James TW | |
---|---|
Birth name | James Taylor-Watts |
Born | Barford, Warwickshire, England | 27 October 1997
Genres | Pop |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, drums |
Years active | 2014–present |
Labels | Island |
Website |
jamestw |
James Taylor-Watts (born 27 October 1997), [1] better known as James TW, is an English singer-songwriter. His single " When You Love Someone" peaked at number 28 on the Billboard Adult Pop Songs chart.
Taylor-Watts was born in England, the son of Sarah and Richard Taylor-Watts. [2] He was named after James Taylor, one of his parents' favourite musicians. [3]
Taylor-Watts' father, who played guitar in a wedding band as a hobby, once found a young James playing on the drum kit at home. Shortly thereafter, the band's drummer wasn't able to make it to a gig. So the band had a decision to make: either let 10 year-old Taylor-Watts play or cancel the gig. Taylor-Watts played that evening and has been performing on a regular basis ever since. He picked up guitar at 12 years old and started playing piano the following year. In 2010, Taylor-Watts started his YouTube channel at 12 years old. [3] [4]
In 2014, Taylor-Watts self-released the EP Just a Number, which rose to number 6 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart. [5] [6] In early 2015, Shawn Mendes, an artist discovered on social media, found Taylor-Watts on YouTube and praised him on Twitter. Mendes' label, Island Records, then noticed Taylor-Watts and he signed with them shortly thereafter. [7] On 30 October 2015, Taylor-Watts released his debut single "Black & Blue". On 19 February 2016, he released a music video for his single, " When You Love Someone", through Universal Music. The song reached over 60 million Spotify streams [8] [9] and peaked at No. 28 on Billboard's Adult Pop Songs chart. [10] [11]
On 15 April 2016, Taylor-Watts released his debut EP titled First Impressions, featuring five original songs as well as a cover of " Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia, which earned 17 million Spotify streams [9] and peaked at 15 on the Spotify Viral 50 chart. [12] Taylor-Watts was the sole opening act on the sold out Shawn Mendes World Tour. [4] [9] On 9 September 2016, he released a cover of Gnarls Barkley's " Crazy".
On 23 January 2017, Taylor-Watts performed "When You Love Someone" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. [13] He released the single "Ex" on 17 February 2017 while premiering the video via Billboard on the same day. [14] In February, he was named the opening act on the European leg of Shawn Mendes' Illuminate World Tour [15] with dates from April to June 2017.
Taylor-Watts released a new single called "You & Me" on 18 January 2019. [16] The song, alongside "When You Love Someone", "Say Love" and "Soldier", was included on his debut album Chapters, which was released the following April. [17]
Taylor-Watts announced in March 2021 that he would be releasing the single "Butterflies" on 19 March 2021. [18] In September, he released the EP Heartbeat Changes (Part 1), [19] followed by his second full-length album Heartbeat Changes on 10 June 2022. The album comprises the songs from the EP plus seven new tracks. [20]
Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
BEL (FL) [21] |
NLD [22] |
NOR [23] |
SWE [24] | ||
Chapters | 113 | 77 | 18 | 33 | |
Heartbeat Changes | — | — | — | — |
Title | Details |
---|---|
Just a Number |
|
First Impressions |
|
Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK |
NLD [22] |
NOR [26] |
NZ Hot [27] |
SWE [28] |
US Adult | ||||
2015 | "Black & Blue" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | |
2016 | " When You Love Someone" | 54 | 51 | — | — | 24 | 28 | First Impressions and Chapters | |
" Crazy" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | ||
2017 | "Ex" | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
"Please Keep Loving Me" [33] | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
2018 | "Say Love" | — | — | 26 | — | 30 | — | Chapters | |
" Last Christmas" | — | — | — | 22 | 38 | — | Non-album single | ||
"Soldier" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Chapters | ||
2019 | "You & Me" | — | — | — | — | 61 | — | ||
2021 | "Butterflies" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Heartbeat Changes | |
"Hopeless Romantics" | — | — | — | — | — [A] | — | |||
2023 | "Another Heart" [35] | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single |