Teddy Swims

Teddy Swims, whose powerful and adaptable vocals fuse R&B, soul, hip-hop, and modern pop, first gained notice by uploading renditions of well-known tracks to social platforms before turning to his own material. Those interpretations ranged across decades and styles, encompassing Marvin Gaye, Shania Twain, and Billie Eilish, thereby highlighting the range of his delivery. He infused contemporary R&B textures into self-penned pieces such as “Picky” and “Broke,” the latter appearing on the 2021 EP Unlearning. Two additional EPs followed in 2022: Tough Love and Sleep Is Exhausting. His Grammy-nominated debut album, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, Pt. 1, emerged in 2023, reached number 25 on the Billboard 200, and yielded the chart-topping Top 40 single “Lose Control.” The follow-up, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, Pt. 2, surfaced in early 2025.

Born Jaten Dimsdale on September 25, 1992, Swims derived his stage name from the phrase “Someone Who Isn’t Me Sometimes,” a nod to his multifaceted artistic identity. His grandfather, a Pentecostal preacher, instilled in him and his relatives a deep sense of focus and direction. Although his family followed football closely and he played the sport during his teenage years, his childhood friend Addy Maxwell nurtured an interest in music; time spent with Maxwell and his father ultimately revealed Swims’s vocal aptitude. He performed in school musicals and absorbed the styles of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, India.Arie, and Frank Ocean.

Following high-school graduation, Swims sang with local hard-rock groups and contributed vocals to an assortment of ensembles, from wedding cover bands and aggressive metalcore acts to collaborations with hip-hop artists. In 2019, Tyler Carter, frontman of Issues, arranged a series of solo performances and enlisted Addy Maxwell as support; Maxwell then brought Swims onstage to deliver hip-hop material, broadening their reach. Concurrently, Swims performed with the funk-rock outfit Elefvnts and the country-tinged hard-rock project WildHeart.

On June 25, 2019, Swims released a karaoke-style clip of himself singing Michael Jackson’s “Rock with You” to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the King of Pop’s death. The upload spread rapidly, prompting numerous reaction videos that captured listeners reacting to his striking vocal technique. This marked the start of an extensive series of reinterpretations drawn from favorite artists, and with Elefvnts providing accompaniment he cultivated a substantial following.

Warner Records signed Swims in January 2020 and promptly released the first video for an original track, “Picky,” offered in both acoustic and electric forms. August 2020 brought the premiere of “Broke,” featuring Thomas Rhett; that song, together with “Bed on Fire” and five additional cuts, formed the 2021 EP Unlearning. Later the same year he issued the holiday collection A Very Teddy Christmas. Tough Love, his third EP, arrived in January 2022 and secured his initial Billboard 200 entry at number 200. November saw the release of a fourth EP, Sleep Is Exhausting. After joint singles such as 2023’s “Easy to Love” with Armin van Buuren and Matoma and “Face Myself” with Elley Duhé, Swims returned to the charts with “Lose Control,” which debuted at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 before ascending to number one on the Top 40. Paired with “What More Can I Say,” the track preceded the September 2023 arrival of his debut full-length, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, Pt. 1, which placed in the Billboard 200’s top 25 and reached the top five in Australia and New Zealand. Subsequent singles from the project included “The Door,” which entered the top 40. Swims launched the campaign for the sequel LP, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, Pt. 2, in September 2024 with “Bad Dream.” Slightly more than a month later he earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, Pt. 2 appeared in January 2025 and included the collaboration “Are You Even Real” with Giveon.