country

Fancy Hagood

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Nashville pop-country charmer — big-tent warmth with Orville Peck-adjacent glamour and a showman's polish.

Fancy Hagood was born Jake Hagood on March 29, 1991, in Bentonville, Arkansas. He taught himself piano at eleven, growing up on Christian and country radio, and after finishing high school moved to Nashville to attend Trevecca Nazarene University, where producers Scooter Braun, Scott Borchetta and Dr. Luke discovered and signed him.

Under the name Who Is Fancy, taken from a nickname coworkers gave him at Forever 21, he built an anonymous viral campaign around his 2015 debut single "Goodbye," using masked performers in the videos. The song reached the Billboard Mainstream Top 40, and he revealed his identity that April on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

A follow-up, "Boys Like You," brought a Dancing with the Stars performance alongside Meghan Trainor and Ariana Grande, but the single failed to chart and Hagood soon parted ways with his manager and label. He spent the following years reworking his sound and identity back in Nashville.

He returned in 2020 as Fancy Hagood, releasing "Don't Blink" as his first single under the new name and folding country, confessional pop and glam rock into the music, a shift that led to the album Southern Curiosity in 2021.

The music since has leaned toward country and Southern pop, with big choruses and confessional writing about growing up gay in the South. Hagood has been open about that experience in his songs and interviews, and he performs with a theatrical, high-gloss presentation that sets him apart from more traditional Nashville acts.

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