Caitlyn Smith

A singer and songwriter of country-informed adult pop, Caitlyn Smith released her solo debut in 2001 when she was only 15 years old. She went on to a Billboard-charting solo career but established herself as a successful songwriter-for-hire along the way, penning songs for the likes of Meghan Trainor and John Legend, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, James Bay, and the TV series <I>Nashville, among others. Raised in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, Smith started singing in church and playing piano at an early age and was writing songs with dedication by the time she was 12. She took up the guitar at 13. Two years later, she self-released her first album, 2001's Learning to Be. Another full-length, Silence, followed in 2004, around the time Smith relocated to Nashville. The folkier Face Over Heels arrived in 2007. Over the next several years, in collaboration with a variety of other professional songwriters, Smith contributed songs to releases by artists such as Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, and James Bay. She also wrote multiple original songs for the music industry-based television show <I>Nashville, which premiered on ABC in 2012. A duet with Dolly Parton, the title track of Kenny Rogers' 2013 LP You Can't Make Old Friends was co-written by Smith. A year later, Skylark Records released her own Everything to You EP. Also in 2014, "Like I'm Gonna Lose You," a song she wrote with Meghan Trainor and Justin Weaver for Trainor and John Legend, became an international hit, reaching number eight on the U.S. Hot 100 and number one in Australia and New Zealand. Smith hit the Billboard charts with her own performances in 2016 when her EP Starfire landed on the Americana/Folk, Independent, and Heatseekers Albums charts. She followed it with a full-length album of the same title in 2018. The next year, she issued the single "Put Me Back Together." ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi