From acoustic covers on YouTube to viral hits climbing the charts, Conan Gray is a true modern day success. In advance of his forthcoming album, he's announced a run of dates, kicking off in Glasgow on 2 June and stopping in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, before concluding in London on 9 June 2022.
Born in San Diego to Japanese and Irish parents, Conan Gray spent some time living in Hiroshima, Japan before relocating back to the US, settling in Texas. At the age of 15, Gray did as many creative teens did at the time and he launched his YouTube channel to share vlogs from his life and acoustic covers. The artist grew an impressive following of over 900,000 subscribers.
Moving his content to other platforms like Twitter and SoundCloud, Gray continued to introduce his music to new audiences before relocating to Los Angeles. There he began writing his own music with songs like Those Days, Lovesick Boys and The Other Side, accompanying himself on the ukulele and guitar. These YouTube releases amassed millions of views and were supported with their own music videos that included vlog footage and were mostly self-shot.
In 2017, Gray moved his music in a new direction by incorporating more synth and electronic features in songs like Grow and Idle Town. This was followed in 2018 with the release of Gray’s debut EP, Sunset Season, and several new singles in 2019 including The King, Checkmate and Comfort Crowd. Gray also re-released his single, The Other Side, which he first released on YouTube in 2016.
Gray’s fans were delighted in 2020 when his first full-length album titled Kid Krow arrived. The album performed well on the Billboard 200 chart, reaching the No.5 slot. The single Maniac was also a strong release from Gray who began featuring on mainstream radio stations in the US and elsewhere, charting in countries like Australia, Ireland and South Korea.
Gray was due to perform at Coachella in 2020 but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival was cancelled. That year, his song Heather became hugely popular on the social media platform, TikTok, and led to many predictions that Gray would be a frontrunner to be nominated for Best New Artist at the 2021 Grammy Awards.
In 2021, Gray returned with a string of singles including Overdrive, Astronomy and People Watching.