Emerging first as a teenage performer on Canadian screens, MacKenzie Porter kept her hand in acting while simultaneously developing a country singing career that leaned toward its pop side. That approach carried her 2013 single “Never Gonna Let You” to number 11 on the Canadian Country Charts, earning a Rising Star nomination from the Canadian Country Music Association the same year. Additional recognition arrived with a 2015 Juno Award nomination for Country Album of the Year for her self-titled 2014 debut, yet Porter’s decisive breakthrough occurred at decade’s end after she began working with producer Joey Moi. Their initial collaboration, the 2018 release “About You,” became her first Canadian Country number one and launched a run of chart-toppers that included “These Days,” “Seeing Other People,” and the 2022 track “Pickup,” all paving the way for her second album, 2024’s Nobody’s Born with a Broken Heart.
Raised on the family ranch near Medicine Hat, Alberta, Porter grew up in a household where music was constant. She took up piano and violin while still young, and the entire family—including her brother Kalan—performed together in a band. Kalan became the first to achieve wider recognition by winning the 2004 season of Canadian Idol, prompting MacKenzie to move to Vancouver in pursuit of a career in entertainment. There she secured the lead in the 2007 children’s series Dinosapien, after which further television movies and series followed. In her free time she continued performing music, notably in the band the Black Boots alongside fellow actor Andrew Jenkins.
By 2010 Porter had begun releasing music under her own name. She captured the Nashville North Star competition the next year, and her debut single “I Wish I’d Known” appeared in 2012. After “Never Gonna Let You” reached number 11 in 2013 and “If You Ask Me To” climbed to number 17 the following year, her eponymous debut album arrived in 2014; once it succeeded in Canada she relocated to Nashville. The 2015 single “Rodeo” stalled at number 32, but in 2018 she teamed again with Joey Moi, whose prior credits included work with Florida Georgia Line and Jake Owen. Their first song together, “About You,” topped the Canadian Country chart that year, and “These Days” repeated the feat in 2019 while also receiving U.S. country radio airplay. “Seeing Other People,” the opening single from the EP Drinkin’ Songs: The Collection, reached number one in 2020, as did the non-album track “Pickup” in 2021. Two duets arrived in 2022—“One Too” with Dallas Smith and “One Night Left” with Cheat Codes—while the solo release “Chasing Tornadoes” previewed the sophomore album Nobody’s Born with a Broken Heart, which appeared in April 2024 and yielded further singles such as “Easy to Miss” and “Bet You Break My Heart,” the latter peaking inside Canada’s Top 20.
