEO Javier “Jay” Sang says the team was dedicated to growing her national audience: “We treat Sexyy Red as a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week business.”
Their strategy paid off last fall, when they encouraged Sexyy Red to follow up with Tay Keith (who she was acquainted with), leading the Grammy-nominated producer to send her the beat to what became “Pound Town.” Soon after, she was freestyling about a sexcapade with an ex-boyfriend during a Miami studio session. She remembers laughing with her friends throughout — but her team was more earnest. “They was like, ‘You playing on this man’s beat,’” she says. “I’m like, ‘Ain’t nobody trying to be serious all the time.’ Finally, they [said], ‘I understand your vision.’”
By February, she released a music video inspired by the reality show Cheaters, followed by a Miami spring break edition of the clip in March. The track has also found success on TikTok having been used in over 250,000 clips. There’s even a mashup of the song called “Frontin’ x Pound Town Simmy Mix,” where Chicago native DJ Simmy overlaid Red’s vocals on Pharrell and Jay-Z’s “Frontin’” beat. But the original song needed a final push to become a hit.
Sexyy Red photographed July 24, 2023 in Miami.
Devin Christopher
From left: Sexyy Red and co-manager Caprie Poe photographed July 24, 2023 in Miami. Cartier eyewear from Spencer Shapiro.
Devin Christopher
Around the same time, industry veteran Larry Jackson launched Gamma — a media company specializing in distribution, creative guidance, marketing and more — and signed Sexyy Red while building a roster that includes Snoop Dogg and Usher. (Sexyy Red also remains signed to Rebel Music.) “She immediately became a priority,” says Sang. “I know Larry for moving mountains and he was like, ‘What do you think about Nicki on the record?’ It was a no-brainer.”
As the song continues to grow, Sexyy Red knows that it’ll “never get old,” but is ready for people to start focusing on her other music. “SkeeYee,” another Tay Keith-produced track — and popular greeting call in St. Louis — on her June mixtape Hood Hottest Princess, has been gaining momentum of late.
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This summer has also included a Rolling Loud performance, and soon, a few opening slots for Moneybagg Yo on tour. She’ll eventually embark on her first headlining trek, with dates and locations yet to be announced, but for now, she’s letting her team handle her business affairs. “I’m just the artist and they do what they do to make it happen for me,” she admits. “They ain’t trying to stress me out because I don’t even want to deal with no s–t like that.”
Instead, she’s focusing on what she does best: releasing one salacious, unapologetic song at a time, she says. “People think I’m crazy, but I feel like I’m just myself.”
Sexyy Red photographed July 24, 2023 in Miami.
Devin Christopher
A version of this story will appear in the Aug. 5, 2023, issue of Billboard.
A few days after accepting the award for new female artist of the year at the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards in Nashville this May, Hailey Whitters was onstage in Madison, Wis., opening for Shania Twain. Afterward, as she watched the legend from the wings, Whitters, 33, flashed back to her 8-year-old self “singing Shania Twain in [my] underwear in the living room … and it hit me just how far I’ve come,” she says. “I set out to do this, and I definitely was hellbent on achieving it, but even the last few months have surprised me.”
Her spring accomplishments also included a headlining club tour and landing her first top 20 hit at country radio. The winsome, effervescent “Everything She Ain’t,” released in early 2022, has spent 62 weeks on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, peaking at No. 17 in June more than a year after its debut. In May, the song gave Whitters her first appearance on the Hot 100 chart.
Whitters experienced plenty of discouraging moments — when she wondered if she should head back home to Shueyville, Iowa, and its population of 700 — following her post-high school move to Nashville in 2007. But as she sang on her 2019 track, “Ten Year Town,” about trying to make it in country music: “I didn’t come this far to only go this far.”
Raised on ‘90s country and artists like The Chicks and Trisha Yearwood, Whitters knew that she wanted to move to Nashville after she and her mom attended the Grand Ole Opry during a visit to Music City when she was 15. During her early years in Nashville, she made inroads as a songwriter, landing cuts with big names including Alan Jackson, Martina McBride and Little Big Town. But her career as an artist was floundering, even after releasing her debut album, Black Sheep, through her music publishing company, Carnival Music, in 2015.
Gucci top, & Other Stories skirt, Jenny Bird jewelry.
Daniel Chaney
Yet the tide began to turn when she posted “Ten Year Town” on Instagram in July 2019. Almost immediately, artists including Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne and Carly Pearce supported the song. “They posted about it and it started generating all this buzz,” Whitters says.
Within two weeks, Morris had asked Whitters to open on her fall tour, a fortuitous move Whitters still can’t believe. “I had no label, no management,” Whitters says (her booking agency CAA relayed the good news). “It was pretty ballsy of her to ask, essentially, this no-name songwriter to open this massive tour. I quit my waitressing job right before the tour started.”
