Meghan Trainor

A charismatic singer with a soulful voice and wry lyrical sensibilities, Meghan Trainor makes vibrant pop influenced by contemporary R&B and dance music, doo wop, hip-hop, and Caribbean soca. Trainor initially broke through with her 2014 hit single "All About That Bass," a dance-friendly paean to body positivity that helped push her major-label debut, Title, to number one on the Billboard 200 and win her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2016. That same year, she released her sophomore album, Thank You, which included her third Top Five Billboard Hot 100 single, "No." Without abandoning her cheerful pop, Trainor dabbled in a variety styles, collaborating with such singers and rappers as Yo Gotti, Sean Paul, and Nicki Minaj on a series of singles that ran through her 2020 album Treat Myself. Embracing the sugary, doo wop-inspired style of her early work, she again hit the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 with 2022's Takin' It Back before pairing with T-Pain on "Been Like This" for 2024's Timeless.

Born in December 1993, Trainor was raised on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, where she began making music when she was seven and wrote her first song at the age of 11. She attended Nauset High School on Cape Cod; there she sang and played trumpet in the jazz band, and also studied guitar, taking lessons from Johnny Spampinato, noted guitarist with NRBQ and the Incredible Casuals. In addition, Trainor played guitar and keyboards, and sang with a local Nantucket band called Island Fusion for four years. She attended the Berklee College of Music's Performance Program, a special five-week course, in 2009 and 2010, receiving high marks and reaching the finals of their songwriting competition. By the time she was 18, Trainor had self-released three albums of her own material and landed a publishing deal with Big Yellow Dog Music (which placed her songs with artists such as Rascal Flatts, Macy Kate, Common Kings, and Sabrina Carpenter) before she signed a deal with Epic.

Trainor's first single for Epic was "All About That Bass," in which she proudly declared she's "no stick figure silicon Barbie doll," and "every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top." The pastel-colored video for the song became an online sensation, racking up over 1,600,000 views on YouTube within a month of its debut in June 2014. Soon, "All About That Bass" stormed up the Billboard Hot 100, reaching the pole position not only in the U.S. but throughout the world. As it racked up eight weeks at the top of the U.S. charts, it wound up getting certified five-times platinum, selling over four million copies in America alone; international sales reached over six million, cementing "All About That Bass"' status as one of the biggest singles of 2014. Its sequel, "Lips Are Moving," was also a hit, reaching four on the Billboard charts and earning double-platinum certification, setting the stage nicely for the January 2015 release of Trainor's debut, Title. The album promptly hit number one in multiple countries. Her third single from the album, "Dear Future Husband," reached number 24 on the U.S. singles chart. Rounding out her impressive year was a contribution to the Peanuts Movie soundtrack, a co-write on Rascal Flatts' single "I Like the Sound of That" (and most significantly, a Grammy nomination).

A few weeks before the March 2016 release of "No," the first single from her second album, Trainor won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. The following May, she released her sophomore studio album, Thank You, which found her embracing a more contemporary pop and R&B sound. Buoyed by the hits "No," "Me Too," and "Better" (featuring Yo Gotti), the album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200. The following year, she contributed the song "I'm a Lady," the soundtrack to the animated film Smurfs: The Lost Village.

In February 2018, Trainor released "No Excuses," the first promotional track from her third album, Treat Myself. Originally scheduled for release in August 2018, the record was delayed, and she instead issued The Love Train EP in February 2019 as a soundtrack to Valentine's Day. The completed Treat Myself arrived in January 2020 and again featured a more contemporary production aesthetic with contributions by Mike Sabath, Ojivolta, King Henry, and others. Included on the album were the promotional tracks "Genetics," "Workin' on It" with Lennon Stella and Sasha Sloan, and "Nice to Meet Ya" featuring Nicki Minaj, as well as the platinum-certified hit "No Excuses." It peaked at 25 on the Billboard 200. The holiday album A Very Trainor Christmas appeared later that October, supported by a single release of her duet with Seth MacFarlane on "White Christmas."

The release of the Teddy Swims duet "Bad for Me" and "Don't I Make It Look Easy" heralded the arrival of Trainor's fifth major-label effort, Takin' It Back, in October 2022. A return to the '50s- and '60s-inspired bubblegum pop of her early work, the album featured more guest spots, including collaborations with Scott Hoying, Natti Natasha, and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, among others. It reached number 16 on the Billboard 200. A deluxe version of the album was issued in March 2023 and included the single "Mother." A year later, Trainor returned with the T-Pain collaboration "Been Like This," which served as the first track released off her sixth album, 2024's Timeless.

After releasing "Sweet Morning Heat," a duet with Jimmy Fallon that played a pivotal role in Jerry Seinfeld's Pop Tart comedy Unfrosted, Trainor resumed the roll-out of Timeless, releasing "To the Moon" and "I Wanna Thank Me" -- the latter featuring Niecy Nash -- prior to the album's June release. ~ Mark Deming