Andrew Jannakos (born September 25, 1993) is an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer-songwriter signed to

Sony Music Nashville Sony Music Nashville is the country music branch of the Sony Music Group. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Sony Music Nashville includes its three country recording labels Arista Nashville, Columbia Nashville, and RCA Nashville, as well as Ch ...

RCA Nashville RCA Nashville is an American country music record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is distributed by Sony Music Nashville which is part of Sony Music. Current artists *Kane Brown *Andrew Jannakos *Miranda Lambert *Niko Moon (RCA/River Hou ...

. He first gained notoriety as a contestant on Season 16 of ''

The Voice The Voice may refer to: Fictional entities * The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics * The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe * The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...

''. Jannakos debuted at No. 1 on ''Billboard'''s Emerging Artist chart after releasing his introductory single "Gone Too Soon" on September 15, 2020. The song later topped ''Billboard'''s Country Digital Song Sales chart and hit No. 12 on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart.

Early life and ''The Voice''

Jannakos was born and raised in

Flowery Branch, Georgia Flowery Branch is a city in Hall County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 9,391. It is part of the Gainesville, Georgia metropolitan area, and lies on the shores of Lake Lanier. History Flowery Branch wa ...

, where he grew up in a musical family. He cites Brad Paisley, Shania Twain, Chris Stapleton and Clay Walker as his earliest influences. After graduating from high school, he worked as a sauté chef and waiter for several years while pursuing music on the side, uploading performance videos to YouTube and Facebook. After seeing one of Jannakos' performance videos online, a recruiter for NBC's ''The Voice'' invited him for a private audition in Atlanta. Jannakos debuted on Episode 6 during the show's blind auditions, after which he joined Team Adam Levine before being eliminated in the battle rounds.

Career

Following his run on ''The Voice'', Jannakos began writing and recording material for his debut project. In October 2019, he independently released "Living On Love," following it with "Southern Skies" in March 2020. Jannakos dropped his eponymous debut EP one month later. On July 25, 2020, Jannakos previewed his song "Gone Too Soon" in a clip on the video-sharing platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. The video went viral overnight, racking up 250,000 likes and earning Jannakos 125,000 followers by the next morning. Jannakos officially released the song in September and began fielding record deal offers. On November 10, 2020, Sony Music Nashville announced that Jannakos had signed a recording deal with its RCA Nashville imprint. Meanwhile, "Gone Too Soon" hit No. 1 on ''Billboard'''s Country Digital Song Sales chart, No. 2 on the Digital Song Sales chart, No. 12 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and the song helped Jannakos debut at No. 1 on ''Billboard'''s Emerging Artist chart. "Gone Too Soon" impacted country radio on February 1, 2021 and landed within ''Billboard'''s

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

chart. A month later, Jannakos released "Wine Country" as his major label debut.

Discography

Singles

* "Living On Love" (Independent, 2019) * "Southern Skies" (Independent, 2020) * "Gone Too Soon" (Independent, 2020) #12 on Hot Country Songs chart, #1 on Country Digital Song Sales chart * "Wine Country" (Sony Music Nashville, 2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jannakos, Andrew Living people American country singer-songwriters 1993 births Country musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) The Voice (franchise) contestants