Our JORDY feature was originally published in our September 2022 issue. Purchase a print copy here.
A rainbow LED sign with a pink heart for the ‘O’ in JORDY is lit up behind the stage. The crowd smiles, dancing along as the singer runs across the stage and back for the whole set.
JORDY has a natural stage presence, often asking the crowd how they’re doing, which is met with a symphony of cheers and fans attempting to get his attention.
Many festivalgoers who attended Lollapalooza Music Festival were not from the Chicago area, with some arriving from hundreds of miles away. Pop singer-songwriter JORDY, however, was performing on his home stage. The home stage for the weekend happened to be the festival’s T-Mobile main stage, where around 100,000 attendees passed by each day.
The “euphoria” that the singer felt before performing seemed to be contagious. JORDY said he was equally excited to share this year’s lineup with some of his (and our) favorite names, from Dua Lipa to FLETCHER, Muna and Girl in Red.
“Really good, really emotional, really grateful…I’ve been an attendee for years — since I was in high school,” he said. “To have it flipped now is just an actual dream come true. I’m just floored.”
JORDY remarked on the stark contrast between performing for the internet during the peak-pandemic years to now. He said that the energy he gets from a live audience is why he loves performing “more than anything.” And you can tell that he meant it, as he sang his heart out while still moving about the stage for 40 minutes.
Nevertheless, JORDY has quite the following on his social media platforms too. Music clips and occasionally other content is shared to more than 400,000 followers on TikTok, which he said changed his career.
“It doesn’t feel real, it’s just a number on a screen,” he said. “But then playing shows like Lolla I’m like, ‘Oh my god, the people are here!’ It’s translating and that’s super special.”
Though the festival crowd was a first for JORDY, performing and writing has been a lifelong passion. He explained that he entered the pop realm five years ago, when he began writing in Los Angeles. From theater to choir and acapella, performing has been in his blood from the beginning, he said..
Those early years and the artists he drew inspiration from influence the pop anthems that we now associate JORDY with. He specifically recounts The Spice Girls, Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch and The Backstreet Boys as some of his influences to join pop. His own sound has influences from Lauv and Troye Sivan with “catchy melodies and unforgettable hooks,” he said.
“I’m a pop boy, always, through and through,” he said.
Moving from Chicago to Los Angeles , however, was a pivotal part of the singer’s next steps in his career, he said.
“Moving to L.A., I needed to do that to create the music I wanted to create. Like I knew the people that I needed to collaborate with were there,” he said. “But I think having the Mmidwestern values is the reason I’m so comfortable having my heart on my sleeve.”
“Just Friends,” JORDY’s most successful song to date, serves as his “foundation of relatability and pop production” that he has always wanted in his sound. The single has earned over 15 million views.
His newest single, “IDK SH!T” luckily appeared on TikTok a few times before its full release. It is one of JORDY’s most fun tracks, with detailed production that he said is perfect for “involvement with the listener,” with elements like clapping and shouting.
The music video features JORDY interviewing three hidden contestants on a bachelor dating show, which all turn out to be different versions of himself. He describes himself to contestants using his own lyrics.
The song encapsulates the feeling of balancing being an adult while still feeling young and naive. JORDY’s discography is full of the same young, bright energy — “like cotton candy” as a fan described to him.
However, JORDY’s discography reaches beyond basic, bubbly pop. Even though he pokes fun at experiences with unrequited love, he said that he wants to be seen as human, just the same as everyone else listening to the music.
“We’re all one in the same at the end of the day,” he said.
JORDY’s music explores themes of rejection and loneliness through the lens of hope and empowerment, according to his website.
He said that he loves singing about some very real themes people experience under the bubbly pop production, he said. Songs like “Trevor” exhibit storylines and experiences that he himself did not grow up with, but wishes he did, he said.
“When I was a kid, I would have really loved to have a song like that, where I could hear a boy singing a boy’s name,” JORDY said. “I had all the name songs like ‘Stacy’s Mom’ that were so exciting for me but weren’t necessarily the male perspective. I’m proud of ‘Trevor’ sonically, but more so I want every queer person who hears it to hear themselves.”
“Trevor, you’re everything I want but better. You’re making me feel like I don’t know me, I just wish somebody would love me like that,” the song states. The singer has shared different versions of the longing love song — part of his debut album Mind Games — on his Youtube channel.
Mind Games came out in 2021, which JORDY says was an accumulation of relationships from the industry, songs he always wanted to create and even songs created via Zoom during peak pandemic times. A brief North America tour followed the release.
With over a million streams on Spotify and a headline performance in the books, JORDY promised fans he has plenty of projects on the horizon, including new singles by the end of the year and a new album by early next year. Lollapalooza fans even got to hear a song from the new project.
“Lots of bops, and emotional ones too,” he said.
When asked if he had anything to share with his fans, JORDY said he wants them to know that he loves them.
“We’re all humans sharing experiences. Just thank you if you’ve been supporting and listening to the music and I can’t wait to show you more.”
For new listeners, JORDY recommends “Long Distance,” “Trevor,” “Past Tense” and “IDK SH!T.”
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