Jillian Jacqueline

Jillian Jacqueline launched her career in 2014 as a country-pop singer specializing in bright, inviting material, a sentiment showcased on her debut single “Overdue.” This open-hearted, positive energy formed the basis of Side A and Side B, a pair of EPs released on Big Loud in 2017 and 2018. Side B featured the Keith Urban duet “If I Were You,” that helped broaden her audience, and on 2022′s single “Magic” she undertook a more mature, pop-focused sound.
Jacqueline was born in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, and spent most of her childhood there before moving to New York City in her early teens. A precocious talent inspired by the music playing on the family’s stereo — including Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, the Dixie Chicks, Carole King, James Taylor, and Patty Loveless — Jacqueline began singing at an early age and was performing at local coffee shops when she was only seven. When she was eight, Jacqueline recorded an album in her guitar player’s home studio. A year later, she became part of the cast of Christmas from the Heart, a Yuletide revue starring Kenny Rogers that ran for three months on Broadway. She spent the next several years as part of Rogers’ touring show, and through Rogers, she was introduced to Billy Dean and Suzy Bogguss, who invited the young vocalist to join them on the duet single “Keep Mom and Dad in Love” in 2001.
Around this time, Jacqueline formed a group with her sisters known as the Little Women Band; the act toured extensively, but Jillian dropped out when she began to burn out on touring life and wanted to pursue a more traditional education. During her hiatus, pondered the notion of a solo career, and after completing her studies at Philadelphia University in 2010, she relocated to Nashville and began making a name for herself as a singer and a songwriter. In 2013, Jacqueline cut six songs with songwriter and producer Richard Marx, and in 2014 Marx produced a single for her, “Overdue,” featuring harmony vocals from Vince Gill. The tune became a major online success, racking up over a million streaming plays. Jacqueline followed “Overdue” with the Jillian Jacqueline EP in 2016. After signing with Big Loud Records, she released “Reasons,” the lead single from her Side A EP which appeared later that year. For her August 2018 single, “If I Were You,” Jacqueline collaborated with Keith Urban, returning a month later with a second single, “Sad Girls,” which she co-wrote with Nashville songwriting ace Lori McKenna. These two songs were featured on Side B, the companion EP to 2017′s Side A, which appeared at the end of 2018.
Big Loud never released Side A and Side B as a two-in-one Jillian Jacqueline album. By 2020, the label and single parted ways, and Jacqueline independently released “Wait for the Light.” After staying silent for two years, she signed a distribution deal with Virgin Music and returned in 2022 with “Magic,” a single co-written with Shane McAnally and Tofer Brown that incorporated atmospheric washes of synth and a nuanced but distinct pop bent, a picturesque blend reminiscent of Kacey Musgraves’ genre-bending Golden Hour. ~ Mark Deming