Jesse McCartney

Jesse McCartney built his reputation through screen roles and bright, melody-driven pop. Early acting appearances, among them the part of JR Chandler on All My Children, preceded his rise to prominence inside the boy band Dream Street. He stepped out as a solo artist with Beautiful Soul in 2004, which climbed to number 15 on the Billboard 200. Subsequent releases that also reached the Top 20 included Right Where You Want Me in 2006 and Departure in 2008. McCartney later founded Eight0Eight Records, the imprint that issued In Technicolor in 2014. He kept moving between music and acting, taking parts in series such as Summerland and Greek while supplying voices for animated projects that featured Theodore in Alvin and the Chipmunks and Nightwing in Young Justice. After performing on the 2020 season of The Masked Singer, he delivered his fifth studio album, New Stage.

Born in Ardsley, New York, in 1987, McCartney displayed early talent by singing on Broadway and securing his All My Children role before he turned twelve and entered his first boy band. Dream Street’s platinum-certified, self-titled debut launched both Chris Trousdale and McCartney, who soon placed original songs in family films including A Cinderella Story (“The Best Day of My Life”), Stuck in the Suburbs (“Good Life”), and Ella Enchanted, where he shared a duet version of Elton John’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with Anne Hathaway.

McCartney resumed acting in 2004 on the WB series Summerland while completing his debut solo album. Issued that September, Beautiful Soul fused polished pop-rock with R&B touches and upbeat rhythms, eventually reaching number 15 on the Billboard 200. A live album captured performances from the accompanying tour the following year.

His second studio effort, Right Where You Want Me, arrived in fall 2006 and again entered the Billboard 200’s Top 20. After collaborating with producers Sean Garrett, J.R. Rotem, the Clutch, and others, McCartney released Departure in 2008. Around the same time he co-wrote Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love” with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder. Although he continued issuing music—a 2009 live set and the 2011 studio album Have It All—he devoted increasing attention to acting, appearing regularly on Army Wives, voicing Theodore in the Alvin & the Chipmunks films, and starring in Chernobyl Diaries.

In 2013 McCartney revived his recording career by joining the Backstreet Boys on tour and starting his own label, Eight0Eight Records. He inaugurated the imprint that November with the EP In Technicolor, Pt. 1, working alongside the production team the El3ven. The full-length In Technicolor followed in July 2014 and peaked at number 35 on the Billboard 200. Additional voice work accompanied television appearances that included a recurring role as Cooper Finley on Young & Hungry plus guest spots on Fear the Walking Dead and Major Crimes. Competing as “Turtle” on season three of The Masked Singer in 2020, he finished as runner-up. New Stage, his fifth studio album, appeared in October 2021 and contained the tracks “Kiss the World Goodbye” and “Party for Two.”