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

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

Ricky Martin Enrique Martin 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 incorporati ...

's single " Vente Pa' Ca" (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 first received international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track " I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his De ...

's " Stargazing" (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 " Vente Pa' Ca" featuring

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

, which was nominated for Best Song at the 2017

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s. It lost out to "

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". In 2017, Justin co-wrote " Stargazing" for

with

Stuart Crichton Stuart Crichton is a music producer and songwriter from Ayr, 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 "Ra ...

and

Jamie Hartman Jamie Hartman (born 1971) is an English songwriter and producer based in Los Angeles, CA, 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 and ...

. 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 Jesso'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

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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 Lindberg Nesbitt (born 11 July 1994) is a Scottish singer and songwriter. She is best known for her UK singles chart, UK and Scottish Singles and Albums Charts, Scottish top 40 hit singles "Stay Out" and "Selfies (song), Selfies". She also ...

. 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. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

for the inaugural

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, 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

EPs

Singles

Songwriting credits

References

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