Saint Jhn

Carlos St. John Phillips was born on August 26, 1986 in Brooklyn. Growing up, he split his time in three-year intervals between Georgetown, Guyana and the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. He began creating music when he was twelve years old and was inspired by his older brother, who would rap in the neighborhood with friends. He wrote his first song in his first year of high school while living in Guyana.^[10][11]

Prior to adopting the Saint Jhn stage name, he performed and wrote using his birth name, Carlos St. John (or Carlos Saint John).^[10][12] In 2010, he released an EP, The St. John Portfolio, and a mixtape, In Association, under his birth name.^[13][14] Soon after, he was flown to Los Angeles, California, by music executive Zach Katz. For 2 months, he wrote songs for Rihanna, but none of his records were accepted. After returning home, Saint Jhn co-wrote the Hoodie Allen song, "No Interruption".^[10][15] In the following years, Saint Jhn wrote songs for Kiesza, Gorgon City, and Nico & Vinz, among others.^[16] In 2016, he earned a writer credit for the Usher songs, "Crash" and "Rivals", both of which appeared on the album Hard II Love.^[15] Also in 2016, he released his first song under the moniker Saint Jhn, entitled "1999".^[17] He followed that with two more songs in 2016, "Roses"^[18] and "Reflex".^[19] In October 2016, it was announced that Saint Jhn would open for Post Malone during a run of shows on the West Coast.^[20]

In February 2017, Jidenna's album, The Chief, was released featuring the song, "Helicopters / Beware", which Saint Jhn co-wrote.^[15] The following month, Saint Jhn released another original track, "3 Below".^[21] In October of that year, he played at two festivals, Rolling Loud and the Voodoo Experience. He also released another new song, "Hermes Freestyle".^[22] In February 2018, Saint Jhn released "I Heard You Got Too Litt Last Night".^[23][24] In early March, he released the song, "Albino Blue",^[25] and on March 30, 2018, his debut album was released. At that time, the already-released songs on the album had accrued 50 million total streams on various platforms. In addition to working on music and a tour in support of Collection One, Saint Jhn was hired by Gucci as a model for its "Guilty" campaign alongside Adesuwa Aighewi.^[26][27]

In 2019 Saint Jhn was involved into Beyoncé's record project The Lion King: The Gift, being featured with Nigerian singer Wizkid and Blue Ivy Carter on the track "Brown Skin Girl".^[28] The song and accomplished visual was critical acclaimed, winning a BET Awards, two NAACP Image Awards and a Soul Train Music Awards.^[29] The music video also won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video, award in which the singer is not listed in the credits of the nomination.

In April 2020, Saint Jhn's single "Roses" hit number one on the ARIA Charts as well as the UK Singles Chart, surged by the release of the Imanbek remix.^[30] The song later received two other remixes, with Future and J Balvin, respectively.^[31] In early October 2020, Saint Jhn was among the acts who performed live for the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, following the success of "Roses".^[31] The song also won a IHeartRadio Music Awards while Imanbek won the Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical for his remix.

On October 23, 2020, he released the video for the single, "Gorgeous", which serves as the lead single for his third studio album, While the World Was Burning. On October 26, he revealed the album's artwork, tracklist, and release date as November 20, 2020. The album includes the songs "High School Reunion, Prom", featuring Lil Uzi Vert, "Monica Lewinsky, Election Year", featuring DaBaby and A Boogie wit da Hoodie, as well as "Pray 4 Me", featuring Kanye West.^[31] Saint Jhn was also nominated with West for his songwiting contribution on Donda at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for Album of the Year.^[32]

In December 2022, Saint Jhn and London on Da Track released "Stadiums" as the first single for their upcoming collaborative album.^[33]

In February 2025, Saint JHN released his fourth album, Festival Season, which was part one of his upcoming project Collection 2. Collection 2 is FESTIVAL SEASON and (upcoming) Fake Tears From A Popstar, confirmed by Saint JHN in an interview with Angela Yee. Saint JHN also said the singles “Humble” and “Circles” will be featured on Fake Tears From A Popstar. He confirmed this in a tweet.^{[citation needed]}