Cody Simpson

Cody Robert Simpson was born in Queensland, Australia. His parents, Brad Simpson and Angie Greenwood Simpson, were both Australian national champion swimmers in the 1980s. While Simpson expressed an interest in learning his parents' sport while still a child, he realized that he was even more drawn to music. He began playing guitar and writing songs at age seven, after being inspired by his father who loved to sing and play guitar at their home parties. At age 11, Simpson started posting videos of himself playing guitar to YouTube while belting out pop hits such as Jason Mraz's catchy single "I'm Yours" (2008) and Justin Timberlake's break-up ballad "Cry Me a River" (2000). It was not long before Simpson's YouTube channel was getting millions of hits and thousands of subscribers. In 2009, Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter Shawn Campbell, who had seen Simpson's videos, invited him to come out to the U.S. for a meeting and to possibly record demo tracks. That meeting led to a recording contract with Atlantic Records, which released Simpson's debut single "iYiYi," a breezy pop song that he performed with rapper Flo Rida.Simpson kept up the momentum by releasing the album 4U that same year, featuring "iYiYi" and "On My Mind," which topped the Radio Disney chart and made it to the Top 40 on the Billboard pop charts. The teen pop sensation quickly drew comparisons to teen heartthrob Justin Bieber, who had also catapulted to fame after he was discovered on YouTube. Simpson gained an even bigger following after a nationwide concert tour and a 10-city "Coast to Coast" mall tour that drew more than 3,000 fans at each show. He also made appearances on award shows such as "Teen Choice Awards 2010" (Nickelodeon, 2010) and "Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2011" (Nickelodeon, 2011). In 2011, Simpson guest starred on the musical sketch comedy series "So Random" (Disney Channel, 2011-), where he performed his single "All Day" (2011). By Candy Cuenco