From performing on Broadway with Kenny Rogers as a child to having over a million streams on Spotify, Jillian Jacqueline is without a doubt a name you’re going to want to remember.
Born and raised in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, while most kids were tending to their horses, Jillian turned to rama and music and fell in love with musical theatre. Her love for the arts quickly flourished and became a passion she shared with her sisters. At the age of seven, she and her sisters began writing scripts and performing locally at festivals and open mic nights. By the age of eight she had written and recorded her first album. From an early age, the legends of country music influenced her musical journey immensely. Whether hearing Patsy Cline coming through the speakers while growing upon attending a Third Eye Blind concert in her teens, Jillian certainly has a broad range of music embedded into her soul.
Continuing her love for performance, at nine, Jillian travelled to New York to audition for a role in “Christmas From the Heart,” starring Kenny Rogers. After receiving the role, she performed for three months at the Beacon Theatre in New York, alongside Rogers. Following her stint on Broadway, she hit the road with Kenny from 1999 to 2005. Due to the relationship she had built with him, she was then able to start coming to Nashville to record with Rogers and take meetings. Through her friendship with Kenny Rogers, she was introduced to Billy Dean and Suzy Bogguss who she ended up recording a song with titled, “Keep Mom and Dad in Love.” The single was released by Dreamcatcher Entertainment in 2001 and debuted in the Top 50 Billboard Country Music Chart.
One significant point in Jillian Jacqueline’s life was when she and her family moved to New York, in her early teen years. While in New York, music continued to be a family affair, she and her sisters formed The Little Women Band. They toured all over the U.S. and even did a residency at The Bitter End in New York. Though she absolutely loved being in a band with her sisters, Jillian had a desire to become a solo artist. Even one of her parents was telling her that she should become a solo artist.
After a few years of living in New York and touring regularly, she began to get burned out and wanted to go back to high school and be a “normal kid” for a while. So she went back to school and took some time off from the live music scene. Not quitting music completely, she began embarking on her solo career. After graduating from Philadelphia University in 2010 Jillian made a big decision to move 12 hours South to Nashville, TN, where she would soon begin to establish herself as solo artist within the industry.
Since becoming a Nashville resident, Jillian has done anything but just sit around. She is constantly working on music, whether it’s in a writer’s room with some of her fellow songwriter friends, Ryan Hurd and Tofer Brown, or in the studio laying down vocals. Through her likeability factor, her hard work and the strong relationships she has built since being in town, she has had the chance to collaborate with a variety of people, such as Richard Marx, Vince Gill, and Cassadee Pope. In 2013, she and Richard Marx wrote and recorded a six-song project together.
In August 2014, Jillian signed with Downtown Music Publishing. Richard Marx produced her first single called “Overdue,” which she released in October 2014. If you listen carefully you may hear a familiar voice singing harmonies on the track, hint it is Vince Gill. Jillian said “having Vince sing harmony on my song was a life check goal.” The song surpassed a million streams on Spotify on March 3, 2015. With the success of her single online, Spotify named Jillian one of their “Spotlight on Country” Artists to Watch in 2015.