Conan Lee Gray (born December 5, 1998) is an American singer-songwriter and social media personality. Gray started out uploading vlogs and covers to YouTube as a teenager from Georgetown, Texas. After signing a record deal with Republic Records in 2018, he released his debut EP Sunset Season which gained over 300 million streams online. His debut studio album, Kid Krow, was released in March 2020 and reached number 5 on the Billboard 200, making him the biggest US new artist debut of 2020. His breakthrough single "Maniac" has accumulated over 100 million streams on Spotify alone and has been certified Platinum in Australia and Gold in the US and Canada. Since then, Gray put out two more records; Superache on June 24, 2022 and Found Heaven on April 5, 2024.
Personal life
| “ | I like to think of my life in pieces. It's been picked up and moved and rearranged, so many times, that you can barely even tell it's been lived in the same lifetime. | ” |
– Conan Gray, Draw My Life ( For 100,000 ), June 12, 2016[1] | ||
Early life
Conan Lee Gray was born on December 5, 1998, in San Diego, California, to an Irish father and a Japanese mother. As an infant, his family moved to Hiroshima, Japan, due to his grandfather needing medical care. After living there for 2 years, the family moved back to California. Gray used to speak Japanese fluently but has since lost his proficiency.
Gray's parents divorced when he was three years old. In a "Draw My Life" video, he specifies his experiences with divorce as a young child. As his father was in the military, Gray moved 12 times throughout his childhood, moving 3 times during 6th grade alone. Gray was frequently bullied throughout grade school. At one point, he was one of only five Asian children at his school.[1][2]
Gray eventually settled in Georgetown, Texas, as a preteen, where he remained for the rest of his teenage years. Gray's life in central Texas inspired much of his art and music. Conan Gray was accepted to UCLA, and he moved to an apartment in Los Angeles, California in September 2017. However, he dropped out in order to chase his dreams of becoming a music artist.
2018-present
In January 2018, Gray put out a vlog, titled "🌷 i'm a girly boy and i don't care (kinda) 🌷", where he discussed masculinity and self identity while painting his nails. He'd explain, that for the longest time he was afraid he wasn't "manly enough", and he was initially hurt by being called a "girly boy". However, as he grew up, Conan got to a point where he "didn't care" and became fine with it. He stated he was trying to be more of himself in public, and that "If I'm living a life that I'm not myself, then that's not really much of a life."[3]
Soon after, online users began to comment on Conan's sexuality. On February 11, he revealed he wishes it'd stop, as he does not want his sexuality labeled.[4][5]
| “ | here’s the fucking deal. if labels on sexuality and gender and beliefs and all that great stuff are helpful for u, i’m all for it. u do u. but the second u start trying to shove everyone else into a neat little easy to understand box, i get mad. stop! please! fucking stop! | ” |
– Conan Gray, X, February 11, 2018[5] | ||
As the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Conan stated in an interview with SiriusXM from October, that he was suffering from loneliness and boredom.[6] Additionally, he went through many sudden realizations about his past years, mainly his feelings towards family-related topics (later explored in e.g. "Family Line", "Winner").[7] Meanwhile, as shown in a Vogue video, in July 2021 Conan moved to New York.[8]
Gray revealed a couple times before, that he would crush on people, but was never in an actual relationship (this was later explored in e.g. "The King", "The Story", "People Watching"). This would change in 2023, when Gray began properly dating for the first time. According to the artist, it was an on-and-off relationship, lasted six months and it was a time he felt "comfortable, happy and safe". Unfortunately for Gray, at one point while traveling to London to see his partner, they dumped him for their ex, while he was on the airplane. As he further explained, he felt "sick and heartbroken", "cried for six months straight", and his friends had to drag him out of bed to eat or shower.[9]
Following the breakup, Conan also got a flu from a kiss he shared with his partner. The flu then turned into an infection, and eventually into chronic tonsillitis. In October 2023 Gray had to undergo emergency tonsillectomy surgery, which caused him to cancel a some music-related plans.[10]
Career
YouTube
Conan Gray's YouTube channel has about 5.21 million subscribers. He created his official channel in 2013 and began creating videos at age nine. Gray's vlog content centers heavily on his life in small-town Texas, and he is often hailed for his appreciation of Americana-related nostalgia. Gray has recorded music, showed his art, and created other videos for his vlog, with more than twenty-five million views by 2017. Gray began studying filmmaking at UCLA. Soon after he started his classes, he took a hiatus from school to pursue a music career. He was awarded the 2019 Shorty Award for Best YouTube Musician and has been nominated for Breakthrough Artist at the 2019 Streamy Awards.
