Jacob Banks (born 24 July 1991) is a Nigerian-born English singer and songwriter from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. Banks won the 2012

MOBO The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and ...

UnSung regional competition in Birmingham and the

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

"Are You In" music competition. His music is influenced by a range of genres including

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

, R&B and hip hop. Banks is currently signed with American label

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...

Music career

2012–present: Breakthrough

The second release from ''The Monologue'', titled "Worthy", was played by

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

as his "Next Hype" record on his Radio 1 show and received additional plays on 1Xtra, XFM,

6Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

and

Annie Nightingale Annie Avril Nightingale (born 1 April 1940) is an English radio and television broadcaster. She was the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 in 1970, and is its longest-serving presenter. Early life and career Nightingale was born in Osterley ...

. In April 2013, Banks played his first headline show at the London

St Pancras Old Church St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in Somers Town, Central London. It is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, and is believed by many to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. The church i ...

. He supported Emeli Sande on her April 2013 UK tour. Banks features on

Wretch 32 Jermaine Sinclaire Scott (born 9 March 1985), better known by his stage name Wretch 32, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. He was a member of the grime collective Combination Chain Gang, before forming The M ...

's song " Doing OK", the second single from Wretch's forthcoming third studio album. Banks features on Chase and Status' "Alive" from their album, ''Brand New Machine''. He also supported them, on their Brand New Machine 2013 UK tour. Banks announced he was to release a joint EP featuring himself,

and George the Poet titled ''Gambling Man'' in 2013. However, this did not occur. On 1 May 2014, his collaboration with

All About She All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

, "I Can Wait", was released for free download as part of their debut

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

''Go Slow''. Banks has also worked with other artists such as

Bondax Bondax is an electronic music duo consisting of English musicians Adam Kaye (born 1 April 1994) and George Townsend (born 17 September 1993). The group gained prominence primarily as a result of BBC Radio, initially through BBC Introducing Lanca ...

Jake Gosling Jake Gosling is an English music producer, songwriter, remixer, manager, and publisher best known for his work with artists such as Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, The Libertines, James Bay, Shawn Mendes, All Time Low, One Direction, Major Lazer, Christ ...

, Knox Brown,

Plan B Plan B typically refers to a contingency plan, a plan devised for an outcome other than in the expected plan. Plan B may also refer to: * Plan B, a brand name of levonorgestrel, an emergency contraception drug Film and television * Plan B En ...

and

. On 21 July 2015, Banks' second extended play entitled ''The Paradox'' was released. It features a guest appearance from

Odd Child Recordings OddChild Music was an independent, London-based management company and record label founded by Marc Williams in 2011. History The record label title comes from its purpose: to locate and nurture young and upcoming artists. It was revealed on 5 J ...

rapper Avelino on the track "Monster". In 2016, Banks was featured on Norwegian production team

Seeb Al-Seeb, As Seeb or As Sib ( ar, السيب) is a coastal fishing city, located several kilometres northwest of Muscat, in northeastern Oman. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 470,878. Landmarks include the Naseem Garden, the Royal ...

's release, "

What Do You Love "What Do You Love" is a song from Norwegian EDM record production trio Seeb, featuring vocals from British singer Jacob Banks. The song was written by Jayd Alexander, Hannes Netzell, Christian Olsson, Espen Berg and Simen Eriksrud, with the latte ...

". The song reached number 2 on

VG-lista VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart. It is presented weekly in the newspaper '' VG''. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continents around the world. The data are collected by Nie ...

, the official Norwegian singles chart. On 9 March 2017, Banks premiered his two-part narrative video, written and co-directed by himself, for his single, "Unholy War". The single is off his upcoming EP, 'The Boy Who Cried Freedom'. In November 2018, he released his new album, "Village", which made No. 1 on new and upcoming albums on Spotify.

In popular culture

Banks' song, "Monster 2.0" was featured in the

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

game, ''

Dirt 4 ''Dirt 4'' (stylised as ''DiRT 4'') is a simcade racing video game developed by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2017, and for macOS and Linux in March 2019 by Feral Interactive. A sequel, ''Dirt 5'', was r ...

''.

Jacob Banks Piknik i Parken 2018 (195122)

"Move With You" was featured in the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

game, ''

FIFA 15 ''FIFA 15'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released on 23 September 2014 in North America, 25 September in Europe and 26 September in the United Kingdom ...

''. In 2013, "Worthy" was played on the American TV series ''Suits'' in season 3, episode 9. "Unknown" was featured in the Season 3 finale of the Starz TV series ''

Power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

'', and received viral attention for his tremendous voice. This attention led to the song "Monster" featuring in the first episode of season 4. In 2021, “Unknown” was featured on A spinoff of the Power Series Power Book 2: Ghost Season 2 Episode 5. In 2018, "Unknown" was featured during the TV Series '' Suits'' in season 7, episode 13. "Monster" was used during the TV series "Quantico" in Season 1 Episode 2 which aired in October 2015. "Monster" was also sampled to create rapper Flawless real talk's song of the same name. In 2017, "Unholy War" was featured in the season finale of the TV series '' Redemption'', Season 3 Episode 3 of the TV Series ''

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...

'' and in the reveal trailer for the 2017 Need for Speed game, '' Need for Speed: Payback.'' In 2018, "Unholy War" was featured during the season 1 finale of the TV series ''

Black Lightning Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character, created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor Von Eeden, first appeared in ''Black Lightning'' #1 (April 1977), during ...

''. It was also featured on the Starz TV series ''Power''. In 2018 Banks penned and performed the song "In The Name of Love" for the movie ''

The Equalizer 2 ''The Equalizer 2'' (sometimes promoted as ''The Equalizer II'' or ''EQ2'') is a 2018 American vigilante action film directed by Antoine Fuqua. It is the sequel to the 2014 film '' The Equalizer'', which was based on the TV series of the same ...

''. "Love Ain't Enough" was used in the

game, ''

FIFA 19 ''FIFA 19'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Vancouver and released by Electronic Arts on 28 September 2018 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows. It is the 26th installm ...

''. Banks' collaboration with

X Ambassadors X Ambassadors (also stylized XA) are an American pop rock band from Ithaca, New York. Its members currently include lead vocalist Sam Harris, keyboardist Casey Harris, and drummer Adam Levin. Russ Flynn is a touring member that plays guitar and ...

, "Baptize Me" was featured in the '

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

' soundtrack. In 2018, "Unholy War" was used in the TV series "Queen of the South" in season 3, episode 5. In 2019, "Every Age" was featured in a commercial for the gum brand

Extra Extra or Xtra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper * ''Extra!'', an American me ...

. In 2020, "Slow Up" was used in the second season of the British series "Save Me". In 2021, "Slow Up" was used in the Netflix film ''

Fatherhood A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

'', "Found " was featured in the final season of Lucifer, and "Something Beautiful" was featured in feature film, ''

Tom & Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series c ...

''. In 2019, "Unknown (To You)" was used in the TV series '' The Resident'' in season 2, episode 20.

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other appearances

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, Jacob Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands 1991 births Living people Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom English people of Nigerian descent British hip hop singers 21st-century Black British male singers Interscope Records artists