Jacob Banks


Jacob Banks is a British singer and songwriter from Birmingham. Jacob Banks won the 2012 MOBO UnSung regional competition in Birmingham and the Adidas "Are You In" music competition. His music is influenced by a range of genres including soul, R&B and hip hop. Banks is currently signed with American label Interscope Records.

Music career

2012–present: Breakthrough

The second release from The Monologue, titled "Worthy", was played by BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe as his "Next Hype" record on his Radio 1 show and received additional plays on 1Xtra, XFM, 6Music and Annie Nightingale. In April 2013, Jacob played his first headline show at the London St Pancras Old Church. He supported Emeli Sande on her April 2013 UK tour. Banks features on Wretch 32's song "Doing OK", the second single from Wretch's forthcoming third studio album. Banks features on Chase and Status' "Alive" from their album, Brand New Machine. He also supported them, on their Brand New Machine 2013 UK tour. Banks announced he was to release a joint EP featuring himself, Wretch 32 and George the Poet titled Gambling Man in 2013. However, this did not occur. On 1 May 2014, his collaboration with All About She, "I Can Wait", was released for free download as part of their debut extended play Go Slow. Jacob has also worked with other artists such as Bondax, Jake Gosling, Knox Brown, Plan B and Wretch 32.
On 21 July 2015, Banks' second extended play entitled The Paradox was released. It features a guest appearance from Odd Child Recordings rapper Avelino on the track "Monster".
In 2016, he was also featured on Norwegian production team Seeb release "What Do You Love". The song reached number 2 on VG-lista, the official Norwegian singles chart.
On 9 March 2017, Banks premiered his two-part narrative video, written and co-directed by himself, for his single, "Unholy War". The single is off his upcoming EP, 'The Boy Who Cried Freedom'.
In November 2018, he released his new album, "Village", which made No. 1 on new and upcoming albums on Spotify.

In popular culture

His song, "Monster 2.0" was featured in Codemasters game, Dirt 4.
His song, "Move With You" was featured in EA Sports game, FIFA 15.
In 2013, one of his songs, "Worthy", was played on the American TV series Suits in Season 3 Episode 9.
His song "Unknown" was featured in the Season 3 finale of the Starz TV series Power, and received viral attention for his tremendous voice. This attention led to the song "Monster" featuring in the first episode of Season 4. In 2018, "Unknown" was featured during the TV Series Suits in Season 7 Episode 13
His song, "Monster" was used during the TV series "Quantico" in Season 1 Episode 2 which aired in October 2015. "Monster" was also sampled to create rapper Flawless real talk's song of the same name.
In 2017, his song "Unholy War" was featured in the season finale of the TV series , Season 3 Episode 3 of the TV Series Lucifer and in the reveal trailer for the 2017 Need for Speed game, . In 2018, "Unholy War" was featured during the Season 1 finale of the TV series Black Lightning. It was also featured on Starz TV series Power.
In 2018 he penned and performed the song "In The Name of Love" for the movie The Equalizer 2.
His song, "Love Ain't Enough" was used in EA Sports game, FIFA 19.
His collaboration with X Ambassadors "Baptize Me" was featured in the 'Game of Thrones' soundtrack.
In 2018, "Unholy War" was used in the TV series "Queen of the South" in Season 3 Episode 5.
In 2019, "Every Age" was featured in a commercial for the gum brand Extra.

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other appearances