With excitement about Whitters renewed, she also found management: Make Wake’s Chris Kappy, whose clients include Luke Combs and Range Media Partners’ Matt Graham, who co-manages Midland, among others. The friends were both so enthusiastic about Whitters, they decided to partner.
“ ‘Ten Year Town’ brought me to tears. It made me really want to help her,” Graham says. “I met her at a bar in Nashville and called Kappy afterwards and said, ‘That’s a person that I would want to drink a beer with all over the world.’”
Whitters had opened three shows for Combs years before, and though Kappy admits he doesn’t recall the gigs, Whitters always remembered how well he had treated her. “She said, ‘You took care of me, and I was nobody,’” he reflects. “I heard the music, I fell in love with it, and then by just being a good human being ended up winning the business.”
The Great top and skirt, Steve Madden boots, Jennifer Fisher earrings, Jenny Bird ring.
Daniel Chaney
In February 2020, Whitters self-released her The Dream EP on her own Pigasus Records. A few weeks later, she played a sold-out show at Nashville’s prestigious Exit/In with hit songwriter Nicolle Galyon and Big Loud CEO Seth England, among other label executives, in attendance. Galyon offered her a deal on her new Songs & Daughters label, a partnership with Big Loud Records, and Whitters believed she was finally making headway. Then the pandemic hit. “It felt like all the stars were aligning, and by that Friday, the world shuts down,” she recalls.
During the early months of the pandemic, she focused on songwriting, including Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile’s 2020 song, “A Beautiful Noise,” for which she received a song of the year Grammy nomination. She also released a deluxe edition of Dream, called Living the Dream, that included collaborations with artists including Yearwood, Jordan Davis and Little Big Town.
Concurrently with focusing on her music, she revamped her look from jeans and t-shirts. Graham paired her with photographer-turned-creative director Harper Smith, and “it really shifted everything about how Hailey conveyed herself to her audience,” he says. “It captured the Midwest earnestness, cuteness, small-town aesthetic that Hailey really wanted to own,” as she leaned into pastel colors, florals, ruffles and hair bows.
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By 2021, Whitters was eager to reemerge following months of Zoom co-writes. She had her first in-person writing session with Bryan Simpson and Ryan Tyndell at Tyndell’s studio on Music Row and left with a hit.
Simpson and Tyndell were working on a song with a “stark, moody, Spaghetti Western vibe,” Whitters recalls, but getting nowhere. She suggested they switch to something lighter. “I had that hook, ‘I’m everything she is and everything she ain’t,’ and we were off to the races.” Less than 90 minutes later, they finished “Everything She Ain’t,” and that night, Whitters sang it a capella to her producer boyfriend (now husband) Jake Gear, who replied, “We have to record that, like, instantly,” she recalls.
Her label had the same positive reaction. Though she had already finished recording songs for her 2022 album Raised, once Galyon and England heard the eventual breakout hit, Whitters says, “They just lit up and were like, ‘We have to release this.’ I was totally shocked. I thought we were done.”
When the album arrived — complete with the last-minute addition — digital service providers including Spotify, Amazon, Apple and Pandora embraced the song. TikTok also played a role in its success. “My philosophy has always been, ‘Don’t sign stuff that’s working on TikTok, sign great artists and help them crack the code on TikTok,’” Graham says. “Interesting pockets of TikTok connected with that record, like farm boys that really took to the song and ran with it.”
Gucci top, & Other Stories skirt, Jenny Bird jewelry, Darner socks, Sam Edelman shoes.
Daniel Chaney
When the song reached a million streams a week, Kappy says Big Loud decided it was time to go to terrestrial radio with Whitters for the first time. The slow, steady climb has been propelled by “creating moments for the fans to fall in love with her,” he says, including opening for Jon Pardi last year and Twain this year, plus her ACM Award win, which was voted on by peers.
As Kappy sees it, “I think Nashville finally gave her that kiss that said, ‘Hailey, we know you’ve been here and we love you. You’ve earned this.’”
A version of this story will appear in the July 15, 2023, issue of Billboard.
David Kushner realized he might have a hit on his hands in March, when he performed “Daylight” to a packed London venue while opening for Dean Lewis. He’d been teasing the then-unreleased single on TikTok and Instagram for weeks, and “everybody knew the words,” he tells Billboard. Fan recordings of Kushner performing the song in concert only fed into the hype: “There’s one video [on TikTok] with like 30 million views and 7 million likes.”
Riding a wave of social media-fueled anticipation, “Daylight” arrived through Virgin Music on Apr. 14 and quickly became Kushner’s commercial breakthrough, debuting at No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated April 29 as well as cracking the top 10 of the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. Characterized by Kushner’s bellowing vocals and a haunting piano melody, the song’s lyrics deal with the self-destructive potential of fulfilling the less savory end of one’s desires: “There’s darkness in the distance/From the way that I’ve been livin’,” he sings. “But I know I can’t resist it.”
