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An American singer/songwriter with a distinctively warm, light rasp to his voice, Noah Kahan makes folk-infused pop in the realm of artists like Ben Howard and Vance Joy. After his 2017 debut single "Young Blood" went viral, "Hurt Somebody," from his 2018 debut EP of the same name, charted in countries including Australia and New Zealand. Kahan released his first album, Busyhead, in 2019, followed by 2021's I Was/I Am and 2022's Stick Season, the latter of which reached number two on the Billboard 200 and helped earn him a Grammy nomination. A number of related releases, including deluxe editions, a live LP, and a duets collection followed before the end of 2024.

Born in 1997, Kahan was raised in rural Strafford, Vermont, where his family owned a tree farm. He first started writing songs at the age of eight and was still in high school when he and his friends began producing and uploading some of his work online. After coming to the attention of producer Joel Little (Lorde, Taylor Swift), who offered to collaborate, Kahan signed with Republic Records at the age of 20.

The label released a series of singles throughout 2017 beginning with "Young Blood," which went viral, collecting tens of millions of streams. By the second half of the year, he was touring in support of the Strumbellas. The EP Hurt Somebody arrived in January 2018 and featured singer Julia Michaels on the title track. "Hurt Somebody" charted in several countries, reaching number 13 in the Netherlands and 14 in Australia. Kahan made his late-night TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that February and spent the rest of the year touring in support of George Ezra and completing his first headlining tours of North America and Europe.

With Little producing, Kahan recorded his debut album, Busyhead, in New Zealand. Led by the single "False Confidence," the record was released in June 2019. He followed it a year later with another EP, Cape Elizabeth, and "Pride," a collaborative single with mxmtoon. In September 2021, he returned with his sophomore full-length, I Was/I Am, which again found him working with producer Little. Featured on the album was the song "Someone Like You," a collaboration with Joy Oladokun. Kahan's third LP, Stick Season, arrived in October 2022, landing at number two on the Billboard 200. Included on the album was the title track, which hit number 13 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. Several non-album singles arrived in 2023, including a cover of Jason Isbell's "If We Were Vampires" (featuring the Lumineers' Wesley Shultz) and a piano version of the Stick Season track "Orange Juice." He also paired with Zach Bryan for "Sarah's Place," which hit number 14 on the Hot 100. By the end of the year, he had released additional collaborations with Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, and Gracie Abrams and earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Two expanded editions of his third album, Stick Season (We'll All Be Here Forever) and Stick Season (Forever), were released in June 2023 and February 2024, respectively; the latter featured many of these collaborations along with a new single, "Forever." Another related album, Live from Fenway Park, featuring the unreleased song "Pain Is Cold Water" and an appearance from Gracie Abrams, followed in August 2024; it cracked the Top 100 of the album charts in the U.S., Canada, and Ireland. Eight recent duets in all were then collected on the November 2024 Record Store Day release Town Hall (Stick Season Collaborations), which included appearances by Post Malone, Sam Fender, and Brandi Carlile and resulted in another appearance on the Billboard 200 for Kahan. ~ Marcy Donelson

Singer/songwriter Gracie Abrams specializes in a stylized, moody modern pop with a subtly shifting sound partially indebted to Lorde. Abrams cultivated an online following through a steady series of single releases appearing toward the end of the 2010s, experiencing a breakthrough in 2020 with the singles "21" and "I Miss You, I'm Sorry" from her EP Minor. She also worked with Benny Blanco on the high-profile 2021 track "Unlearn" before releasing her sophomore EP, This Is What It Feels Like. Abrams' debut album, the Aaron Dessner co-penned Good Riddance, arrived in early 2023, and she was later nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy Award. While that album had charted well in the U.K. and Ireland, a year later, she landed in the Top Two in the U.S. (number two), U.K. (number one), and Australia (number one) with her sophomore album, The Secret of Us. Again co-written with Dessner, it featured a collaboration with Taylor Swift ("us.").

The daughter of movie director J.J. Abrams, Gracie Abrams was born on September 7, 1999. She began playing music when she was eight, starting with drums. Eventually, she picked up guitar, ukulele, and piano. As she entered her adolescence, Abrams built a following through social media, and her fan base led to connections within the industry who were attracted to her early songs "In-Between," "Deep Red," and "And She Will Miss You." After graduating from high school in 2018, she enrolled in Barnard College with the intention of majoring in international relations. She maintained her musical career, releasing an EP around the same time.

Abrams began releasing singles on Interscope in 2019, starting with "Mean It." "Stay" appeared before the end of the calendar year. Her 2020 EP Minor yielded a pair of streaming hits in "21" and "I Miss You, I'm Sorry." The following year, Abrams teamed up with Benny Blanco on the collaborative single "Unlearn," while also issuing another solo track in "Mess It Up." Also in 2021, she released her second EP, This Is What It Feels Like, featuring production by Aaron Dessner, Joel Little, and Blake Slatkin. A pair of 2022 singles, "Difficult" and "Block Me Out," set the stage for her first full-length, Good Riddance, released in February 2023. It was the album's fifth single, "I Know It Won't Work," that gave Abrams her first chart hit, reaching number 32 on Billboard's Pop Airplay chart. The album, which was co-written with Dessner, made it to 52 on the Billboard 200. Abrams' rise continued later that year with a support slot opening for Taylor Swift's massive Eras tour. The November release of "Cedars" from the soundtrack to The Buccaneers coincided with a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist.

An exclusive vinyl release, Good Riddance Acoustic Shows: Live, kicked off 2024, after which Abrams began the build-up to her next album with "Risk," which reached number 28 on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart while cracking the Hot 100. She made another Hot 100 appearance with a guest spot on Noah Kahan's track "Everywhere, Everything," and again with her own "Close to You" before her sophomore album, The Secret of Us, arrived that June. Working again with Dessner -- as well as Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff on the Swift-featuring Top 40 hit "us." -- the record's intimate protestations connected with an even broader audience, reaching number two on the Billboard 200 while topping the charts in the U.K. and Australia in addition to several other Top Five appearances. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine