George Nozuka (born April 28, 1986) is an American-based

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

R&B singer best known for his single "Talk to Me", which peaked at No. 1 on the

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

music-video countdown in October 2006.

Career

Nozuka released his debut album '' Believe'' in 2007 under the

mononym A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

George. The album was produced by Perry Alexander, Roy "Royalty" Hamilton, and Anthony M. Jones, and was released by HC Entertainment Group. Three tracks became hits: "Talk to Me" (written and produced by Shaun Myers), "Lie to Me", and "Last Time". Music videos for the songs were directed by

RT! Randall Thorne, better known by his pseudonyms RT! and R.T. Thorne, is a Canadian writer and television director known for creating deeply immersive visual worlds. He has emerged as one of Canada's most eclectic storytellers since debuting on the ...

and appeared on the charts of Canada's specialized music cable channel MuchMusic. In 2012, Nozuka released a mixtape titled ''Love Me''. For the mixtape and later works, he began using his full name. In 2013, he released a studio album called ''Beautiful'', along with a music video for the first single from the album, called "Don't Go".

Collaborations

''Forgotten Children''

Through the Canadian section of

Plan A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. F ...

, Nozuka was involved in a documentary about

restavec A restavek (or restavec) is a child in Haiti who is sold by their parents to work for a host household as a domestic servant because the parents lack the resources required to support the child. The term comes from the French language ''rester a ...

s, children working as domestic servants in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. The documentary ''Forgotten Children: The Story of Haiti's Restavecs'', directed by Craig Goodwill, shows the situation of the children through the eyes of various personalities, including Nozuka, a Canadian

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

peacekeeper, Haitian filmmakers and activists, and former restavecs themselves. Nozuka produced the song "Hurting Child" for the documentary.

Featured with other performers

* "With You Remix" by JDiggz and

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

Songwriting

Nozuka co-wrote "Home This Christmas" for

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

, and "I Love Girls" for

Cody Simpson Cody Robert Simpson (born 11 January 1997) is an Australian swimmer and singer-songwriter. Since his debut, he has released four solo studio albums: ''Paradise'' (2012), '' Surfers Paradise'' (2013), '' Free'' (2015), and ''Cody Simpson'' (20 ...

Personal life

Nozuka is one of seven children of Canadian mother Holly Sedgwick and Japanese father Hiromitsu Nozuka. Sedgwick raised Nozuka and his six siblings as a single mother. Nozuka is the older brother of the musicians

Justin Nozuka Justin Tokimitsu Nozuka (born September 29, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. His debut album ''Holly'' has been released in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States. He has licensed the album to indie label Coalition Enterta ...

and Henry Nozuka, and the actor Philip Nozuka. Nozuka's aunt, his mother's half-sister, is the actress

Kyra Sedgwick Kyra Minturn Sedgwick (; born August 19, 1965) is an American actress, producer and director. For her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama ''The Closer'', she won a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Awa ...

, who is married to the actor

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

. Their two children, Travis and

Sosie Bacon Sosie Ruth Bacon (born March 15, 1992) is an American actress. Her first role was playing 10-year-old Emily in the film ''Loverboy (2005 film), Loverboy'' (2005), which was directed by her father, Kevin Bacon. James Duff (writer), James Duff, pr ...

, are Nozuka's first cousins.

Discography

Albums

Mixtapes

*2012: ''Love Me'' *2016: ''Purple Kush''

EPs

*2018: ''Getaway''

Compilations

*2015: ''You Deserve Better'' *2021: ''Till The Morning''

Singles

*2006: "Talk to Me" *2007: "Lie to Me" *2007: "Last Time" *2012: "Don't Go" *2013: "I'm Reaching Out" *2014: "You Deserve Better" *2017: "My Beating Heart" *2018: "Getaway" *2018: "Touch Yourself" *2020: "What You Got" *2020: "Love You Like"

Awards

*In 2007, the music video for "Lie to Me" won

the Best Director award at the

Much Music Video Awards The iHeartRadio MMVAs were an annual awards show broadcast on Much to honour the year's best music videos that was last held in 2018. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Awards, the awards were renamed in 1995 to the MuchMu ...

for the second consecutive year.Footage from MMVAs in 2007 for RT! winning Best Director for George's "Lie to Me"
Youtube.com (June 17, 2007). Retrieved on 2013-06-14.

References

External links

YouTube channel
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nozuka, George 1986 births Living people Canadian male singers Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Canadian musicians of Japanese descent Canadian contemporary R&B singers Musicians from Toronto St. Andrew's College (Aurora) alumni Sedgwick family Canadian soul singers