In 2022, country artist Bailey Zimmerman came seemingly out of nowhere with a trio of singles: "Fall in Love," "Rock and a Hard Place" and "Where It Ends." Each Top 10 country hit entered the Top 30 of the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, shifting the 22-year-old Illinois native from TikTok fame to commercial and critical acclaim. In September, all three songs occupied the Billboard Hot Country Songs' Top 10-- something that'd never happened with an artist's first three singles in the chart's 64-year history.
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Such swift success landed Zimmerman a major label deal with Warner Music Nashville/Elektra, leading to the October release of the record-setting Leave the Light On EP. A Grand Ole Opry debut followed later in the year, as did sold-out shows on his first-ever headlining tour.
Zimmerman didn't completely come out of nowhere. Though he's new to the mainstream, he's been prepping for his country music emergence since before he caught social media by surprise in late 2020. Here's some key facts about Zimmerman's journey to sudden singer-songwriter prominence.
He's from Blue Collar Beginnings
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Zimmerman was raised in the small town of Louisville, Ill. around hard-working entrepreneurs.
"My grandpa owned a used car shop... My mom worked there and now basically owns it with my uncle. My family's always had businesses," he told Billboard. "My brother owns a metal shop. My dad owns a towing and salvage yard now. We've always just loved creating, in our own ways."
The family trucking business ties in with some of Zimmerman's earliest musical memories. At a young age, he would ride along while his dad hauled vehicles across the country. On those trips, the father and son would listen to country radio and sing along to Craig Morgan and other major-label acts.
He Was Initially Known on TikTok For Something Other Than Singing
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After high school, Zimmerman relocated to West Virginia, where he worked on gas pipelines. In his spare time, he built custom-lifted trucks. TikTok became a means to share project updates, with those clips eventually incorporating music by Zimmerman and fellow songwriter Gavin Lucas.
Fame Came Fast
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A 2021 demo of "Never Comin' Home" that was recorded in a garage made Zimmerman a sudden streaming success and placed him on major labels' radars.
"Two months later, [Warner Music Nashville's] Cris Lacy and Rohan Kohli reached out to take a meeting," he told Billboard. "It was all so new to me. I didn't know what Warner was. I didn't know what labels were, or publishing or anything."
Leave the Light On Made History
Zimmerman's EP entered rare air on Spotify, becoming the most-streamed debut of 2022 from any genre. Every song reached a million streams during release week: a feat only matched this year in country music by Combs and Zach Bryan. A press release referred to the Top 10 Billboard 200 entry as the "biggest streaming country debut of all time."
In total, country's newest superstar has amassed over a billion global streams in less than two years. Beyond streaming success, Zimmerman cracked the country radio glass ceiling in 2022, with airplay No. 1 "Fall in Love" becoming the fastest-rising debut single since 2015.
