Curtis Waters continues his momentous ascent on the path to superstardom, garnering his first major award nominations during the 2021 Juno Award nominee press conference earlier this month. Up for three Juno Awards including Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Alternative Album of the Year for his debut release Pity Party and the Juno Fan Choice Award, the only fan voted award of the evening,

Waters exploded onto the scene in 2020 with his debut hit single Stunnin’ FT. Harm Franklin. Now certified CRIA Double Platinum in Canada, RIAA Gold in the US and Gold in Australia, Mexico, Brazil and India, Stunnin’ was also included in Rolling Stone’s ’50 Best Songs of 2020’ list to cap off the year.

Waters released Pity Party via his own label (licensed through BMG) in October 2020. Made entirely in his bedroom at the home he shares with his family in North Carolina, the album was written, produced, performed and mixed by the multi-talented artist. “’Pity Party’ is an album I started when I was at a very low point in my life when I dropped out of college and moved back home last year.” Curtis shares, “I had a lot of time to think about all of my struggles growing up as a brown kid in North America dealing with mental illnesses and the guilt that came with it. It’s about getting better at coping with life. I get a lot of brown kids messaging me telling me I make them feel like they can do anything too, which is awesome. Hopefully people can listen and feel less alone. That would make all the difficulties worth it.”

Born in Nepal, Waters’ family migrated to Germany, before relocating to Calgary when he was a child. His family eventually settled in North Carolina when Waters was 17, where he currently lives with his parents and younger brother. Having never really fit in, Waters resorted to finding interests online and focusing on his creative endeavors as an escape from suburban life and his own mental health struggles. His love of writing poetry and doing graphic design as a kid evolved into teaching himself how to make beats and produce music using YouTube tutorials.

He first started earning money at 14 by selling his beats to artists he met on Soundcloud, until he eventually realized he should work on his own musical projects. Inspired by Kanye, Tyler, the Creator and Odd Future, Waters started writing, producing and engineering his own tracks and releasing them online, quickly catapulting himself to this most current and exciting place in his burgeoning musical career; a debut album released, hundreds of millions of global streams and critical praise. As his star quickly ascends with fans all over the world now, 21-year-old Curtis Waters continues his pursuit to shake the status quo.