Julia Michaels is a pop star’s pop star—an ace songwriter and collaborator with a knack for bringing out an artist’s most vulnerable side, not to mention her own. The Iowa-born prodigy has been crafting playful and poignant hits for others since she was a teenager, before turning heads with the sizzling pop confessional “Issues”, from her 2017 major-label debut Nervous System. Her three-part 2019 EP series, Inner Monologue, further proved the delicate power and range of her voice, often accentuated in an intimate, minimalist setting. Still, she can’t help but thrive in a duet, especially alongside peers like Selena Gomez and Shawn Mendes.