Elle King

With its pounding drums, fuzz guitar and sultry vocal, Elle King's "Ex's and Oh's" became a breakout hit in 2015, placing King on the short list of artists to score a Top Ten hit and two Grammy nominations with the first single of their first album.

Born Tanner Elle Schneider to a showbiz family in Los Angeles, her parents are model/actress London King and former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider; they divorced in her childhood and King moved with her mother to Ohio. Though she appeared alongside her dad in 2009's Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, her heart was in pursuing a music career. Hearing a Donnas album at age nine was her indoctrination to punk; as a teenager she listened to roots rock and country while learning to play guitar and banjo.

After traveling internationally and attending the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, she settled in Brooklyn and began performing. By 2012 she'd worked up a fanbase as well as an industry buzz, signing to RCA on the strength of her club shows. The first single "Good to Be a Man" came out that year, followed by the four-song Elle King EP, which RCA released jointly with the blues-oriented label Fat Possum. The track "Playing for Keeps" became the theme of VH1's Mob Wives Chicago. King played major festivals and made numerous TV appearances, becoming a high-profile artist while having released only five tracks. "Ex's and Oh's" was released in September 2014 and made King a star. Her onstage charisma was duly noted as her voice earned frequent comparisons to Amy Winehouse.

The song earned 2016 Grammy nominations as Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance; though it didn't win the album produced two further hits in "Under the Influence" and "America's Sweetheart"; she then made a new single "Good Girls" for the "Ghostbusters" (2016) soundtrack. 2015-16 found her opening major tours for Modest Mouse and the Dixie Chicks while stockpiling material for her second album.