Draft:Tabitha Meeks

Tabitha Meeks (born July 12, 1992) is an American singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Meeks gained recognition for her distinct sound of velvet folk and retro pop. Since debuting in her solo career in 2022, she has released four EPs and countless singles, including "Ready for Christmas," which went viral on apps like Instagram Reels and TikTok, amassing hundreds of millions of views on content and over 700,000 UGC Videos.

Early Life

Tabitha Marlea Meeks was born in Orlando, Florida, on July 12, 1992. She was raised in Deland, FL, the fourth of five children, though she would gain two more siblings through adoption in 2012. Her mother and father encouraged her in music, and she was in piano lessons at 6 years old. She learned to play pop piano in her church youth group band around 9th grade, which is also when she started writing her own songs. She often listened to "oldies" CDs her parents would give her and remembers dancing to the sounds of Aretha Franklin, The Proclaimers, and many musicals. She often performed around Deland, singing with her friends in girl groups or as a classical pianist. She found a haven in community theater and was active there until she went to Palm Beach Atlantic University to study music in 2010.

Career

2017-2020

After graduating in 2013 with a 3.9 GPA in music, she settled in West Palm Beach, working as a pianist for Palm Beach Atlantic University and Wellington High School. In 2017, she started the female-fronted folk group "Mona Lisa Tribe," which played all around South Florida. The group was noticed by the Lumineers, who shared the group's cover of "Gloria" on their social media. Meeks created a folk festival called "When I'm Bound Folk Fest" in South Florida, which was met with great success and enjoyed by the community; her own band played alongside the 502s, Hillside Spirit Revival, and many others. Three of the members, including herself, moved to Nashville in 2020, where the band recorded an EP of covers at Paul Moak's Smokestack studio before eventually dispersing.

2020-Current

Tabitha released her first single as a solo artist in January 2022, "Ragdoll," and continued to release music consistently. She made a name for herself as a pianist, performer, and songwriter and gained the Nashville Norah Jones nickname. She immediately became a member of the "Pitch Meeting Band," a popular music collective and open mic held in Nashville, and played legendary venues such as the Ryman Auditorium with them, backing up popular country artists such as Lainey Wilson, Chris Young, Emily Weisband, Lauren Alania, Ella Langley, and many more.

Since 2022, her music has been placed in popular TV shows such as Netflix's Love is Blind, The Ultimatum, Selling Sunset, and more, as well as being featured on other TV channels and streaming networks like Paramount+, Peacock, CBS, MTV, Hallmark, and more. She co-wrote the theme song, "Something Strange," alongside Devon O'Bannon for the popular true-crime podcast series, Freeze Frame Podcast by Tucker Simmons, which came out mid-2024. Meeks was also a semi-finalist for Nashville's largest independent music station, Lighting 100.1's competition "Music City Mayhem." She has performed at festivals like Bonnaroo, Americana Fest, and Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival.

In November 2024, her holiday single, "Ready for Christmas," co-written with producer Ryan Corn, started trending on social media, accumulating more than 100 million views throughout social media platforms, over 700k reels on Instagram, and 150k on TikTok, allowing it to become Christmas classic overnight. Celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Trisha Yearwood, Sydney Sweeney, and many more use it on their platforms. She released her latest single, "Girl of the Hour," a month later, establishing her as a retro pop queen in Nashville, landing her the top spot on the Spotify editorial Playlist "Retro Pop."