Sean Kingston

Sean Kingston (Kisean Anderson) was born on February 3, 1990, in Miami, Florida and moved to Kingston, Jamaica when he was six. He attended high school in Ocho Rios. His grandfather by marriage was the noted Jamaican reggae producer Lawrence Lindo, who worked under the stage name Jack Ruby. At age 11, Kingston spent 21 days in jail for breaking and entering, and Kingston lived in a car while his mother was incarcerated for identity theft.


Sean Kingston is quickly becoming a household name with his first single “Beautiful Girls,” a song cross-pollinating on both urban and pop radio stations coast to coast. The unmistakable hit boasts the instant hook of “Stand by Me” which acts like a muse for the song produced by savant J.R. Rotem. Sean, who is the flagship artist on J.R.’s label Beluga Heights, will release his debut album Sean Kingston on July 31 via Beluga Heights/Epic.

Sean Kingston was discovered through MySpace by Tommy Rotem at Beluga Heights, and signed to the label in a partnership deal with Sony. Beluga is a label notable for its focus on discovering and developing artists. In a venture between Epic Records and Koch Records, Kingston recorded and released the single "Beautiful Girls" in May 2007. The single, based on the bass line and lyrical "association" of the 1961 hit "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King, reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and topped the UK Singles Chart along with many other international charts. Similarly, the song "Me Love" samples the main hook out Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er", from their 1973 album Houses of the Holy. The song also debuted at number one in Australia, where it knocked off Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry", which had been at number one for nine weeks. The song stayed on the Canadian Hot 100 number one spot for over six weeks before getting knocked down to third place by the Plain White T's.

Kingston represented the continent of America to sing the Official Theme Song of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, Everyone. He collaborated with four other international artists representing their continent, South African Jody Williams representing Africa, Singaporean Tabitha Nauser (Asia), British Steve Appleton (Europe), and Australian Jessica Mauboy representing (Oceania) However, Kingston was unable to attend, the Singapore Youth Olympics 2010 opening ceremony, due to passport mix ups. Sean was invited to featured on Cash Money Records/former So So Def member Bow Wow on his single "For My Hood". He performed it with him along with DJ Khaled on BET's television program 106 & Park the day after release.

Kingston will release a mixtape with pop star Justin Bieber, called Our World. It will feature about 12–14 songs and includes their versions of songs like "Pretty Boy Swag" and "Billionaire". The mixtape is finished and Kingston showed his fans a preview on uStream on August, 19, 2010. The release date is yet to be confirmed. Kingston also went on to perform on first leg of Bieber's tour. On April 25, 2011, Kingston performed at Cross Roads Hotel in front of 2,000 people in Lilongwe, Malawi. Kingston was recently in Zimbabwe performing there and is scheduled to perform in Ghana in June 2011. He performed a street concert on April 29, 2011, at Utah State University.