Jessie Murph was born and raised in Athens, Alabama, to a musical family - both her parents are musicians. Her father is a singer who instilled in Jessie a deep appreciation for country music.
She taught herself to play guitar, keyboard, and ukulele as a child, starting to write songs at just 10 or 11 years old.
Murph's early musical influences blend country - thanks to her Alabama upbringing and her father's country aspirations - with hip-hop and pop. She cites 6lack, Lil Baby, Adele, and Amy Winehouse as inspirations.
She got her start by posting deeply emotional covers to YouTube as a teenager, often recording from her bedroom closet. Murph then graduated to TikTok.
"I started on TikTok with covers, and then slowly but surely started putting my own stuff on there,"
she told Spin. "I'll never forget when I got out of cheer practice, I opened TikTok and the video had blown up. I remember freaking out and running around my kitchen screaming, it was so crazy. Because it made me realize if that was possible, I could blow up other songs, too."
Growing up in a small, conservative town, Murph often felt like an outsider and faced criticism, especially after her school community noticed her TikTok posts. The attention, both positive and negative, became a catalyst: the backlash and whispers from classmates, particularly the cheerleaders, pushed her to pursue music even harder.
Murph's online momentum and early independent releases attracted the attention of labels during the pandemic. Her mother helped Jess, who was being homeschooled, navigate the offers rolling in through email. She eventually signed a major-label deal with Columbia in 2021.
Her debut single, the brooding and edgy "Upgrade," was released in 2021. It arrived with a music video in which Murph wore a simple black outfit with slicked-back hair.
"That feels like a lifetime ago,"
she told Billboard in 2024. "From where I grew up, the style was really preppy, so I used to dress like that in high school. But as I found myself through music, I found myself stylistically as well. I think that also just comes with growing up... Everybody finds their own style as they get older, but I also lend a lot of it to the snoot, honestly. The snoot has inspired so much for me."
Mental health struggles are a major theme in her songwriting. Murph has said she writes music as a form of therapy and often confronts topics like depression, self-worth, and toxic relationships head-on. Songs like "
Pray" transport us to some of her darkest moments.
Before her music career took off, Murph was active in competitive cheerleading and figure skating.
Though she finds it therapeutic to hear her singing voice (because her songs help her process emotions), Jessie Murph can't stand hearing herself talk. She doesn't even have a voicemail greeting. "I just leave it to the robot," she told Audacy.
Before Jessie Murph steps on stage, there's one non-negotiable ritual: the fist-bump. "Every time before I go on stage, I have to fist-bump everybody that's in my vicinity or I like freak out,"
she told Sports Illustrated.
As for her towering, jet-black bouffant? It turns out the secret weapon isn't some mystical styling serum or obscure TikTok hack. "I normally got a hair donut in there and then we'll just tease it a bunch," Murph confessed.
That's it. Just a trusty foam ring and a lot of backcombing. Elvis would be proud.
