Conan Lee Gray (born December 5, 1998) is an American singer, songwriter and former YouTuber. He was born in Lemon Grove, California, and raised in Georgetown, Texas, where he began uploading vlogs, covers, and original songs to YouTube as a teenager. In 2018, Gray signed a record deal with Republic Records, which released his debut EP, Sunset Season (2018).
Bolstered by the commercially successful songs "Maniac" and "Heather", his studio album Kid Krow (2020), entered the U.S. Billboard 200 at number five, making it the biggest U.S. artist debut of that year. His second studio album, Superache (2022), debuted in the top ten in the chart, also doing so in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands. His third and fourth albums, Found Heaven (2024) and Wishbone (2025), peaked at numbers 14 and three on the Billboard 200, respectively.
Gray was born on December 5, 1998, in Lemon Grove, California, a suburb of San Diego. His father is Irish and his mother is Japanese. As an infant, he moved with his family to Hiroshima, Japan, because his grandfather needed medical care after being diagnosed with cancer. After his grandfather's death, the family moved back to California.
Gray's parents divorced when he was three years old and he was thereafter raised by a single mother. In a "Draw My Life" video, he details his experiences with divorce as a young child. As his father was in the military, Gray moved nine times during his childhood, including two times during sixth grade. He was frequently bullied in grade school for being quiet.
Gray eventually settled as a preteen in Georgetown, Texas, where he remained for the rest of his teenage years. His life in central Texas inspired much of his art and music. He was accepted to UCLA, and moved to Los Angeles, California, in September 2017. However, he dropped out three months later to begin touring after he was signed to Republic Records.
2013–2019: YouTube channel and Sunset Season
Gray created his official YouTube channel in 2013, and began making videos at age 15. His early videos were about topics such as baking and mainly focused on his everyday life. His vlog content centered heavily on his life in small-town Texas. He is often hailed for his appreciation of Americana-related nostalgia. Gray has recorded music, showed his art, and created other videos for his vlog with more than 25 million views.
Gray self-released his debut single, "Idle Town", in March 2017. The song gained over 14 million streams on Spotify and 12 million views on YouTube. He self-released his second single, "Grow", on September 1, 2017. In October 2018, he released the single "Generation Why" on Republic Records, which was called "a rallying call to millennials". In November 2018, he released the five-track EP Sunset Season, which includes the songs "Idle Town", "Generation Why", "Crush Culture", "Greek God", and "Lookalike". The EP peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. Gray embarked on the Sunset Shows tour in support of the EP. Sometime in 2018, he trademarked GirlyBoy, Inc., his way of owning his masters. He used it for his fourth album, Wishbone.
Gray made his late-night television debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers on the eve of February 2019, before performing several shows as an opening act on Panic! at the Disco's Pray for the Wicked Tour. He played concert festivals such as The Great Escape in addition to touring nationally. In February 2019, Gray re-released the single "The Other Side" after originally publishing it on YouTube in 2016 on the eve of the first day of his senior year of high school. Between March and October 2019, he released three singles from his debut album, Kid Krow, "Checkmate", "Comfort Crowd", and "Maniac", and an independent single, "The King". In October 2019, Gray embarked on the Comfort Crowd Tour, his second headlining tour of North America, with support from acclaimed New Zealand musician Benee as well as American recording artist UMI. As of October 2019, Gray's catalog had gained over 250 million streams across all platforms collectively. He received the 2019 Shorty Award for Best YouTube Musician, and was nominated for Breakthrough Artist at the 2019 Streamy Awards.
Throughout the second week of 2020, Gray shared daily hints about the title of his debut album on Twitter. On January 9, 2020, he revealed the title, Kid Krow, and wrote, "I say more on this album than I've ever said in my life, and I can't wait to tell you all of my secrets. Love y'all." Gray released "The Story" on the same day of the album's announcement, as well as "Wish You Were Sober" as a surprise release two days before the album's release. During early 2020, Gray's single "Maniac" became successful on international mainstream pop radio, specifically in Australia, where it was certified platinum. The song was also certified Platinum in Canada and Gold in the US, making it his first certified song in all three countries. It became his first appearance on Billboard. The single reached No. 1425 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, as well as number one in Australia and the top 100 charts of Ireland and South Korea. Gray released Kid Krow on March 20, 2020, which debuted at No. 145 on the Billboard 200 as well as No. 141 on the US Pop Albums chart and No. 142 on the Top Album Sales chart with over 37 thousand pure sales. In the US, it was the biggest new artist debut of 2020 as of March and was the top pop solo debut album in over two years since Camila Cabello's 2018 self-titled album. The album was praised by publications such as Paper, Billboard, NPR, Teen Vogue and Paste.
Gray was scheduled to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 16, as well as Coachella in mid April 2020, however both performances were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-2020, both Forbes and Billboard listed Gray as a frontrunner in their predictions for Best New Artist nominees at the 2021 Grammy Awards. Following the commercial success of Kid Krow, Apple Music named Gray as an Up Next artist and released an exclusive mini-documentary about him in April 2020. He would have embarked on the Kid Krow World Tour with support from Bülow in 2020, though it was also cancelled due to the pandemic. In August 2020, the song "Heather" became popular on the social media platform TikTok, consequently becoming Kid Krow's sixth and final single. It made Gray his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 in his career, and further charted in the top 40 of countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. It became his most commercially successful single since "Maniac", which achieved international mainstream hit radio success earlier that year. Gray performed "Heather" on both The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Today Show in October 2020. He released the single "Fake" with American singer Lauv in October 2020.
2022–2024: Superache and Found Heaven
Between May 2021 and January 2022, Gray released the singles "Astronomy", "People Watching", "Telepath", and "Jigsaw". He began his 2022 world tour in March, later concluding in June. On April 11, 2022, Gray announced that his second album Superache would be released on June 24, 2022. On April 15, 2022, he released the song "Memories", and on May 19 he released the fifth single of the album, "Yours", and revealed the track list. The album is 12 tracks and a total of 40 minutes long. Previously released single "Telepath" was not featured on the track list and remained as a non-album single. It was released on June 24, 2022. Alongside the album, the video for the single "Disaster" was also released, as well as Gray's announcement of his fourth concert tour, the Superache Tour, which ran from September 2022 to March 2023. Speaking about the album, Gray said "Writing this album was miserable, and that's why it ended up being a super-accurate depiction of my life", and "It felt like scraping my ribs of any last bits of meat". In April 2022, he appeared as a surprise guest on Olivia Rodrigo's Sour Tour in Vancouver and they did a cover of the Katy Perry song, "The One That Got Away". On July 18, 2022, Gray sang the national anthem at the 2022 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. His performance was widely criticized across social media, some comparing it to Fergie's performance at the 2018 NBA All-Star Game.