Dating in your 20s is never easy. Singer-songwriter Sadie Jean has had her fair share of heartbreak over the last few years, and has gone through the motions of what it means to be young and in love while trying to figure out who she is. By opening herself up and leaving her heart on her sleeve, Jean has experienced the highs and lows of young love. But with a little more than three years in the industry, she has gone from a viral breakout star to a gold-certified artist, carving out her own path in the alt-pop genre along the way and making herself a relatable friend to listeners.
When she was younger, Jean wrote music alone in her room, not knowing anyone in the music industry and “feel[ing] on the outside of it.” It’s not surprising that the singer has always had a knack for songwriting and eventually went on to briefly attend New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, where she embraced her music and artistry before dropping out of school to pursue music full-time.
At 19, Jean began her sophomore year in New York and wrote what fans now know as the RIAA gold-certified single “WYD Now?,” which was released in 2021 went viral on TikTok. To date, the song has been used more than a quarter of a million times on the platform. Now with several releases under her belt, Jean is finally on the inside of things.
“It’s cool that I could go from being so on the outside of everything and so inexperienced to having like every label calling in, like a day,” Jean says. “It was so crazy, but also so overwhelming. It took me a long time to feel adjusted and that’s why I waited like 10 months to release my second single.”
Her road to success began at 19, just as Jean was starting her sophomore year at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute. At the time, she didn’t have any music out and still felt like an outsider in the crazy music industry, despite having studied it in school. “I didn’t have any music out yet, didn’t know anything about the music industry,” she says. “Still, even though I was studying in school, it’s very different. You still feel like on the outside of it. It was so random and unexpected.”
She had just written “WYD Now?” and, feeling excited, posted it online the very next day – unaware that things were about to change. But she says the song quickly took off and led to a viral open verse challenge that also blew up on social media.
“Since then, and even before then, I’ve just been writing about my experiences trying to date in my early 20s, and being single in LA in my early 20s,” she says. “And kind of the struggle and the torturous experience that that is, and that’s kind of like the whole vibe.”
A major transition for Jean came when she released her second single, “Locksmith,” the following year. At the time, Jean was feeling significant pressure to follow up the success of her debut single after it amassed over 187 million streams on Spotify. “Locksmith” tracks Jean falling out of a relationship with an ex she still has feelings for, and admits that she still has a soft spot for them.
While “Locksmith” was ultimately the second song she released, Jean says she was originally set to release a different song, the previously announced “After All,” which remains unreleased. With whispers in her ear about how “viral” her second song would have to be after the release of “WYD Now?,” she ultimately scrapped “After All” and posted the now also viral “Locksmith” on social media, which has amassed over 190 million streams on Spotify.
“I posted it, and it went super viral. Then I was like, ‘okay, everything happens for a reason,'” Jean says of her decision to go forward with “Locksmith.” “It was definitely a different experience than ‘WYD Now?,’ because I had already had it one time. It meant something different to me.”
Her EP Simple Like 17 followed the success of her first two singles and represented Jean’s life between 2021 and 2023. Heavily inspired by her first love and first heartbreak, the songs mourn her relationships and childhood as she fully embraces her 20s. As we all quickly learn, growing up is never easy, and neither is accepting the passage of time.
Much of Jean’s music — from Simple Like 17 to her upcoming debut album slated for a September release — has been shaped by that harsh and universal transition between being a teenager and becoming a young woman in her early 20s. With heart-wrenching, deeply personal and reflective lyrics, Jean lets listeners into her world and makes space for listeners to be as vulnerable as she is.
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