Austin Mahone

R&B-influenced pop singer Austin Mahone got his start in the early 2010s when his online content went viral, leading to a mainstream breakthrough with gold-certified singles “Say Somethin’,” “Say You’re Just a Friend,” and “What About Love.” After releasing a handful of EPs and mixtapes, Mahone issued his official debut Dirty Work exclusively in Japan in 2017.
Born in San Antonio, Texas, Mahone started singing at a young age and in 2010 began posting YouTube clips of himself singing cover songs by artists like Justin Bieber, Jason Mraz, and others. By 2011, Mahone’s videos had garnered him a significant online following, so much so that he dropped out of high school, choosing instead to be home-schooled and focus on his burgeoning pop career. In 2012, Mahone signed to Chase/Universal Republic Records and released several singles, including “11:11” and “Say You’re Just a Friend,” featuring rapper Flo Rida. An eponymous EP featuring those singles showed up in the summer of 2013 and, nearly a year later, a second EP called The Secret appeared. The Secret peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and yielded his first Hot 100 entry, the *NSYNC-indebted “What About Love.” While preparing his official debut full-length, he released a mixtape titled This Is Not the Album (Cash Money/Republic), which featured Sage the Gemini, Becky G, Chris Brown, and T-Pain. The For Me+You EP arrived in 2016. It included guests like Juicy J, Pitbull, and 2 Chainz. The following year, Mahone finally issued his debut album, Dirty Work, exclusively in Japan. The set bundled the tracks from For Me+You alongside fresh material such as the chart-topping club hit “Creatures of the Night” with Hardwell and “Perfect Beauty” with Bobby Biscayne. Another Japan exclusive, the Oxygen EP, landed in 2018. Early the next year, he released the Charlie Puth-penned single “Why Don’t We,” one of a batch of songs that carried Mahone into the 2020s. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Matt Collar