(1993-)

Who Is Meghan Trainor?

Meghan Trainor grew up surrounded by music and self-recorded three early albums. She arrived as a pop sensation with the 2014 release of “All About That Bass,” while follow-up hits like “Lips Are Movin” ensured the success of her first major studio album, Title, and a Grammy win for Best New Artist. Trainor also enjoyed strong sales with her next studio effort, Thank You, and made the move to celebrity judge with the debut of the music competition series The Four in early 2018.

Early Years

Trainor was born in Massachusetts on December 22, 1993, and raised on Nantucket Island. Her family had musical roots (her dad was a church organist and her uncle, Burton Toney, was a bona fide recording artist), and Trainor took an early interest as well. She tinkered with making music as young as age 7 while she learned the piano. It would only be a few years down the road that she wrote her first song at age 11. The following years would find her penning songs and branching out into playing the guitar, ukulele and percussion instruments.

As she got more serious, her parents bought her software that allowed her to record her own songs, and she continued on the musical path right through her time at Nauset High School on Cape Cod. Those four years were spent singing, playing trumpet in the jazz band and honing her guitar skills, while also singing with local band Island Fusion.

Award-Winning Songwriter

She was a two-time enrollee (2009 and 2010) in the Berklee College of Music’s five-week Performance Program, and she made the finals of the program’s songwriting competition. Also during this period, Trainor was named Best Female Artist at the 2009 International Acoustic Music Awards and won the grand prize at the 2010 New Orleans Songwriters Festival.

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Ever ambitious, by the time Trainor was 18 she had recorded three albums of her own material. Her parents were huge supporters, and they would take her to regional songwriting conventions through her teen years. The conventions were a chance for songwriters to get their material heard, and one such session led to the first big step in Trainor’s career.

Hitmaker: ‘All About That Bass’

When she was 18, Trainor signed a publishing deal with Nashville’s Big Yellow Dog Music. With the deal in place, the first big piece of Trainor’s dream fell into place and a realization took hold that she could make a career out of her music. Before long, Big Yellow Dog was sending Trainor-penned songs to the likes of Grammy winner Rascal Flatts, Sabrina Carpenter and a host of others.

With that level of success under her belt, Trainor soon signed with Epic Records, where her first single was the massive hit “All About That Bass,” which was released in June 2014. At first, Epic pitched the song to several other singers to perform, but when there were no takers, Trainor herself sang it. The track, a catchy ode to women who aren’t built like a “stick-figure silicon Barbie doll,” received 1,600,000 YouTube views its first month and reached No. 1 on charts across the world.

In the U.S. “All About That Bass” spent eight weeks at No. 1—the longest chart reign of an Epic Records single in history—while on its way to selling millions of downloads domestically and overseas. Trainor’s next singles may not have been the overwhelming hit that “All About That Bass” was, but both “Lips Are Movin” and “Dear Future Husband” reached the pop Top 20 and got tens of millions of YouTube views while helping Trainor’s first major album, Title, begin its run at No. 1 around the world.

Vocal Cord Issues and Grammy Win

Trainor was forced to pull out of her 2015 MTrain Tour due to ongoing problems with her vocal cords. She issued a statement on her Instagram account saying, “Sadly I will need to cancel the remainder of my tour and get surgery to finally fix this once and for all. I am devastated, scared, and so sorry.” She underwent vocal cord surgery that September.

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Trainor was back on the stage with a live tribute to pop/soul icon Lionel Richie at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards telecast in February 2016. Later that night, she won one of the show’s marquee awards as Best New Artist.

The following year, the powerhouse singer underwent a second vocal cord operation. Afterward, she said she gave up drinking and changed her eating habits to help ensure good health and career longevity.

‘Thank You’

In advance of her second major-label studio album, Thank You, Trainor unveiled the hit single “No” in March 2016. She followed in May with “Me Too,” one day before the release of Thank You, and dropped “Better,” featuring Yo Gotti, in August. Meanwhile, the singer embarked on The Untouchable Tour to support the album, which became her second straight to earn platinum certification.

‘Treat Myself,’ ‘The Love Train’ and ‘A Very Trainor Christmas’

In March 2018, Trainor put out “No Excuses,” said to be the first single from her upcoming album, Treat Myself. Two more singles, “Let You Be Right” and “Can’t Dance,” followed on back-to-back days in May. However, while Treat Myself was scheduled for an August arrival, Trainor reported she was pushing back the release date due to a desire to continue writing songs. The album still unfinished, she instead released an EP, The Love Train, in February 2019. That year she also contributed “Badass Woman” to the film The Hustle, as well as another track, “Run Like the River,” and voice work to Playmobil: The Movie.

The artist finally unveiled Treat Myself on January 31, 2020, the long-awaited album including collaborations with Nikki Minaj, on the track “Nice to Meet Ya,” and the Pussycat Dolls, on “Genetics.”

Trainor will release a Christmas album, A Very Trainor Christmas, on October 30, 2020.

‘The Four’ Judge

In January 2018, Trainor joined Sean “Diddy” Combs, DJ Khaled and record executive Charlie Walk as judges on the music competition series The Four: Battle for Stardom. Enduring Walk’s withdrawal from the show over allegations of sexual harassment, The Four was renewed for a second season that year.

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Personal Life

Trainor married actor Daryl Sabara on December 22, 2018, at their home in Los Angeles. The pair were set up in 2016 through their mutual friend Chloe Grace Moretz and got engaged in December 2017.

In October 2020, Trainor announced the pair is expecting their first child in early 2021. They welcomed son Riley in February 2021.

QUICK FACTS

  • Name: Meghan Trainor
  • Birth Year: 1993
  • Birth date: December 22, 1993
  • Birth State: Massachusetts
  • Birth City: Nantucket
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Female
  • Best Known For: Meghan Trainor is a Grammy-winning American pop singer known for such smash hits as “All About That Bass,” “Lips Are Movin” and “No.”
  • Industries
    • Music
  • Astrological Sign: Capricorn
  • Nacionalities
    • American
  • Interesting Facts
    • Meghan Trainor landed a deal with a Nashville publishing company to write songs.

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CITATION INFORMATION

  • Article Title: Meghan Trainor Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/meghan-trainor
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: February 18, 2021
  • Original Published Date: May 1, 2015

QUOTES

  • Growing up, I didn’t get the talk of ‘Make sure boys take you on a date and treat you right.’ So I was the girl who wasn’t dating and would just text. I dated these guys who didn’t have jobs and I would always be paying. At one point, I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, ‘You’re too pretty and cool to be treated like this.’
  • It was always the dream, and you could hear it in my music—girl just wants to be a pop star. But my insecurities—I didn’t think I could sing and dance and play the part.