Katelyn Tarver
With a recording career that has seen her mature from teen pop to more complex, introspective adult alternative music, Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and actress Katelyn Tarver has found success in each of these roles. A teen pop singer turned TV actress (Big Time Rush, No Ordinary Family) by the early 2010s, she focused on writing songs for others in the mid-2010s and had a U.K. hit as a songwriter with Cheryl Cole's "Crazy Stupid Love" in 2014. Tarver released her own adult pop debut single, "Weekend Millionaires," in 2016, going viral with the atmospheric ballad "You Don't Know" the following year. Continuing to win acting parts on television, she was also a winner on the 2019 inaugural season of Songland, a songwriting competition. In 2021, the album Subject to Change saw her settling into a more sophisticated adult alternative pop sound, one that continued on 2024's Quitter.
Raised in rural Glennville, Georgia, Tarver began singing in local and then national talent competitions as a child. After making the finals of TV's American Juniors as a 13-year-old in 2003, she took part in a national tour and met with industry professionals in Los Angeles. Her teen-pop full-length debut, Wonderful Crazy, followed in 2005.
Tarver made her acting debut with a recurring role on the Nickelodeon musical-comedy series Big Time Rush (2009-2013). In the meantime, she appeared on ABC's No Ordinary Family in 2010 and 2011, and released the EP A Little More Free in 2011. It was produced by Goodbye Tomorrow's Matt Grabe. Another recurring acting role, this time on the ABC Family show The Secret Life of the American Teenager, followed in 2012, as did tour dates in support of her EP.
"Crazy Stupid Love," a song Tarver co-wrote with Cheryl Cole and others for Cole's 2014 album Only Human, was released as a single that year and went to number one in the U.K. That led to an opportunity to collaborate with producer/songwriter/composer Ludwig Göransson on her first official solo single, "Weekend Millionaires," which she shared online in 2015. It received a commercial release a year later. Remixes from artists including Young Bombs and Skizzy Mars helped boost the song's popularity, and she included it on the 2017 EP Tired Eyes, issued on Duly Noted Records. Another track on the EP, "You Don't Know," became her most wide-reaching song to that point, garnering tens of the millions of streams between platforms, including a popular live version. Still pursuing acting, Tarver starred on the short-lived Twentyfiveish and appeared on five episodes of the Freeform network drama Famous in Love in 2017. Another EP, the self-released Kool Aid, followed in 2018. That year, she also had a recurring part on the HBO comedy series Ballers, starring Dwayne Johnson.
In mid-2019, Tarver became a reality TV contestant again, competing on the NBC songwriting contest Songland. Her episode-winning song "Young" was recorded by country-pop outfit Old Dominion and featured in an automobile commercial. That September, she returned with her own song, "Cynical," which kicked off a succession of non-album singles over the next year that coincided with a run on the web series Twentyfiveish (2000). Tarver began sharing material from her first solo LP in 16 years, Subject to Change, in 2021, self-releasing the album that November.
Tarver co-wrote songs for Joshua Bassett, including "All in Due Time" from 2022's Sad Songs in a Hotel Room EP, while her own next album contained songwriting collaborations with the likes of Delacey (Demi Lovato, Halsey), Adam Yaron (Maddie Zahm, Alexander Stewart), and Scott Effman (Kelly Clarkson, JP Saxe). Featuring production by Chad Copelin (LANY, Sasha Alex Sloan), Quitter appeared on Nettwerk in early 2024.
© Marcy Donelson /TiVo
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Discography
38 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Who You Share It With
Pop - Released by Blackwatch Records on 15 Nov 2024
Available in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
The Only Exception
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 11 Nov 2022
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
Subject to Change
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 12 Nov 2021
Available in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Starting to Scare Me
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 2 Jun 2023
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
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Friend Like You
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 17 Nov 2023
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
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Shit Happens
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 29 Jul 2021
Available in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
What Makes A Life Good?
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 28 Apr 2023
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
Japanese Cafe
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 29 Dec 2023
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
Ignorance Is Bliss
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 8 Sep 2023
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
Parallel Universe
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 4 Aug 2023
Available in24-Bit/48 kHz Stereo -
Kool Aid (MELVV Remix)
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 1 Dec 2019
Available in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Tired Eyes
Pop - Released by Universal Music Operations Ltd. on 10 Mar 2017
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Planez
Pop - Released by Universal Music Operations Ltd. on 2 Apr 2021
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
You Don't Know (tofû Remix)
Pop - Released by Katelyn Tarver on 19 Apr 2017
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Somebody Else
Pop - Released by Nettwerk Music Group on 1 Nov 2019
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
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