BIOGRAPHY

Bringing a bold, new sound to ‘vintage pop’, MATT FORBES is being hailed as one of the most important new voices to hit the genre in more than a decade. As a lone baritone in a sea of pop tenors, the Canadian crooner is drawing widespread acclaim for his dynamic, soulful reinterpretations of pop songs, old and new. Whether swinging the Great American Songbook or ‘deconstructing’ contemporary pop, Forbes has the unique ability to make us feel as though we’re hearing these songs for the very first time. Decade? Genre? It makes no difference to this millennial crooner who defies traditional labels. 

Since releasing his debut full-length LP in October 2015 titled 'Coulda Woulda Shoulda’, his second LP, ’Solitary Man' in 2017 and over a dozen ‘singles’ between 2019 and 2023, Matt has received widespread critical acclaim with national television appearances on E! News, CTV's eTalk and The Marilyn Denis Show.  Receiving major airplay across the US (SiriusXM), Canada and Europe (BBC Radio 2, Crooner Radio France), Matt’s music has been a Critic’s Pick in HELLO! Canada Magazine and featured on HuffPost Entertainment. Both albums also rose to #1 on Amazon’s Top 10 Chart for Hot New Releases in Vocal Jazz, where they remained for the first three months of their respective releases.

Heralded by GRAMMY® winner, Steve Tyrell as “an important new messenger for the Great American Songbook”, Matt has accumulated over 7 million streams on Spotify, 8 million views on his YouTube channel and 230,000+ followers on Instagram. His reimaginings of ‘Gloomy Sunday’ and the Gorillaz ‘On Melancholy Hill’ have garnered over 1,000,000 streams to date and three of his latest singles have found their way onto Spotify’s ‘Vocal Jazz’ (with over 100,000 listeners) and ‘Big Band’ (400,000 listeners) editorial playlists.

Recently, Matt had the pleasure of working with GRAMMY award-winning producers Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings on Willie Nelson’s Sinatra tribute album, ‘My Way’ — providing all of Mr. Nelson’s guide vocals for the project. In 2019, the record was awarded the GRAMMY Award for Best Traditional Pop Album. Matt recently reprised this role for Mr. Nelson’s GRAMMY-nominated follow-up, “That’s Life” which was released in February 2021.

Matt received his BFA in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (training at the Stella Adler Studio). He has headlined some of the top jazz clubs and venues in the US and Canada, including Herb Alpert’s Vibrato and Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles, Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa and Toronto’s Koerner Hall — where Matt was tapped by Order of Canada recipient, Joe Sealy to headline the Royal Conservatory of Music’s ‘Sinatra @ 100’ celebration alongside Tony Award-winner, Brent Carver and JUNO nominees, Barbra Lica and Jackie Richardson.

Currently, Matt enjoys a regular residency at Los Angeles’ iconic, Dresden Room (every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month). Matt and his co-host, Jesse Goddard were recently featured by the Los Angeles Times as an ‘essential’ pick for live jazz in Los Angeles. Prior to this, Matt clocked in over 1100 featured guest appearances with legendary jazz duo, ‘Marty & Elayne’ (of Vince Vaughn’s “Swingers”). He has also regularly fronted Grammy® nominated composer Ron Jones’ (“Family Guy,” “Star Trek”) acclaimed ‘Influence Jazz Orchestra’ as their featured vocalist — also opening for the group’s original lead vocalist, Seth MacFarlane (creator/star of “Family Guy,” “Ted”).

‘Solitary Man’, ‘Coulda Woulda Shoulda' and Matt's previous effort, the holiday-themed EP, 'The Twelve Minutes of Christmas' (2014) have quickly become staples of numerous jazz, adult standards and Light AC stations across North America, including Los Angeles’ revered KJAZZ 88.1 FM, National Public Radio (NPR), DASH Radio and SIRIUS XM’s Siriusly Sinatra (Channel 71). Internationally, Matt’s music has been featured on CBC Radio, BBC Radio 2 and Crooner Radio (France) and has been heard as in-flight entertainment for Air Canada, British Airways, Lufthansa, United Airlines and Delta.  Matt has also been featured on The Huffington Post, Parade Magazine, CTV Morning Live, Fox News Radio and The Marilu Henner Show.

Currently, Matt is promoting the release of his new singles which were co-produced with 5x GRAMMY award-winning producers Nicholai Baxter ("A Star Is Born", "La La Land") and Justin Moshkevich (“Dicks the Musical”). Matt has Guest DJ’d on SiriusXM’s “Siriusly Sinatra”, where he hosted “Playing Favorites” — and will soon be the subject of an ‘In Conversation With’ special with Charles Pignone (SVP, Frank Sinatra Enterprises) which will debut on SiriusXM in May 2024.