Jessie Reyez Artistfacts

June 12, 1991
Jessie Reyez was born in Toronto, Canada, to Colombian parents. She grew up in a bilingual household where Spanish was her first language.
Inspired by her father's guitar playing and Colombian music, Reyez was already singing at age 3. As she got older, she fell in love with reggae and then hip-hop. She told The Sun:

"There was a lot of Bob Marley. It was Biggie and Tupac. And then I got into R&B and Beyoncé and Destiny's Child. And then Amy Winehouse. I heard Amy Winehouse when I was low. My heart had been broken and I felt she was talking to me."
Reyez started writing her own songs in high school. She entered the music scene in 2014 and gained prominence in 2016 with her single "Figures," which peaked at #58 on the Canadian Hot 100 and earned her a record deal. She released her debut EP, Kiddo, in 2017.
Jessie Reyez has collaborated with notable artists like Eminem ("Good Guy"), Beyoncé ("Texas Hold 'Em") and Calvin Harris ("One Kiss," "Promises"). She opened for Billie Eilish on her Where Do We Go? world tour.
Jessie Reyez proudly identifies as Colombian-Canadian and often incorporates her Latin roots into her music and performances.
Reyez has a distinctive look, often seen with long, curly hair and a strong, confident presence on stage. She has a casual, street-style approach to fashion, often wearing oversized clothing, sneakers, and bold accessories that match her rebellious spirit.
Her father was a competitive diver in Columbia and passed down his love of swimming to Jessie. She released a 10-episode YouTube series Jessie Rates Lakes, where she jumps off cliffs and trees into various lakes grading them based on her experiences. Her father appears several times in the series.
Reyez leans into poetry as her first love and uses words to connect deeply with her audience. In 2023, she published Words of a Goat Princess, a book of poetry reflecting her emotions and thoughts beyond music.

"I don't really like things that are boundary imposing - I don't like turtlenecks. I don't like bras. I love music, love making songs, love singing, but you're bound by whatever key of the song that you're in to only touch a certain amount of notes," she told Genius. "Restrictions can also act as a catalyst for the creator to be innovative, which is great, you know. That's why we have so many different iterations of songs with such a finite amount of notes, but with words, when there's no rules, I just feel like I'm swimming. It feels free."