On June 9, 2019 Conan posted his final vlog, which was a tour diary from The Sunset Shows.[11] After this video, Conan would completely abandon being a YouTuber, later explaining it's simply not something he would do nowadays. The channel is currently dedicated solely for music videos, lyric videos, live performances etc.
Music
2017-2020
On March 19, 2017 Gray released his debut single "Idle Town" through Republic Records, followed by "Grow" on September 1, 2017. Gray's discography wouldn't see an update until October 2018, when Conan released the single "Generation Why", which has been described as "a rallying call to millennials." In November 2018, Gray released the EP Sunset Season, including the first single "Idle Town", which received thirty million Spotify streams, and twelve million YouTube views. It also includes the track "Crush Culture", a semi-autobiographical anti-love song that critiques the Founder generation.
Gray set up The Sunset Shows, a North American tour in support of the EP. It was opened by Girl in Red. As a performer, Conan Gray was an opening act for Panic! at the Disco, and played concert festivals such as The Great Escape in addition to touring nationally.
In February 2019, Gray re-released the single "The Other Side", after originally publishing it on YouTube in 2016 on the eve of the first day of his senior year at high school. Not too long after that, Gray released "The King".
Between March and October 2019, Gray released a series of singles off of his album Kid Krow, namely "Checkmate", "Comfort Crowd", and "Maniac". He made his debut single chart appearance with Maniac, when it debuted at 30 on the New Zealand Hot Singles chart. The music video for "Maniac" features an appearance from British actress, Jessica Barden from The End of the F***ing World. Throughout the second week of 2020, Gray teased fans online by tweeting daily hints about the title of his debut album. On January 9, 2020, he revealed the title of Kid Krow and wrote, "I say more on this album than I've ever said in my life, and I can't wait to tell you all of my secrets.
Gray released "The Story" on the same day of the album's announcement, as well as "Wish You Were Sober" as a surprise release two days before the album's release. During early 2020, Gray's single "Maniac" became successful on international mainstream pop radio, specifically in Australia, where it was certified platinum. The song was also certified Gold in both the US and Canada, making it his first certification in all three countries. It became his first Billboard-charting single when it reached number 25 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart,as well as the top 100 charts of Australia, Ireland and South Korea.
Gray released his debut full-length studio album Kid Krow on March 20, 2020 which debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200 as well as number 1 on the US Pop Albums chart and number 2 on the Top Album Sales chart with over 37 thousand pure sales. In October of 2020, Gray released a collaboration song with LAUV entitled "Fake".
2021-2023
Gray's first release in 2021 was a song titled "Overdrive" on February 19. Throughout the rest of the year, Gray released two singles for his then-upcoming sophomore album; "Astronomy" on May 7, and "People Watching" on July 14. As a standalone single, "Telepath" was released on October 29, 2021. Continuing into 2022 with singles, Gray put out "Jigsaw" on January 31. On April 11, Conan finally announced his sophomore album, Superache. Four days later, the single, "Memories", was released. The final single, "Yours", was released on May 19, 2022. On June 24, 2022, Gray released Superache, alongside a music video for "Disaster". Gray embarked on the Superache Tour in promotion for the album, which started on September 16, 2022 and ended on February 28, 2023.
Starting in March of 2023, Gray posted pictures of his new haircut, symbolizing start of a new musical era. On May 19, Conan released a new single "Never Ending Song", which featured production heavily inspired by mid-to-late 1980s. In the following months, two more singles were released; "Winner", and "Killing Me".
