Gabby Barrett

“I was never the one in the room thinking I could sing,” Gabby Barrett tells Apple Music about discovering her voice as a little girl. “I just started randomly singing and my dad was the one who was like, ‘I think there’s something here.’” By the time Barrett made her way to the 2018 American Idol finale, her dad’s suspicions were well confirmed, and the world had woken up to the power of her expressive, acrobatic vocals. Born in Pennsylvania in 2000, Barrett started singing for audiences before she was a teenager. She took her voice anywhere that would have her—including malls and grocery stores—and her father pushed her to take her natural talent and learn from participating in a gospel choir. Blending her passion for her faith with a deep love for soul and R&B legends like Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, Barrett’s brand of country-pop is forceful and spectacular, and the Top 10 showing of her major label debut, Goldmine, on the country charts provided testament to her talents. It might’ve been the explosive “I Hope,” a biting kiss-off to an unfaithful lover, that caught listeners’ ears, but Goldmine is just that—a veritable treasure trove that proves Barrett can do stadium-sized rock (“Jesus & My Mama”) as deftly as devotionals (“Got Me”) and sweet love songs (“Hall of Fame”).