Jillian Jacqueline

Jillian Jacqueline entered the music scene in 2014 as a country-pop vocalist whose work centered on upbeat and welcoming songs, beginning with her first release “Overdue.” That same optimistic spirit shaped the two EPs she issued on Big Loud, Side A in 2017 and Side B the following year; the latter included her duet with Keith Urban on “If I Were You,” which expanded her reach, while her 2022 track “Magic” signaled a shift toward a more grown-up, pop-oriented approach.

Born in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, she lived there through most of her early years before relocating to New York City as a young teenager. Exposed to the family record collection that featured Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, the Dixie Chicks, Carole King, James Taylor, and Patty Loveless, she started singing almost immediately and was already appearing in local coffee shops by age seven. At eight she cut an album in her guitar player’s home studio, and a year later joined the cast of the holiday production Christmas from the Heart, which starred Kenny Rogers and played for three months on Broadway. She continued performing with Rogers on the road for several seasons; through that connection she met Billy Dean and Suzy Bogguss, who asked her to sing on their 2001 duet single “Keep Mom and Dad in Love.”

Around the same period she formed the Little Women Band with her sisters and toured widely, though she eventually stepped away to escape the demands of constant travel and to focus on school. During that break she began considering a solo path, and after graduating from Philadelphia University in 2010 she moved to Nashville to build a career as both performer and writer. In 2013 she recorded six tracks with songwriter and producer Richard Marx, who then helmed her 2014 single “Overdue,” which featured backing vocals from Vince Gill and quickly surpassed a million streams online. She followed that success with the Jillian Jacqueline EP in 2016. After signing to Big Loud Records she issued “Reasons,” the first single from her Side A EP that arrived the next year. For the August 2018 release “If I Were You” she teamed again with Keith Urban; a month later she offered “Sad Girls,” co-written with Nashville songwriter Lori McKenna. Both tracks appeared on Side B, the follow-up EP to Side A, which came out at the close of 2018.

Big Loud never combined the two EPs into a single album. By 2020 the label and artist had parted company, leading Jacqueline to release “Wait for the Light” on her own. After two years of quiet she entered a distribution arrangement with Virgin Music and resurfaced in 2022 with “Magic,” a song she wrote alongside Shane McAnally and Tofer Brown that blended layered synthesizer textures with a clear pop direction, echoing the adventurous spirit of Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour.