Stephen Sanchez

Biography of Stephen Sanchez

Stephen Sánchez (born November 3, 2002) is an American pop singer who gained fame through TikTok postings. He was born in North Carolina and began his career writing songs in his bedroom. After his video for “Lady by the Sea” received over two million views on TikTok, he signed a record contract with Republic Records. In 2020, he released his original single and a year later, his debut EP “What Was, Not Now” was released to great success, featuring the hit single “Until I Found You”. Other hits of his include “Kayla,” “The Pool,” and “I Want You”.

Who is Stephen Sánchez?

Stephen Sánchez is an American singer-songwriter who gained fame through TikTok postings. Fell in love with music while visiting his maternal grandparents’ house. There, he spent countless hours searching for and listening to records by artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Platters, Nat King Cole, and The Ink Spots. Later, through the radio, he discovered Foster The People and Cage The Elephant. These artists inspired him to start playing the guitar and then to start writing songs in his bedroom.

In high school, Stephen Sánchez earned the reputation of being “the guitar guy.”

In 2019, he uploaded a live version of “On Nights When It’s Cold” to YouTube without much expectation. After a while, he decided to try his luck on TikTok, where he began to gain recognition with short videos. In June 2020, he posted a version of Cage The Elephant’s “Cigarette Day Dreams” that became very popular, with over 161,000 views on the app. Slowly, he built an audience and by 2020 had over 122,000 followers.

Lady by the Sea

In June 2020, Sánchez posted a video singing his original song “Lady by the Sea” on TikTok. The song quickly went viral, receiving over 2 million views and 480,000 likes, attracting the attention of Jeremy Zucker. Zucker offered to produce the official version of the single. Finally, the single was released on July 7, 2020 and from the start, the song had 4.5 million streams on Spotify. As a result, Sánchez quickly signed a contract with Republic Records and in October 2020, he moved to the studio in Nashville. From there, he recorded all the material for his debut EP.

Before the debut

His next single, “Kayla,” was released in July 2021. Then, in September, the promotional single “Until I Found You” was released and became a viral hit upon release. “Until I Found You” went viral on TikTok, accumulated a large number of streams on Spotify, was included on the Retro Pop chart, and reached number five on the Spotify Daily Viral Songs chart. It also rose to number eight on the Apple singer-songwriter chart.

“Music is healing. It’s therapy. That’s the hope.” -Stephen Sánchez

What Was, Not Now EP

On October 15, 2020, Sánchez released his debut EP “What Was, Not Now”. The EP consisted of a total of six songs, all inspired by love, heartbreak, and the good and bad times experienced in his life. In addition to “Kayla” and “Until I Found You,” the EP included: “I Want You,” “The Pool,” “Love Live,” “Until We Meet Again,” and “Hold Her While You Can.” Upon release, “Hold Her While You Can” and “Until I Found You” quickly made their way onto charts.

In April 2022, Sánchez released a new version of “Until I Found You” featuring Em Beihold. A lyric video was also released with the new version.

Currently, Sánchez has over 2 million monthly listeners on his verified Spotify page.

Curiosities of Stephen Sanchez

He wrote the song “Until I Found You” in just ten minutes and sent a voice note to the person who inspired the song, who he liked a lot. The song is about a girl he likes.

“I wrote the song in about 10 minutes and then I made a voice note and sent it to her. She loved it… and that’s all the song needed to be, it was just a song about a girl I like, you know?”
His musical influences are Elvis Presley, The Platters, The Ink Spots, and The Mills Brothers, who have inspired part of his latest EP: Easy On My Eyes.
He has had an obsession with 1950s style since he was a child. He is fascinated by glamorous cars, cinemas, and vibrant colors of that era.