Forest Blakk

The music of Forest Blakk comes from an unshakable sense of purpose, a belief in building beauty from life’s most painful moments. Growing up in Montreal, Canada, with time spent in Florida and Jamaica, the singer/songwriter first took up guitar as a refuge from his chaotic home life. He then spent years learning to channel his most complex emotions into song. Over time, that devotion has forged a deep-rooted connection with his fanbase—a particularly meaningful triumph for the L.A.- based musician, who once held an impromptu concert at the back of a diner for a pair of fans who’d missed that night’s show. With the arrival of his breakthrough single “If You Love Her”—a fall 2020 release that marks his Billboard debut—Blakk has brought his heart-on-sleeve songwriting to a whole new level of resonance, again proving music’s power to transform both audience and artist. “It’s been a massive metamorphosis for me to understand that you really can sing your way out of hell,” Blakk says. “I make this joke all the time: ‘I couldn’t sing to save my life, so I learned to sing to save my life.’ And that’s what this all feels like.”