When Mine went viral in 2018, making Bazzi a global superstar, it may have seemed like he came out of nowhere. Bazzi had actually been grinding for years though, beginning by uploading covers on the internet. As he prepares to kick off a new era with new single Young And Alive we thought it was time to look at one of the fastest rises in music.
July 2013 - Bazzi Starts A Vine
After uploading covers to the internet, Andrew Bazzi signed up to Vine, the now-defunct app that has broken artists like Shawn Mendes and Cameron Dallas. He used the app to upload covers of everyone from Meghan Trainor to Ariana Grande and by 2015, he had amassed 1.5 million followers.
September 2015 - Vine Feature Track
Capitalising on his Vine success, Bazzi became the first artist to release a “Vine Featured Track”. Title Bring Me Home, it was released on iTunes and also meant that it could instantly be used in other Viners videos. It was part of Vine’s attempt to introduce more music-centric features to the app. Vine would collapse the following year.
July 2017 - Releases Beautiful
As he moved from Vine star to an artist with a growing fanbase, Bazzi dropped a string of standalone singles in 2017. Beautiful was the first one to grab wide attention and was apparently never meant to be released. Bazzi tweeted that he’ll, “prolly never put this out.”
October 2017 - Releases Mine
As Beautiful picked up steam, Bazzi came through with the ultimate suckerpunch in Mine. The blistering R&B/pop track immediately found favour with his fans and it just continued to grow. The song was written by Bazzi and produced by himself alongside Rice N’ Peas who has gone on to work with Anne-Marie and G-Eazy.
March 2018 - Announced As Support Act For Camila Cabello Tour
As Mine started to impact the charts, Bazzi was announced as the support act for his first major tour with Camila Cabello. The North American tour featured a host of sold out dates and came just after the release of Cabello’s debut album Camila.
April 2018 - Mine Reaches Billboard Hot 100 Peak
Earlier in 2018, Mine went viral after a series of memes centering around the “You’re so fucking precious when you smile,” lyric started flooding the internet. A Snapchat filter also helped accelerate its virality and set it on its way up the charts. 6 months after the release of the track, it reached its peak of 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s since had close to a billion streams and remains Bazzi’s most commercially popular song.
April 2018 - Releases Cosmic Album
As Mine was riding high on the charts, Bazzi unveiled his debut album Cosmic. The soaring R&B/pop record featured 16 songs many of them written solely by Bazzi. From the twinkling Dreams to the intimate love song Cartier, it showed that Bazzi was much more than a viral star. The album peaked at number 14 in the US and was the 69th highest-selling album of the year.
May 2018 - Announces First Major Headline Tour
Off the back of the album, Bazzi announced his first major headline tour, heading out for 13 dates across North America. The tour included two sold-out shows in LA and showed that Bazzi had successfully converted from online phenomenon to genuine, budding superstar.
August 2018 - Camila Cabello Joins Remix Of Beautiful
Bazzi revisited Beautiful more than a year after its initial release, teaming up with tour mate Cabello for a remix. The song stays true to the original but adds in a soaring verse from Cabello who melds perfectly with Bazzi’s syrupy voice. It helped propel the song into the charts, gifting Bazzi his second major hit. Fun fact: Australia was among its highest-charting countries, landing at number 14 on the ARIA charts.
April 2019 - Kicks Off New Era With Caught In The Fire And Paradise
After a very brief release break, Bazzi kept things rolling with a whole new batch of music. The first drop Caught In The Fire introduced us to a very different side of the artist. It was a political cut, taking swipes at Donald Trump as he tried his hand at rapping. The follow-up Paradise was much truer to Bazzi’s trademark style, giving us a love song featuring decadent strings and a euphoric chorus. It would go on to become his third global hit.
April 2019 - Bazzi Plays Coachella
A Coachella billing is always a true mark that you’ve made it, even more so when you’re billed to play the mainstage. Bazzi took to the stage both weekends, treating crowds to a Ty Dolla $ign appearance and covers of MGMT and Post Malone. He closed it out with Mine, naturally.
August 2019 - Releases Soul Searching Mixtape
Soul Searcing was billed as a mixtape but the project had all the makings of an album. It was an accomplished, polished effort featuring singles Paradise and I.F.L.Y. While Cosmic was an intimate affair, Soul Searching opened him up to new collaborators. It also housed some of his first features, enlisting 6lack and 21 Savage for Fallin and Focus respectively.
March 2020 - Bazzi Releases Young And Alive
Marking his longest gap in between releases, Bazzi has finally returned with a new single Young And Alive and it’s an easygoing track that sees him going back to basics. The Kevin White-produced track, has him sounding more carefree than ever with lines like, “Had to chill the fuck out, take a trip outside.”
