Biography
Biography
Early life and musical beginnings
Gianna Brielle Perez was born on February 4, 2000, in Hackensack, New Jersey, to Cuban immigrant parents, and grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida, with her older sisters. Family life revolved around church and school theater: she studied at a private Christian school where she acted in musicals, often in ensemble roles while her sister Celene sang competitively.
Around the age of fifteen, after missing out on a sports team, Perez joined the choir and taught herself piano chords, then began covering artists she admired. She came out as a lesbian at seventeen, a period she has described as difficult within her religious community, and later said Hayley Kiyoko's song Girls Like Girls helped her accept her sexuality. She briefly attended Berklee College of Music and left during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grief and the first songs
In July 2020 Perez's older sister Celene died suddenly at the age of 22, a loss that unsettled her faith and her studies. Unable to write for a time, she eventually penned the song Celene and began uploading videos to TikTok to cope with her grief. Celene and Sometimes (Backwood) found audiences in 2021, and the response led to her signing with Interscope Records.
The songs arrived as she was processing bereavement and a crisis of faith, themes that have shaped her writing ever since. In interviews she has described turning to music, and later to therapy, to work through the loss, and she has said she writes for listeners going through similarly isolating experiences, including young queer people raised in religious environments.
The Interscope years
Between 2022 and 2023 Perez released a run of singles including The Man, When She Smiles, Glue, and Figurines. She supported Coldplay on their Music of the Spheres World Tour, then Noah Cyrus on The Hardest Part Tour and d4vd on The Root of It All Tour, while still building her own headline profile. Based in Brooklyn by early 2023, she announced her debut EP.
The eight-song How to Catch a Falling Knife, whose title borrows a stock-market phrase, was released in April 2023 on Mogul Vision and Interscope, alongside a video for the focus track Kill for You. NME described the project as eight chapters of her life, written in the years after her sister's death and the end of her first relationship, and reported that she would open for Haim at All Points East in London that August.
Independence and Sailor Song
Interscope released Perez in early 2024, during a promotional trip to London. She moved back to her parents' home in South Florida, decided to give herself a year to learn recording and production through tutorials and questions to collaborators, and kept writing songs. In March 2024 she released the ballad Normalcy, followed by Please Be Rude in May, both as an independent artist.
In February 2024 the hook Kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor came to her while she was playing guitar in her childhood bedroom, with the door open; her little sister heard it and reacted. Perez teased the song on TikTok in April and released Sailor Song on July 26, 2024, producing it herself with close-miked, layered vocals mixed for an intimate yet spacious sound.
Breakthrough and Island Records
Sailor Song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 98 on the chart dated August 31, 2024, giving Perez her first US chart hit, and went on to peak at No. 22. In the United Kingdom it reached No. 1 on the Official Singles Chart dated November 1, 2024, her first chart-topper anywhere, and it also reached No. 1 in Ireland and Latvia while entering the top ten in several other markets.
The song's openly sapphic lyrics drew criticism from some conservative religious commentators, and Perez responded on TikTok that her songwriting is not a democracy. She signed to Island Records in September 2024, saying she felt ready for a new deal after working independently, and the label has since released her singles and her debut album. She has spoken about the song as a vessel for queer visibility in mainstream pop.
At the Beach, in Every Life and beyond
Perez's debut studio album, At the Beach, in Every Life, was released on April 25, 2025, through Island Records, with Sailor Song opening the record and Fable and Chemistry issued as advance singles. She self-produced the project, which she described as the closest reflection of her experiences over the previous five years, placing grief, love, and self-possession side by side. The album entered the Billboard 200 and charted in Canada, Ireland, Norway, and New Zealand.
Perez has continued to headline shows, support larger touring artists, and collaborate with other musicians, while her public advocacy centers on queer representation in pop music. She remains active as a recording artist for Island Records, framing her work as an effort to reach listeners who feel isolated and assuring them, as she put it when Sailor Song hit Number 1, that things get better.
Selected moments
Career highlights
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First recordings released with the band Wendy Lane
While still in high school, Perez began releasing music in 2018 as part of Wendy Lane, planting the seeds for her later solo career in South Florida's church and theater communities.
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Online breakthrough leads to an Interscope Records deal
Her grief-written song Celene and the widely shared Sometimes (Backwood) found large audiences online in 2021, and the response led to her first recording contract, with Interscope Records.
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Debut EP How to Catch a Falling Knife released
Released in April 2023 on Mogul Vision and Interscope, the eight-song EP collected material written after her sister's death and arrived alongside a video for the focus track Kill for You.
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Sailor Song released as an independent single
Perez self-produced and released Sailor Song on July 26, 2024, after leaving Interscope and teaching herself to record; the track gave her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 later that summer.
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First UK Number 1 single with Sailor Song
On the Official Singles Chart dated November 1, 2024, Sailor Song gave Perez her first UK chart-topper, ending Sabrina Carpenter's long reign and ranking as the week's most-streamed song in the UK.
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Signs with Island Records
Following Sailor Song's success, Perez signed to Island Records in September 2024, telling Billboard she felt truly ready and knew exactly what she wanted from a new label partnership.
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Debut album At the Beach, in Every Life
Her self-produced debut studio album arrived on April 25, 2025, via Island Records, entering the Billboard 200 and charting in Canada, Ireland, Norway, and New Zealand.
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RIAA certification for Sailor Song updated
The RIAA's Gold & Platinum database lists a March 19, 2026 certification date for Sailor Song under Island Records, reflecting the single's multi-Platinum status in the United States.