On January 31, 2024, Gray's third studio album Found Heaven was announced. On February 9, the artist's newest single "Lonely Dancers" was released, and nearly a month later it was followed by "Alley Rose", released on March 8, 2024. On April 5, 2024 Conan's third studio album, Found Heaven was released to the world.
Discography
EPs
- Sunset Season (EP, 2018)
Albums
- Kid Krow (2020)
- Superache (2022)
- Found Heaven (2024)
- Main article: Discography
Tours
- Sunset Shows (2018-2019)
- Comfort Crowd Tour (2019)
- Conan Gray World Tour 2022 (2022)
- Superache Tour (2022-2023)
- Found Heaven On Tour (2024)
- Main article: Tours
Gallery
| "Who else will take that picture for you just to get revenge?" To view the Conan Gray gallery, click here. |
Trivia
- Conan is named after Conan the Barbarian.
- Gray's zodiac sign is Sagittarius.
- Conan loves iced coffee, and can be often seen with one on his Instagram live streams.
- He's scared of sharks.[12]
- Conan didn't have his first kiss until the age of twenty, and it happened under a tree while being drunk.[13]
- Conan's parents are very religious, which didn't allow him for things like listening to mainstream music until much later in his life.
- Conan's first concert was Harvest Crusade - an annual, Christian concert which to this day takes place in California.[14]
- Conan's favorite video game is Fortnite. Conan mentioned he often plays it on Nintendo Switch, and at one point joked about letting know Fortnite's team to add him to the game as a skin.[15]
- On Google, Gray is listed as a UCLA "notable alumni".
- Conan began writing songs at the age of eleven, and it was the way Adele got discovered that prompted him to do it - writing songs in bedroom.[13]
- Conan's favorite songs he ever wrote are "Alley Rose", "Heater" and "Idle Town".[13][16]
- He mentioned that although he made "Idle Town" in Garageband and it "sounds like shit", he has a soft spot for it, mainly as it was his debut as an artist.[16]
- The first vinyl record Conan ever bought was In The Lonely Hour by Sam Smith.
- Gray previously expressed, that charts don't matter to him.
- In February of 2024, Conan started Coneworld - his official Instagram update account.
- Gray listed his biggest influences as Lorde, Adele and Taylor Swift, the latter which praised "Wish You Were Sober" in a March 26, 2020 Instagram story.[17]
- Gray is very close friends with Olivia Rodrigo, a fellow artist whose one of the biggest inspirations is also Swift.
- Conan isn't leaning towards doing collaborations unless he feels comfortable enough with the other artist.[1]
External links
|
|
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Draw My Life ( For 100,000 ) - Conan Gray
- ↑ @ConanGray - YouTube, April 1, 2018
- ↑ @ConanGray - YouTube, January 4, 2018
- ↑ @conangray - X, February 11, 2018
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 @conangray - X, February 11, 2018
- ↑ [Full] Conan Fray on Zoom with fans (SiriusXM Hits 1, Morning Mashup 10/21/20) - Annie Liu
- ↑ Conan Gray | Superache, Love, Touring, Working w/Dan Nigro, Midnights - Zach Sang Show
- ↑ 24 Hours With Conan Gray as He Moves to New York | Vogue
- ↑ Conan Gray | Found Heaven, Lonely Dancers, Breakup and Falling In Love - Zach Sang Show
- ↑ File:Conan Killing Me Explanation Oct 31 2023.mp4
- ↑ @ConanGray - YouTube, June 9, 2019
- ↑ Conan Gray Guesses How Well His Fans Know Him | Teen Vogue
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Session 15: Conan Gray | Therapuss with Jake Shane - Jake Shane
- ↑ File:Acoustic Set Jesus March 4 2024.mp4
- ↑ Conan Gray Talks Breakups, Alley Rose, and Upcoming Album “Found Heaven” with Jon Comouche.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 @conangrayfannn - TikTok, March 10, 2024
- ↑ File:Taylor Swift Instagram March 26, 2020.jpeg
