Alexander James O'Connor (born 4 May 1998), known professionally as Rex Orange County, is an English singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. O'Connor rose to prominence in 2017 following multiple features on

Tyler, the Creator Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991), known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the founding members of the music collective Odd Future. Okonma self-released his debut mixtape Bast ...

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

-nominated album ''

Flower Boy ''Flower Boy'' (alternatively titled ''Scum Fuck Flower Boy'') is the fourth studio album by American rapper Tyler, the Creator. The album was released on July 21, 2017, by Columbia Records. Produced entirely by Tyler, the album features guest vo ...

'', including the single "

Boredom In conventional usage, boredom, ennui, or tedium is an emotional and occasionally psychological state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, is listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occu ...

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

journalist Zoë Jones has described O'Connor's music as "a bright blend of hip-hop, jazz, and bedroom pop”. Under the Rex Orange County moniker, O'Connor has released one mixtape, ''Bcos U Will Never B Free'' (2015), and three studio albums: ''

Apricot Princess ''Apricot Princess'' is the second studio album by English recording artist Rex Orange County. It was released on 26 April 2017. Track listing All tracks written and produced by Alex "Rex Orange County" O'Connor, except where noted. Personnel ...

'' (2017), ''

Pony A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...

'' (2019), and '' Who Cares?'' (2022). Both ''Pony'' and ''Who Cares?'' made the top 5 in the UK and US, and the latter topped the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. O'Connor also released a live album, entitled ''Live at

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

'', in 2020.

Early life and name origin

Alexander James O'Connor was born on 4 May 1998, to Nina and Phil O'Connor, a professional sports photographer. He grew up in the village of

Grayshott Grayshott is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is on the Hampshire / Surrey border northwest of Haslemere by road, and southwest of central London. The nearest rail link is Haslemere railway sta ...

near

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south west Surrey, England, around south west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill, they comprise the civil parish of Haslemere i ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. O'Connor's interest in music began at a young age. At age 5, O'Connor joined the choir at the school where his mother worked. He became a drummer and later taught himself piano. The name Rex Orange County is based on a teacher-given nickname, "The OC", after his surname O'Connor.

Career

2014–2016: Early career and ''Bcos U Will Never B Free''

At age 16, O'Connor began playing the guitar and started to produce his own music using

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

software. At this age, he also began attending the

BRIT School The BRIT School is a British performing and creative arts school located in Selhurst, Croydon, England, with a mandate to provide education and vocational training for the performing arts, music, music technology, theatre, musical theatre, danc ...

where he studied drumming and was one of four percussionists in his year; the relative rareness of his primary instrument provided him with wide exposure to various projects of others in his school which he credits with exposing him to new music. On 4 September 2015, O'Connor self-released his debut album ''Bcos U Will Never B Free'' on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

and

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

. Upon listening to the album, fellow English musician and producer

Two Inch Punch Ben Ash, professionally known as Two Inch Punch, is an English record producer, musician, remixer and songwriter. He has written and produced records with Jessie Ware, Sam Smith, Years & Years, Rag'n'Bone Man, Tory Lanez, Ty Dolla $ign, Damon ...

got in touch with him, providing him with a management team. The two have continued to collaborate throughout O'Connor's career in the form of the tracks "UNO", "Best Friend", and "Untitled". The album also caught the attention of American rapper

, who sent him an email describing his enjoyment of the project. This led to him flying O'Connor out the following year to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to collaborate on his album ''

'', with him co-writing and contributing vocals to the songs "Boredom" and "Foreword". On 17 November 2016, O'Connor released the single "UNO", a song '' Clash'' magazine described by writing, "The buoyant keyboard riff underpins a hypnotic half-spoken vocal, one that veers from topic to topic in a hazy burst of creative mania." On 25 January 2017, he released the single “Best Friend” (premiering on

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

Beats 1 Apple Music 1, previously branded as Beats 1, is a 24/7 music radio station owned and operated by Apple Inc. It is accessible through iTunes or the Apple Music app on a computer, smartphone or tablet, smart speaker (such as the Apple HomePod), ...

station), followed later in the year by the release of his second album ''

''. His work was compared by Aimee Cliff of ''

The Fader ''The Fader'' (stylized as ''FADER'') is a magazine based in New York City that was launched in 1999 by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. It was the first print publication to be released on iTunes. It is o ...

'' in 2017 to "other artsy, post-genre teen artists, such as

Kevin Abstract Clifford Ian Simpson (born July 16, 1996), known by his stage name Kevin Abstract, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter, known for his role as a founding member of Brockhampton. He released his debut album, '' MTV1987'', in 2014 to crit ...

or Steve Lacy".

