Jonah Marais

For Jonah Marais, the journey to fame began on YouNow, the live broadcasting service, where the content he put out helped him develop a loyal, if small, following. He met Chad Grier, father of Nash and Hayes Grier, in 2014 at a ‘Meet and Greet Convention’ for selected social media celebrities. The stars must have aligned that day for Jonah and Grier signed him to ‘26’, a management company. The very next year he became a part of ‘DigiTour’ alongside Hayes, and five other social media sensations. They travelled across America, singing, performing, and meeting fans from cities, such as Los Angeles, Memphis, and Dallas. This was the first time he had been away from his family for more than a week.

He spoke candidly to ‘Buzzfeed’s Ellen Cushing about the entire experience: “When you do a meet and greet, every single girl wants something special from you — an extra little hug or something. And that takes something out of you, almost — like, emotionally, you know? You have to be so willing — to hug and say ‘I love you’ so much. And you have to talk to every single person individually — which I love doing, but it’s actually, like, really emotionally tiring.” Fast forward to present; he is now much more comfortable with his popularity. He released his first single ‘I Meant It’ in 2015 which has a 4.9 star rating on iTunes. He followed it up with ‘Night Changes’ (2015), and ‘Next Ex-Girlfriend’ (2016). His first EP, ‘When the Daylight’s Gone’ came out in 2016, and has a full 5 star rating on iTunes. He has 132.3K fans on YouNow, and 321K and 155K followers on Instagram and Twitter respectively.

Cushing in her piece termed Jonah as “a great kid — thoughtful, smart, and clearly very sensitive.” He is keenly aware of the responsibility that comes with fame, and since the beginning of his career, he has never shied away from it. Acting on his mother’s suggestion, he began tweeting out a suicide hotline number on a regular basis. Several of his fans have reached out informing him how his influence has helped them to stay clean or stop cutting themselves. One such fan spoke to Cushing, “There was some stuff with my family, and my parents were going through some stuff, and — I’m living with my grandmother right now. And I was feeling like my family would never be back together again. And, um, I kind of just didn’t want to live anymore. So I sent him this note, and he actually responded, saying to stay strong and stuff. He saved my life.”

Jonah Marais has three siblings, Zebulon, Esther Grace and Svea. His father Tim is a musician and a teacher, and his mother Carrie is a midwife. Born on June 16, 1998, Jonah decided not to use his real last name after quite a few of his fans managed to find his home address online. Marais had to leave school to pursue his music career, and while he does miss his friends, he has admitted that they “don’t really get what he’s doing.” His mother wishes that he would attend college, and it sure is a possibility in the future. But for now, his music has taken precedence. He has been attending a poetry festival in summer with his family for years.