Ryan Beatty

A pop singer, songwriter, and producer with a smooth R&B flair, Ryan Beatty often adorns his yearning songs with sleek, woozy production and multi-tracked vocals. He began sharing videos of his performances of covers as a young teen in 2009 and had more than a million video-channel subscribers by the time he issued his first original song, "Every Little Thing," in 2011. His self-released debut EP, 2012's teen pop-oriented Because of You, entered the top half of the Billboard 200 chart. Another EP followed in 2013 before he re-emerged in 2018 with a more sophisticated and stylized sound on his debut album, Boy in Jeans, which he quickly followed with collaborations with the likes of Tyler, The Creator and Benny Blanco in addition to an ongoing support role with BROCKHAMPTON. Going forward, he embraced this off-center direction in sound, which remained intimate while delving into more expansive arrangements including strings on 2023's Calico. Ryan Beatty was born in Clovis, California, on September 25, 1995. The fifth of six children, he developed an interest in music in his early teens (his favorites included Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and John Mayer), and in 2009, after discovering he had a talent for singing, he began making videos of himself performing songs he enjoyed and posting them on his sister's YouTube channel. Beatty's videos were soon attracting enough viewers that in February 2011, he established a channel of his own, and within several months he had two million followers on the popular video-sharing site. Beatty's digital single for his original song "Every Little Thing" rose on digital pop sales charts in 2011, and in the summer of 2012, he released his debut EP, Because of You, which reached number 94 on the U.S. album chart. (As a sign of how high Beatty's star had risen in such a short time, Justin Bieber recorded a cover version of Beatty's "Every Little Thing.") The first single released from the EP, "Hey L.A.," sold briskly and gained further exposure when it was used in a corporate public service announcement about not texting while driving. In 2012, Beatty began doing live shows in major markets in the United States and Asia to promote his music, and in mid-2013, he hit the road as the opening act on Cody Simpson's U.S. tour. Released in late 2013, his follow-up EP, Ryan Beatty, reached number 11 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart. Beatty headlined a tour and appeared at festivals including Lollapalooza and the Common Ground Music Festival in 2014 before touring again with Simpson in 2015, this time in Europe. He released his first music in three years in the form of the single "Passion" in early 2016, and in 2017, he could be heard singing backup on BROCKHAMPTON's SATURATION II and SATURATION III albums. Beatty re-emerged in May and June of 2018 with the soul-inflected singles "Bruise" and "Camo." He sang backup alongside Jazmine Sullivan and serpentwithfeet on a performance of BROCKHAMPTON's "Tonya" for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon shortly before self-releasing his full-length debut, Boy in Jeans, that July. Its more mature songs and alt R&B-influenced production led to a record deal with Benny Blanco's Mad Love Records. The year 2019 found Beatty singing backup for Kevin Abstract as well as becoming a regular contributor to BROCKHAMPTON releases and appearing with singers including Solange and Anthony Evans on Tyler, The Creator's song "I Think" from the Grammy-winning IGOR. Beatty's sophomore solo album, Dreaming of David, arrived on Mad Love/Interscope in January 2020, featuring contributions from songwriter/producers Blanco, Slow Hollows' Austin Anderson and Daniel Fox, and Happy Perez (Lil Wayne, Lana Del Rey). It was followed by a hiatus during which Beatty abandoned social media. The singer resurfaced in March 2023 with a new website and a new single, "Ribbons," his first solo material in over three years. His third studio album, Calico, followed soon after on Warner/Atlantic/Elektra in April. Featuring lusher strings-augmented arrangements, it was co-produced by Beatty and Ethan Gruska (Phoebe Bridgers, Manchester Orchestra).
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