Despite being only 20 years old, David J has been singing, songwriting and performing for nearly a decade. When he was a kid growing up in Rotterdam, New York, he had aspirations of joining the NFL. But another teenage phenom inspired a shift in passion: Justin Bieber’s documentary concert film “Never Say Never.” “It looked a lot cooler than what I was doing, all the girls chasing him. Watching how he could bring a team together into what he does, and the shows looked like so much fun.” He started entering singing competitions in local fairs, hitting open mic nights and impressing club owners so much they’d invite him to play weekly happy hours. As time went on, he would draw such a strong crowd they offered him longer nighttime gigs, and eventually weekend headline slots. David began working on developing his sound and consistently writing in Nashville shortly after he started working with his team at Grey Area Music in early 2021. In late 2022 a friend brought in a longtime fan of David’s: OneRepublic frontman (and one of David’s musical heroes) Ryan Tedder into the conversation. “I didn’t know Ryan was following my development all this time. I might have tried a bit harder” he jokes. Now, with Grey Area Music, Sony Music Nashville, and Tedder’s Runner Music in his corner, David is primed to blow the country-pop landscape wide open.