Loren Gray

Loren Gray joined musical.ly (now known as TikTok)[1] in 2015. After gaining a large following on musical.ly in the 8th grade, she began to get bullied at school.[7] She eventually moved to Los Angeles, California and grew her other social media platforms. As of September 2022, she has more than 54.6 million TikTok followers,[8] 23.4 million Instagram followers,[9] 3.86 million YouTube subscribers,[10] and over 1.5 million Twitter followers.[11] On her backup Instagram, she has over 4.7 million followers.[12] Gray is the seventeenth most-followed individual on TikTok and had been the most-followed TikTok individual from March 31, 2019 to March 25, 2020.[13]

In 2017, Gray appeared in English pop singer HRVY’s music video for "Personal".[14]

In March 2018, Gray signed a record deal with Virgin Records before releasing her debut single "My Story" in August,[15] which she says is based on a friend who "kept falling in love with the wrong people".[16] In November 2018, she released her second single, "Kick You Out",[17][18] which was written and produced by herself and Ido Zmishlany, and was described by Billboard as showing "the true highs and lows that come from being in love".[19] Her third single, "Queen", an empowering anthem produced by herself and Captain Cuts,[6] was released in December 2018.[20][6] The video for the song, released the following month, received more than 18 million views as of July 2021.[21]

Gray was featured on Lost Kings' single "Anti-Everything", released on January 11, 2019.[22][23][24] She cites Eminem[16] and Justin Bieber[25][26] among her favorite artists. On April 4, 2019, Loren Gray released two new singles – "Options"[27] and "Lie Like That".[27] She teamed up with Captain Cuts (Walk the Moon, Halsey, The Chainsmokers) to write and produce both tracks, bringing in collaborators Nija (Jason Derulo, Chris Brown) on "Options" and Australian artist Ivy Adara on "Lie Like That". On May 17, 2019, Loren Gray released a new single titled "Can't Do It" featuring American rapper Saweetie. It marks her first single as a lead artist to feature another artist.[28] After taking almost a year break from releasing songs, she released a new single titled "Cake" on May 13, 2020. She released her final solo single with Virgin Records and Capitol Records titled “Alone” on July 21, 2020. She departed from her music label in February 2020 and became an independent artist. She released her first independent song with TELYKast on March 12, 2021. She released her first solo independent song titled “Piece of Work” on July 9, 2021. According to Billboard, she is one of the top 10 music influencers on TikTok, with over 50 million followers.[29]

On December 3, 2020, Gray launched her own jewelry brand, &always.[30] Her Instagram run business has a follower count of 28.4K followers as of August 2022.[31] She had been working on the brand a year prior to release. When first launched, the brand released two editions: The Starlet Mirror Edition and Otherworld Edition.[32]

According to a Forbes report published in August 2020, Gray earned $2.4 million in 2019 from her numerous sponsorship deals and merchandise, making her the fourth highest-earning TikTok star.[33]