Jessie James Decker

Jessica Rose James Decker (born April 12, 1988) is an American country pop singer.

At age 15, after auditioning for and being rejected by most of the country labels in Nashville, Tennessee, Decker began working with Carla Wallace of Big Yellow Dog Music.

One of her songs attracted the attention of Mercury Records, which offered her a recording contract.

Decker was born Jessica Rose James on April 12, 1988, in Vicenza, in the Italian region of Veneto on an American military base to her mother, Karen Johnson and father Robert James.

Decker has two younger siblings, Sydney Rae Bass (born 1991) and John James (born 1994), two stepsiblings, Ashley and Alex Parker (from Steve's first marriage) and two siblings-in-law, Anthony Bass and Alison James (formerly Green).

Decker began singing when she was two.

She won her first talent contest in Baker, Louisiana, at age nine, singing "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart".

Her stepfather, Steve Parker, who Karen married in the early 2000s, served in the U.S. Air Force.

As a result, she lived in Iowa, Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia.

By then, she had already been writing songs on a plastic guitar and had performed at SeaWorld and in Warner Robins, Georgia in 2000.

At age fifteen, she made weekly trips to Nashville to hone her songwriting skills.

At seventeen, Decker was introduced to Carla Wallace of independent label Big Yellow Dog Music, who helped her with her songwriting and singing.

One of her songs, "Gypsy Girl", was written with two writers from Yellow Dog and made it into the hands of record executive David Massey, who brought her to the attention of L.A. Reid.

She auditioned for Reid by singing her song "My Cowboy", produced by John Rich.

Decker soon signed a contract with Mercury Records.

Even though she originally thought that she would be producing a country record, Decker was later told to record a pop album by record executives.

She also claimed to have been asked to sound like pop singer Britney Spears.

She described the recording process as "intense" due to the genre crossing.

She described herself in an interview as "a country girl at heart," having grown up listening to this music.

She graduated from Warner Robins High School in Warner Robins, GA in 2007.

She released her debut album, Jessie James, in 2009.

Her debut album, Jessie James, was released in August 2009, debuting at number 23 on the Billboard 200.

It was a fusion between country and pop music, with more emphasis placed on the latter as dictated by her label.

The album also featured writing credits from Decker and seasoned pop songwriter Kara DioGuardi and Mitch Allan, among others.

The album received mixed receptions from critics.

Allmusic received the album positively, but found that despite being marketed as such and featuring some country-influenced production, the music on the album was a far cry from country music.

Slant thought that the album only superficially pulled together influences from pop, country and hip-hop while failing to pander to any of those audiences.

The album's first single, "Wanted", produced by Allan, had been released in April and peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Decker later performed in the Middle East with singer Kid Rock and comedian Carlos Mencia for US troops stationed overseas.

Decker began working on her second album, Sweet American Dreams, in 2010, which was initially planned to be released in late summer.

The album was to have the same country-pop sound as her debut, with Decker being given more leeway by Mercury in incorporating country sounds.

A few years later in 2013, she starred with her husband Eric Decker, a wide receiver in the National Football League, in the E! reality show Eric & Jessie: Game On.

On April 18, 2014, Decker released an EP through iTunes entitled Comin' Home.

On Epic in 2017, she released a five-track EP, Gold, followed by a collaboration on Austin John Winkler's 2016 song titled "Howlin'" from his debut EP Love Sick Radio and released a surprise live EP on June 9, 2017, titled Blackbird Sessions.

On October 13, 2017, she released her second full-length album and first for Epic Records, Southern Girl City Lights.

On This Holiday, her first full-length Christmas album, was released on October 26, 2018.

On October 22, 2021, she released the EP The Woman I've Become.

The project spawned a headlining tour, which wrapped in August 2022 after hitting major cities across the nation.

On September 30, 2022 "Grow Young With You" was the first official track from the Big Yellow Dog/Atlantic Records/Warner Music Nashville recording artist since the release of her The Woman I've Become EP the previous year.

On November 2 she released her second holiday EP Decker the Halls.