Kushner, 22, grew up in the Chicago suburb of Barrington, the youngest of five musical siblings, with four sisters that played piano and a brother who played in a prominent local band. Though he always enjoyed singing and took guitar lessons in the fourth grade, it wasn’t until he finished high school — and realized that college didn’t interest him — that he decided to pursue music as a career. He began taking vocal lessons and learning the guitar again, but he initially struggled to find his voice.
In September 2020, after co-writing with a high school friend and recording with producers he met through social media, he self-distributed a crop of “way more poppy” tracks sung in a higher vocal range — a far cry from the baritone he’s become known for since. In fact, it was only when a vocal coach encouraged him to experiment with a lower range that he found his artistic footing. “I entered a new creative dimension in a way,” says Kushner, who has since removed those earlier songs from streaming services. “It felt like I stepped from one world into another.”
David Kushner photographed May 10, 2023 at Cricket Ranch in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
His new singing style was promptly validated: Kushner partnered with Virgin Music in December 2021 after a meeting with President Jacqueline Saturn and other executives, who suggested that a distributor, rather than a traditional label, was the best route, given his TikTok following. He then released his 2022 EP, Footprints I Found, through the company, with lead single “Miserable Man” performed in that self-described “lower octave.” The austere, acoustic guitar-driven ballad reached No. 23 on Billboard‘s Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
Soon after, Kushner met his manager, Altar MGMT’s Brent Shows, through an artist friend he met on TikTok and previously wrote with in Los Angeles, where he moved earlier this year. Kushner originally hired Shows — who also owned a video production company — to create content for his social channels. Before long, Shows was managing Kushner on a part-time basis before making it his full-time gig last fall.
“I was in the room when ‘Daylight’ was written and watched the entire process from the first melody that was sung to the last submission to [Virgin],” says Shows of working with Kushner. “Just seeing that whole process, you realize the talent the kid has.”
From left: Brent Shows and David Kushner photographed May 10, 2023 at Cricket Ranch in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
Kushner began writing the hit this January while taking a break from a session for another, as-of-yet unreleased track. “I first sang [the melody] in my falsetto voice … it was just a vomit vocal that came out,” he says. After writing the chorus (“Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time/You and I drink the poison from the same vine”), he went home and played it for his girlfriend, who was instantly “stoked,” he says. He finished writing the song on his landlord’s piano, then recorded a rough demo at home.
Kushner started teasing the “Daylight” chorus online later that month. “It took off a little bit, not anything crazy,” he says. It wasn’t until he began tagging Hozier in his social media posts about the song — encouraged, in part, by comparisons from fans — that it started to go viral. “Fans were blowing up all my videos because they were agreeing with me,” he says. “They were like…’We need this to happen.’”
Though Hozier declined a collaboration, Shows reached out to another key player in the Irish singer-songwriter’s rise: Rob Kirwan, who produced Hozier’s breakthrough 2014 self-titled album. After hearing the “Daylight” demo, Kirwan agreed to produce it, not yet aware of the song’s TikTok virality. “Rob truly just liked the song, and wanted to be a part of the project,” says Shows.
Despite an initial release date slated for May 5, the momentum surrounding the song prompted Kushner to push for an earlier release — and Shows, trusting Kushner’s instincts, moved the release up to Apr. 14. Its music video arrived the same day, and has since garnered more than 26 million YouTube views.
Shows says they’re now focused on breaking the song at radio, with promo tours scheduled for the U.S. and Europe. There have also been talks about putting out an acoustic version, while discussions are progressing with some “pretty large names” for dance remixes of the song, says Shows.
Soon, Kushner will play a few sold-out headlining shows in the U.S. and U.K., followed by an opening slot for Lewis Capaldi, an artist that Kushner says has influenced him in more ways than one. “He’s been such an inspiration [to] my songwriting.” But he looks to the chart-topper on a more personal level too: “I also have tic disorder,” he adds — a diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome, which Capaldi has long addressed, including in a recent Netflix documentary. “A lot of people don’t know [that] about me, but I want to be more open about it.” Kushner says it first started with a vocal tic when he was a child and has since “progressed” — though when he’s focused on music, whether during the recording process or playing a show, his symptoms nearly disappear.
Fans can expect continued openness from Kushner on his debut album — on which he’s collaborating with several producers and songwriters, including Kirwan — that he hopes to release later this year. Both Kushner and Shows are content with remaining independent for the moment: “We just love the team that we have… and [Virgin] operates as a full services label for David,” says Shows.
“This is just the beginning. This is the floor,” he continues. “A ceiling? You can’t even see it.”
David Kushner photographed May 10, 2023 at Cricket Ranch in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 3, 2023, issue of Billboard.