Justin Jesso (born Justin Stein) is an American singer and songwriter. He has written songs for Hrvy,

AJ Mitchell Aaron Fredrick "AJ" Mitchell Jr. (born May 17, 2001), is an American singer-songwriter and musician who is currently signed to Insanity Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music. He gained a following in 2017 after posting clips of himself singing and ...

The Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida. The gr ...

and

Armin van Buuren Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniël van Buuren ( , ; born 25 December 1976) is a Dutch DJ and record producer from Leiden, South Holland. Since 2001, he has hosted ''A State of Trance'' (ASOT), a weekly radio show, which is broadcast to nearly 40&nbs ...

. He was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2017 Latin Grammy Awards for co-writing

Ricky Martin Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...

's single "

Vente Pa' Ca "Vente Pa' Ca" () is a song recorded by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, featuring a guest appearance from Colombian singer Maluma. It was written by Justin Stein, Martin, Maluma, Nermin Harambašić, Anne Judith Wik, Carl Ryden, CheifOne, Mau ...

" (2016). He is a co-writer and featured artist on

Kygo Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (), is a Norwegian DJ and music producer. He garnered international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 201 ...

's "

Stargazing Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

" (2017).

Early life

Jesso grew up in a northern suburb of Chicago. As a youngster he wrote his own songs and also performed on stage in various theatres across Chicago performing his breakout hit, "Lose Control." In later life, he studied songwriting at the Clive Davis Institute in New York.

Career

Jesso has written for many artists, including HRVY,

and

. In 2016, he co-wrote the

song "

" featuring

Maluma Juan Luis Londoño Arias (born 28 January 1994), known professionally as Maluma, is a Colombian singer, songwriter, and actor. Born and raised in Medellín, he developed an interest in music at a young age, recording songs since age sixteen. ...

, which was nominated for Best Song at the 2017

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

s. It lost out to "

Despacito "Despacito" (; "Slowly") is a song by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Puerto Rican rapper and singer Daddy Yankee as the lead single from Fonsi's 2019 studio album ''Vida''. Released on January 12, 2017, the song was written by Fonsi, ...

". In 2017, Justin co-wrote "

" for

with

Stuart Crichton Stuart Crichton is a music producer/songwriter from Scotland, currently based in Los Angeles, California. Career Starting out in 1989 under the name Solo, Stuart self-released the ''Sample Free EP'' in 1990 which featured the song "Rainbow", us ...

and

Jamie Hartman Jamie Hartman (born 1971) is an English songwriter and producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, and the former lead singer of the indie-pop band Ben's Brother. Early life Hartman was born and raised in London. Career Ben's Brother Hartman formed ...

. In 2018, he supported Kygo on his sold-out arena tour in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. More recently, he co-wrote "The Way It Was" for The Backstreet Boy's latest album ''DNA''. Jesso released an EP, ''Let It Be Me'' in December 2018. The lead single "Getting Closer" was written after he toured with Kygo, and was about the loneliness of life on tour. The video, which was directed by Kyle Cogan, shares real footage of Jusso's time spent on tour. The song was popular in Europe, and was a top ten radio hit in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It also charted at 11 in the German iTunes chart. In February 2019, Jesso supported

Tears for Fears Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new wav ...

on the European leg of their Rule The World tour. Jesso embarked on his first headline tour in North America in April 2019, where we played to venues in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. In June 2019, he released the title track, "Let It Be Me", a duet with Scottish singer-songwriter

Nina Nesbitt Nina Nesbitt (born ) is a Scottish singer and songwriter. She has two top 40 singles, and is known for her single "Stay Out", which peaked at No. 21 on the UK Singles Chart in April 2013. Her first EP, ''The Apple Tree'', was released in Apr ...

. In March 2022, he was announced as the representative of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

for the inaugural

American Song Contest ''American Song Contest'' is an American music reality competition television series based on the Eurovision Song Contest. It sees all 50 U.S. states, five territories, and Washington, D.C. compete for the title of Best Original Song. The first ...

, set to begin later in the month. He competed in the fifth episode and did not qualify for the live semi-finals. On Saturday, January 29th 2023, Justin sang the National Anthem at Gulfstream Park before the three Pegasus Stakes races.

Discography

Singles

EPs

Songwriting credits

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jesso, Justin Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male singer-songwriters American Song Contest contestants