Music History Events: Births
June 17, 1987 Kendrick Lamar is born in Compton, California. At 8 years old, he watches Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre film their "California Love" video in his neighborhood and decides he wants to be a rapper.
May 6, 1987 Rapper Meek Mill is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
March 1, 1987 Kesha Sebert is born in Los Angeles. Using the stage name "Ke$ha" (she drops the $ in 2014), she becomes a pop superstar when her first album Animal tops the US chart in 2010.
November 20, 1986 Bring Me the Horizon lead singer Oli Sykes is born in Ashford, Kent, England.
November 14, 1986 Bette Midler's first and only child is born, a daughter named Sophie von Haselberg. Midler's husband is artist Martin von Haselberg.
August 28, 1986 Florence Welch, who forms Florence + the Machine with keyboard player Isabella "Machine" Summers, is born in London. Their first album, Lungs, is released in 2009 and makes a big impact, going to #1 in the UK.
June 2, 1986 Blues singer ZZ Ward is born Zsuzsanna Ward outside of Philadelphia.
April 29, 1986 Amy Heidemann of Karmin is born in Seward, Nebraska. She becomes Amy Noonan when she marries her Karmin partner, Nick. When Karmin is retired in 2017, she becomes the rapper Qveen Herby.
April 1, 1986 Hillary Scott of Lady A is born in Nashville. Her mother is the singer Linda Davis.
March 30, 1986 Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold is born in Seattle, Washington.
February 8, 1986 Anderson Paak is born in Oxnard, California.
December 29, 1985 Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley have a daughter, Alexa Ray, her name a tribute to Ray Charles. She becomes a singer like her dad.
December 1, 1985 Sci-fi soul singer Janelle Monáe is born in Kansas City, Kansas.
October 23, 1985 R&B singer Miguel is born Miguel Jontel Pimentel in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California.
June 21, 1985 Lana Del Rey is born Elizabeth Grant in New York City.
January 28, 1985 J. Cole is born Jermaine Cole on an American military base in Frankfurt, Germany. He's raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 2009 he becomes the first artist signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label.
January 22, 1985 Singer/songwriter Orianthi Panagaris is born in Adelaide, Australia. She was slated to be Michael Jackson's lead guitarist for his This Is It concert series.
January 20, 1985 Country singer Brantley Gilbert is born in Jefferson, Georgia. His 2009 debut album, Modern Day Prodigal Son, puts him on the map with the hit "Country Must Be Country Wide," and he quickly becomes one of the biggest names in country music, known for high-energy performances and blue-collar hits like "Bottoms Up" and "What Happens In A Small Town."
December 8, 1984 Country singer-songwriter Sam Hunt is born in Cedartown, Georgia. He has a huge hit in 2017 with "Body Like a Back Road," which sets a record with 34 weeks at #1 on the Country chart.
November 28, 1984 Rapper Trey Songz is born Tremaine Aldon Neverson in Petersburg, Virginia.
October 18, 1984 Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding is born in Portland, Oregon. She wins the 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, becoming the first Jazz artist to do so... beating out nominee Justin Bieber in the process.
September 30, 1984 T-Pain, known for his Auto-Tuned productions, is born Faheem Najm in Tallahassee, Florida.
September 1, 1984 Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman is born in Hollywood, Florida.
June 23, 1984 Duffy (Amie Ann Duffy) is born in Gwynedd, Wales. Her 2008 album, Rockferry, is a worldwide smash, but her 2010 follow-up, Endlessly, is a disappointment, and she retreats from the public eye.More
April 27, 1984 Patrick Stump, lead singer of Fall Out Boy, is born Patrick Martin Stumph in Evanston, Illinois. He grows up in nearby Glenview.
April 8, 1984 Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig is born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
March 31, 1984 Jack Antonoff is born in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He's the guitarist in the band Fun ("We Are Young") before going solo as Bleachers. His biggest impact is as a songwriter-producer for the likes of Taylor Swift, Lorde and Lana Del Rey.
February 15, 1984 Blues guitarist Gary Clark, Jr. is born in Austin, Texas.
December 2, 1983 Jana Kramer is born in Michigan. She stars in the TV series One Tree Hill before launching a career as a country singer.
June 19, 1983 Rapper Macklemore (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) is born Ben Haggerty in Seattle, Washington.
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