Hailey Knox

Singer and songwriter Hailey Knox initially cultivated listeners through mid-2010s acoustic performances that paired guitar and loop pedal on well-known tracks from Adele, the Weeknd, and Justin Bieber. Her soulful delivery soon prompted comparisons to Sheryl Crow and Ingrid Michaelson. In 2016 she issued her first EP, A Little Awkward, while developing a richer ensemble approach that shaped her 2018 full-length Hardwired Mixtape. Millions of streams accrued to the 2020 single “A Boy Named Pluto,” and subsequent releases such as 2021’s “Gucci Prada Balenciaga” along with 2022’s “Outta Here” and “Waiting on You” maintained her presence on playlists.

Although the New York-based artist first reached wider notice through online pop interpretations during her teenage years, her vocal journey began much earlier: she tackled Beatles material as a toddler and formed a duo with her sister Samantha before adolescence. A 2014 upload of A Great Big World’s “Say Something” expanded her reach to include music-industry figures and pop singer Meghan Trainor. Late the following year she secured a contract with S-Curve Records; by 2016 her videos had surpassed two million views, earning a Shorty Awards nomination for artist of the year.

A Little Awkward appeared on S-Curve in June 2016. The set featured guitar-driven material produced by Michael Mangini (Joss Stone), Peter Zizzo (Jason Mraz, Vanessa Carlton), and Steve Greenberg (Andy Grammer), among them the Imani Coppola co-write “Geeks.” Later came the acoustic track “Hardwired” and the eleven-song debut album misleadingly titled Hardwired Mixtape, both in 2018.

After joining Corinne Bailey Rae on tour and returning to the studio, Knox resurfaced in 2020 with the streaming success “A Boy Named Pluto,” then continued issuing singles that included the 2021 track “Gucci Prada Balenciaga” and the 2022 cuts “Outta Here” and “Waiting on You.”