Drew Baldridge

Although he's comfortable singing cheerful country-pop, Drew Baldridge's specialty is sentimentality, as evidenced by his signature ballad "She's Somebody's Daughter." Originally released in 2019, "She's Somebody's Daughter" became a wedding anthem in the early 2020s, leading Baldridge to offer such similar-sounding singles as "Can She Have This Dance" and "I Do Two," a pair of ballads released in 2023 Despite his emphasis on slower material, Baldridge didn't abandon good times: he balanced these softer tunes with such party anthems as "Honky Tonk Town."

Drew Baldridge was born in Patoka, Illinois in 1992. From a young age, Baldridge was singing in church alongside his father, and when he was in kindergarten, the youngster began taking piano lessons, though in his teens he switched over to guitar. Early on, Baldridge was a fan of both country and pop, enjoying Brooks & Dunn and Eric Church as well as Michael Jackson and the Backstreet Boys, and he quickly became a fixture at talent shows in and around his small hometown. In high school, Baldridge was interested in both music and athletics, playing on the basketball and baseball teams as well as singing the National Anthem at most of their games, and after seeing Josh Turner when he was 18, Baldridge made the decision to make a career out of country music. Turning down an athletic scholarship to college, Baldridge moved to Nashville and honed his skills as a performer and songwriter.

In 2013, Baldridge signed recording and publishing deals with THiS Music, releasing his first single, "B.Y.O.B.," in late 2013. Two more singles followed, "All Good" in November 2013 and "She's Taken" in April 2014, before he released his first EP, the four-song Crossing Country Lines, in December 2014. A second EP, Crossing Country Lines, Vol. 2, came out in April 2015, and featured two songs that soon became fan favorites, "Dance with Ya" and "God's Front Porch." "Dance with Ya" developed enough traction that the track was issued as a single in May 2015; in November 2015 Baldridge signed a new record deal with Cold River Records, and his first release for the label was the Dance with Ya EP, which featured the title song along with four new numbers. In June 2016, Baldridge released his first full-length album through Cold River Records, Dirt on Us. The album once again included "Dance with Ya" as well as 12 other tracks, including a duet with Emily Weisband ("Rebound") and a gospel number sung with his brothers Mike Baldridge and Doug Baldridge.

"Guns & Roses" appeared in 2017, followed by "Gentle Man" the next year, but Cold River shuttered in 2019. Baldridge launched his own imprint Lyric Ridge later that year with "God's People," one of a series of songs that culminated with "She's Somebody's Daughter." Initially, the song didn't catch on, leading Baldridge to continue a series of singles that ran through 2022, the year that he released his second album, Country Born. Around this time, "She's Somebody's Daughter" started to gain traction on the internet, often appearing as a sentimental soundtrack on social media videos. Baldridge capitalized on its success by releasing "She's Somebody's Daughter (The Wedding Version)" in 2021 and "She's Somebody's Daughter (Remix)" in 2022. During 2023, he played to his new audience with the singles "Big Prayers," "Can She Have This Dance" and "I Do Two," but it was "She's Somebody Daughter" that cracked the charts, reaching eight on Billboard's Country Airplay in 2024. Its success led to "She's Somebody Daughter (Reimagined)" later that year. ~ Mark Deming