2017–2018: ''Apricot Princess''

O'Connor's first release following the success of ''Apricot Princess'' and ''Flower Boy'' was on 11 October 2017 with the single "Loving Is Easy", created in collaboration with the Dutch artist

Benny Sings Tim van Berkestijn, better known by his stage name Benny Sings, is a Dutch pop musician, songwriter, and producer from the Netherlands. Since 2003, he has released ten studio albums, including his most recent album, 2023's ''Young Hearts'' on ...

. On 16 April 2018, he performed the song in his television debut on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It is the seventh incar ...

''. On 31 May 2018, he released a cover of "

You've Got a Friend in Me "You've Got a Friend in Me" is a song by Randy Newman. Used as the theme song for the 1995 Disney/Pixar animated film ''Toy Story'', it has since become a major musical component for its sequels, ''Toy Story 2'' (1999), ''Toy Story 3'' (2010) ...

" in collaboration with

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...

, the creator of the song. He was also featured in Spotify's Rise Program. On 9 October 2018, O'Connor was scheduled to appear on the French television programme ''

Quotidien ''Quotidien'' () is a French television show, first broadcast 12 September 2016 on the channel TMC. It is presented by Yann Barthès. History On 9 May 2016, Yann Barthès announced that he was leaving Canal+'s '' Le Petit Journal'', a progra ...

'', but refused to perform because it featured a sketch by comedian

Alison Wheeler Alison Wheeler (born 4 March 1972) is a British singer, best known as the female vocalist for The Beautiful South from 2003 until they disbanded in 2007. Wheeler's career in music began at university in a cover band called Melt City, alongside ...

parodying the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

, which he called "tasteless".

2019–2020: ''Pony''

On 14 February 2019, O'Connor released the single "New House". Later that year on 12 September, he released "10/10"; the lead single from his third album ''

''. Released on 25 October 2019, ''Pony'' was his first major-label album release through

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the album a rating of 76/100 based on 11 professional reviews. On 30 September 2020, O'Connor released an EP with recordings from his performance at

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

during his ''Pony'' tour titled ''Live at Radio City Music Hall'' alongside a documentary released on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. This documentary showed the events leading up to this performance as well as the early conclusion of the ''Pony'' tour due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

2020–present: ''Who Cares?''

In October 2020, O'Connor confirmed that he was in the process of recording a fourth studio album titled '' Who Cares?''. In January 2021, he liked a Tweet seemingly confirming that it would be released at some point later that year. However, this did not materialise. On 13 January 2022, he began officially teasing the album, sending out postcards containing a phone number that when called, a snippet of song would play. The album was released on 11 March 2022, and was his first to top the

, entering ahead of ''

Impera ''Impera'' is the fifth studio album by the Swedish rock band Ghost. Released on 11 March 2022, it was produced by Klas Åhlund who also produced the band's 2015 album, ''Meliora''. The release of ''Impera'' was preceded by three singles: t ...

'' by

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

. In July 2022, O'Connor cancelled tour dates in Australia, New Zealand and Europe due to "unforeseen personal circumstances".

Artistry

Growing up, O'Connor listened to

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

, and American alternative artists like

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing v ...

and

Green Day Green Day is an American rock band formed in the East Bay of California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, together with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt. For most of the band's career, they have been a powe ...

. He cites these artists and others as core inspiration for his own music.

Personal life

In 2015, O'Connor began dating fellow British singer-songwriter Thea Morgan-Murrell (known professionally as Thea), having met while attending the BRIT School together. He sang about her in several of his songs, and they collaborated on the tracks "Sycamore Girl" and "Never Had the Balls". On 24 November 2020, he confirmed on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that they were separated, tweeting "i am not in a relationship". On 10 October 2022, O'Connor appeared in Southwark Crown Court and was charged with six counts of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

of the same woman, alleged to have taken place in June 2021. He pleaded not guilty to all counts and was bailed, with a trial provisionally scheduled for 3 January 2023. A representative for O'Connor released a statement on his behalf which read: "Alex is shocked by the allegations, which he denies, and looks forward to clearing his name in court. He is unable to make any further comment because of the ongoing proceedings". On 22 December 2022, O'Connor released a statement saying all charges against him were dropped and the case was to be dismissed following an investigation by the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

. CCTV footage and a police interview with the complainant's partner – who was with her on the night in question – did not match her account, meaning the case did not meet the CPS's legal test for a prosecution.

Accolades

In January 2018, O'Connor came in second in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...