Donell Jones is an award-winning singer, songwriter and producer who has spent decades in the music industry creating hits for himself and other artists.

Born in Chicago, Illinois on May 22, 1973, Jones was raised on the city’s South Side by his mother Renee Byrd and his father Roy Jones, a gospel singer who influenced his son’s musicality in the early stages of his life. Jones would later be tempted by the street life but steered away from it by staying involved in music. He joined a group called Porché, and after traveling to a music conference in Washington, D.C. in 1993, they were offered a record deal with LaFace Records by Edward “DJ Eddie F” Ferrell through his Untouchables imprint but the group disbanded after recording one song.

Jones was determined to stick with music, starting as a songwriter who co-wrote the 1994 single “Think of You” along with USHER and Faith Evans for Usher’s self-titled debut album. This hit made way for Jones to release his own solo album, My Heart, in 1996. The album had moderate success but its second single—a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Knocks Me Off My Feet”—helped put Jones on the map as an artist.

After writing and producing the 1997 hit “Get It Together” for 702, Jones released his breakthrough sophomore album Where I Wanna Be in 1999. Led by the Top 10 pop hit “U Know What’s Up” and the soulful title track, Where I Wanna Be achieved platinum status and led to Jones winning an American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist in 2000—the same year he was featured on the posthumous Big Pun single “It’s So Hard.” In 2002, he released Life Goes On, which featured the hit single “You Know That I Love You” and reached gold status after it peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200. Following the release of 2006’s Journey of a Gemini, which topped the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, Jones left LaFace and released several albums independently.