Today’s spotlight artist has always been a performer. While many fans first discovered Jenna Davis through acting or social media, her love for music stretches back to her earliest years. We’ve been lucky enough to interview the songstress at many stages in her career, and recently we reconnected with her again to talk about her life and her new music.

“I was always singing around the house,” she shared, reflecting on growing up with a mom who was an opera singer. “She really introduced me to music.”

After being born in Plano, Texas, Davis and her family eventually moved to Minnesota, where her parents encouraged her to explore different interests. While sports never quite stuck, one musical theatre camp changed everything. “I absolutely fell in love with performing,” she shared.

Ever since she was young, the singer-songwriter recalls listening to country music and falling in love with the genre. “My biggest influences are probably Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, and Shania Twain,” she shared. “I think they’re the top three that I get inspiration from.” Adding later, “Country music has always been in my life. My mom introduced me to LeeAnn Rimes and Dolly Parton from a super young age. I always just fell in love with how country music told stories with their lyrics.”

From there, Davis began taking voice and piano lessons with her mom before landing roles in professional theater productions. Around ten or eleven years old, her dreams expanded beyond the stage, leading her family to begin traveling to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Despite a multitude of interests, music was still her biggest dream.

Around the same time, Davis started posting singing covers to social media several times a week, not to become an influencer, but to slowly build an audience for the music she hoped to release one day. “I knew country music was what I wanted to do,” she shared.

The Turning Point:

With true star power, Davis began working even harder at her craft. In order to feel a closer connection to her growing fanbase, Davis decided to showcase more of her life on social media, aside from her singing aspirations and talents. “As that grew, I decided not only to show my singing side, but also who Jenna is as a person, because I think if you are relatable with your audience and your audience can understand not only you as an artist but you as a person, it just gives them a sense of that you are actually a person and a personal connection.”

As she got older, life finally gave her stories to tell. After experiencing her first heartbreak at fifteen, Davis began writing songs of her own before making regular trips to Nashville to learn the songwriting community. By nineteen, she had signed her record deal and officially began the next chapter of her career.

“I always knew that it was where I wanted to be, so when I was about sixteen, we started coming out to Nashville. I startled getting involved in a little bit of the writing rooms and learning how Nashville works, and then when I was eighteen, I got signed to SMACK. They discovered me when I was seventeen, and I found my team. I’m so thankful for them and for believing in me and my music.”

Rather than rushing music out, she spent time writing with different collaborators, experimenting creatively, and figuring out exactly who she wanted to be as an artist. “I feel like in the last two years, more specifically the last year and a half—I’ve really kind of found my brand and who I want to be and what I want to say as an artist,” she shared.

For Davis connecting with her fans and her music is paramount. “My biggest goal as an artist is to create music that tells stories,” she shared. “I think that stems so much from acting.” For the singer-songwriter, those years of growth ultimately helped her become more confident—not only in the stories she wanted to tell, but in the artist she was becoming.

Today:

Since signing her record deal with SMACKRecords, Davis has been cultivating her aesthetic and artistry. “I’ve been learning about what I want to say as an artist and what I want to put out. This past year, I’ve been collaborating with different writers and finding the people that I now call family to love and create music with,” she shared.

Since releasing her debut EP, SIKE, Davis has been hard at work writing and releasing more new music for fans. Most recently, the singer-songwriter shared her new song, “Hey Girly” with the world.

Inspired by one of her closest friends, the song tells the story of a woman debating whether or not to send the infamous “hey girly” text after discovering the guy she had been talking to already had a girlfriend. After writing the song, Davis sat on it for a few weeks before deciding whether to release it. During that time, two more of her friends found themselves in nearly identical situations. “I was like, ‘Okay…this has to come out,’” she recalled.

While the song wasn’t written from her own perspective, it perfectly represents the type of storytelling she’s grown to love—taking real-life experiences and turning them into songs that help people feel seen. “I want people to be able to see themselves in the songs,” she shared.

Looking ahead, Davis has plenty to be excited about. Along with more music on the way, she’s preparing to head out on her first headline tour this fall after making her CMA Fest debut earlier this year.

For Davis, it feels like the next chapter of a journey she’s been working toward for years. After finding her voice, her creative family, and the stories she wants to tell, she’s stepping into this season with more confidence than ever before.

With more music, more shows, and plenty of stories still left to tell, it’s clear that Jenna Davis is only getting started.

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