Dewain Whitmore Jr.

Dewain Whitmore Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, and vocal producer based in Los Angeles, California. Signed to Disney Music Publishing,^[1] he has worked with numerous popular acts, including Chris Brown, Kacey Musgraves, Nick Jonas, David Guetta, Tiësto, DNCE, Martin Garrix, Khalid, 21 Savage, Usher, Kelly Clarkson, Zara Larsson, Jason Desrouleaux, Joji, The Wanted, Mary J Blige, James Blunt, BoA, and Exo amongst others. His works have accumulated over 30 million in sales.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Whitmore was exposed to many styles of music at an early age. Growing up on a very special blend of musical influences stretching from Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Kim Burrell, and J.Moss all the way to Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Toto, Hall and Oates, Billy Joel, James Taylor and Steely Dan, his inspiration is one big nostalgic melting pot.^[2]

Whitmore's big break came in 2011, after re-locating to Los Angeles. After one year of being in LA, Whitmore was introduced to Chris Brown, who recorded two of his songs, "Up To You" and "Should've Kissed You", which featured on Brown's fourth studio album FAME.^[3] The album reached No. 1 in 3 countries, and sold over 2 million copies worldwide. The album earned a nomination at the 54th Grammy Awards, for Best R&B Album.^[4] F.A.M.E. won in the Best R&B Album category. That same year, Whitmore vocal produced Kelly Clarkson's first single "Mr. Know It All" from her studio album Stronger,^[5] The album Stronger went on to win Best Pop Vocal Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.^[6] In November 2011, Whitmore collaborated with Mary J.Blige, on the song "You Want This", which was included on Bliges’ 10th studio album My Life II... The Journey Continues (Act 1).^[7] The album was certified gold, selling over 500,000 copies.

On June 29, 2012, Chris Brown released his Billboard No. 1 album Fortune. Whitmore wrote three songs on the album, including "Stuck On Stupid", "Party Hard" and "Free Run".^[8] The album earned a nomination at the 55th Grammy Awards, for Best Urban Contemporary Album^[9] The album also reached No. 1 in 5 countries.

The next year, Whitmore reached more commercial success, with collaborations with Usher, Ciara, The Wanted and once again Chris Brown. Co-writing the single and title track "X" (#98 Billboard Hot 100),^[10] from Browns' sixth studio album X, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard US Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums and No. 2 on the US Billboard 200. The album would go on to be nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

In 2015, Whitmore teamed up with frequent collaborator Brown on his 7th studio album titled Royalty, co-writing three songs.^[11] The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard US Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart and No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart.^[12] That same year, Whitmore collaborated with K-pop group EXO on their album EXODUS. The album topped Billboard's World Albums Chart on the issue date of April 18, 2015, and stayed in the top 10 for six consecutive weeks.^[13]

On June 15, 2018, Martin Garrix released his new single "Ocean" featuring Khalid, which was co-written by Whitmore. The single reached No. 1 at US dance radio, No. 5 on Billboard US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, and Top 10 Billboard US Dance Club Songs.^[14] Whitmore continued his dance success with another collaboration with Garrix and fellow Dutch DJ Justin Mylo, on the single "Burn Out". The track was co-written and features vocals from Whitmore, and reached No. 26 at Billboard US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.^[15]

In 2018, Whitmore made his debut as a recording artist with his vocals featuring on the Martin Garrix dance hit “Burn Out”, which Whitmore also co-wrote. The song went on to chart in 13 different countries, becoming his first Billboard US Dance/Electronic song to chart Top 40 as an artist. With his vocals becoming more in demand, in 2020, he penned and featured on German DJ duo, Gamper & Dadoni's “Perfect (For Somebody Else)”,^[16] and the following year, his collaborations with Country music star Kacey Musgraves, led to Whitmore co-writing and singing on Musgraves’ chart topping album, Star-Crossed.^[17] Whitmore lended his vocals to “What Doesn’t Kill Me”, prominently heard on the intro and all throughout the song, becoming his first credited vocal on a #1 Country Album.^[18] In April, 2022, Whitmore found himself teaming up again with Garrix for another feature on the spring single, “Find You”, included on Garrix’s album “Sentio”.^[19] Whitmore continued his dance success in 2023 by collaborating with famed Dutch DJ Tiësto on his single “BOTH”, featuring Bia & 21 Savage. The track was co-written and features vocals from Whitmore, and was released on Atlantic on September 1, 2023.^[20]

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