Pop singer Gracie Abrams was born in Los Angeles to filmmaker JJ Abrams and producer Katie McGrath. During her freshman year at Barnard College in New York, where she was studying international relations, Abrams decided to take a break from school to focus on her music. She landed a deal with Interscope Records and issued her debut single, "Mean It," in 2019.
Abrams wrote the songs for her 2020 debut EP, Minor, about the end of her relationship with Blake Slatkin, who co-produced the project despite their issues. The work brought them closer together, and they rekindled their romance but broke up again a couple years later.
Abrams says her parents were strict and wouldn't allow her to have her own phone until she was in eighth grade or a public Instagram until she was 16. When she finally earned her freedom on social media, she was able to build a following and connect with musicians and producers, who were impressed with the clips of herself singing she shared on Instagram.
Abrams became interested in music at a young age, but she never wanted to sing on stage. When she realized her record label would expect her to perform live in support of her debut EP, Minor, she was worried she wasn't up to the task. But then the pandemic happened, and her childhood bedroom became her stage, with her audience watching over Zoom as she sang from the foot of her bed. The virtual shows proved to be an important stepping stone in Abrams' transition to playing in front of live crowds.
Abrams released her full-length debut, Good Riddance, in 2023. In addition to embarking on her own tour, she was Taylor Swift's opening act for the US leg of The Eras tour throughout 2023, and rejoined for more dates in the US and Canada in 2024. Abrams is a big Swiftie, and the feeling is mutual for Taylor. "Gracie's writing mixes fragility with introspection in a way that I really relate to," she told Rolling Stone. "It makes me feel like maybe she and I started writing songs for the same reason, just to try to make sense of how we feel."
Abrams was also the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo's Sour Tour in 2022.
Good Riddance - featuring vulnerable tracks like "
Difficult" and "
Where Do We Go Now?" - finds Abrams examining her emotions after a difficult breakup. The album was produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, who invited Abrams to stay with him and his family while she worked on her album at his studio in Long Pond, New York. In between recording sessions, the singer spent a lot of time hanging out with Dessner's children, who wrote her an original song and performed it on string instruments.
Abrams' first foray onto the Billboard Hot 100 came in the form of a guest performance on a remix of Noah Kahan's "
Everywhere, Everything." The duet peaked at #79 in December 2023.
Abrams was nominated Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards in 2024, but lost to "
On My Mama" singer Victoria Monet.
She released her second album,
The Secret Of Us, in 2024. Taylor Swift features as a guest on the track "
Us."
Abrams is an activist for abortion rights. In May 2022, she joined several musical artists in signing a full-page ad in The New York Times decrying the US Supreme Court's forthcoming decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. That summer, she also released a limited-edition T-shirt to raise donations for the National Network of Abortion Funds.
One of Abrams' main musical influences is Joni Mitchell. She even has a tattoo of the word "river" on her arm in reference to Mitchell's 1971
song of the same name.
