Chad Brownlee

With an easygoing, approachable persona, Chad Brownlee pivoted to country music after concluding his professional hockey career with the Idaho Steelheads. He gradually built a following across his native Canada, securing a 2013 Juno Award nomination for Country Album of the Year on the strength of his second album, Love Me or Leave Me. Continued momentum eventually delivered his first Canadian Country chart-topper in 2019 via the single "Forever's Gotta Start Somewhere."

Born in Kelowna, British Columbia, Brownlee entered the Vancouver Canucks organization as a 2003 draft selection. He next suited up for the NCAA's Minnesota State Mavericks before moving to the ECHL's Idaho Steelheads in 2007. Injuries sustained throughout that lone season on the roster ultimately steered him away from hockey and toward a full-time focus on music.

Brownlee unveiled his initial single, "The Best That I Can (Superhero)," in 2009, with his self-titled debut album arriving the year after. Four further singles followed from the project, among them "Carried Away," which reached position 19, and "Day After You," which climbed into the Canadian Country Top Ten by late 2010. The early traction earned him the Canadian Country Music Association's CCMA Rising Star award. Love Me or Leave Me surfaced in February 2012 and sustained that progress, sending four Canadian Country Top Ten singles—the title track, "Smoke in the Rain," "Listen," and "Crash"—onto the charts across the ensuing months. He followed quickly with 2013's The Fighters, whose releases such as "Fallin' Over You," "Just Because," and "When the Lights Go Down" each settled near the tenth rung of the Canadian Country listing.

Brownlee's first EP, Hearts on Fire, appeared in 2016 and generated three Top Ten singles: the title cut, "I Hate You for It," and "Somethin' We Shouldn't Do." After its arrival he signed with Universal Music Canada. His opening project for the label, the June 2019 EP Back in the Game, included three major successes—"Dear Drunk Me," "The Way You Roll," and "Forever's Gotta Start Somewhere."