Chris Rene

Born into a musical family as the offspring of Googie Rene, who aided his father Leon René in running the Class label, Chris Rene grew up hearing the legacy of his grandfather, the songwriter behind such early R&B classics as "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano," "Rockin' Robin," and "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman," among others. During his teenage years in California he served as guitarist and vocalist for Diversion, a group that issued an independent album in 2000 yet disbanded several years afterward, prior to finishing a second project. Turning to a solo path, he put out Soul'd Out in 2009, an album whose style fused contemporary rock, R&B, and rap. By the time he entered the first season of the United States edition of The X Factor, Rene was working as a waste collector and had recently finished a 30-day recovery program addressing drug and alcohol dependencies; he performed his original composition "Young Homie" at the audition and advanced through the series with covers of tracks by Marvin Gaye, the Police, Bob Marley, and Alicia Keys, ultimately placing third in the final. He later secured a deal with Syco, Simon Cowell's imprint distributed through Epic, and released "Young Homie," helmed by producer J.R. Rotem, in March 2012. The single landed just outside the Billboard Hot 100 and served as the lead track for a second solo album slated for later that year.