Biography
Johnny Orlando is a Canadian singer, musician, and actor. He first received attention by posting covers of songs by his idols, including Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber. In 2018, he collaborated with Mackenzie Ziegler for their biggest hit “What If”. He has been nominated for a plethora of awards, having twice won “Best Canadian Act” at the MTV Europe Music Awards, out-beating his idol Justin Bieber.
Johnny Orlando was born John Vincent Orlando on January 24, 2003 in Mississauga, Ontario. His older sisters, Madison and Darian are both active on social media, and his younger sister Lauren is an actress. Johnny and Darian saw YouTube videos of people singing and making videos in their houses, and decided to try it out themselves. When Johnny was seven, they uploaded a now-deleted cover of Justin Bieber’s “Mistletoe”. They created a stage name for him, JohnnyO (not to be confused with the dance-pop singer of the same name), and his YouTube channel was called JohnnyOSings. The pair made more covers, and eventually their cover of Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” won a contest hosted by Ryan Seacrest.
With traction from their viral videos, Darian helped Johnny write and release original songs. In 2015, Johnny quietly rebranded to Johnny Orlando, and released his debut EP VXIIXI, celebrating five years on YouTube. His family also moved to Los Angles to pursue the careers of their children. In 2016, he released a song and music video called “Let Go”, which has received over 15 million views. In 2018, Johnny announced that he had signed to Universal Music Canada. His songs with Mackenzie Ziegler flourished due to the rumored relationship between the two. The music video for their song spurred on the rumors, reaching over 50 million views.
Since then, Johnny’s career has only climbed higher. He has dabbled in acting, most notably playing Sam in BratTV’s Total Eclipse. Johnny has gone on tours and fulfilled his dream of performing in an arena. In 2019, his song “Last Summer,” off his debut studio EP Teenage Fever, earned him a Genius Verified episode. Johnny cleaned up his main channel, deleting old videos and vlogs, and uploading professional vlogs and behind-the-scenes content, as well as his regular music. In 2020, he released his second EP, It’s Never Really Over, with each song receiving at least one music video. On January 24, 2021, on Johnny’s 18th birthday, he released a collection of songs titled It’s My Birthday.
