'Songland': Who is Kole, the songwriter Meghan Trainor picked for her new song 'Hurt Me'?
On Tuesday, June 25th, when 'Songland' aired with its fifth episode, Meghan Trainor was searching for her next hit single.
After listening to four songwriters - Brandin Jay, Kole, Zachary Kale, and Josh Wood - compete and perform their original songs for her, Trainor finally picked a winner, and that was none other than Kole's 'Hurt Me.'
Kole disclosed that when she initially wrote the song, she thought it would be an amazing song for Trainor. And what she had in mind did come true in the end.
For those who didn't know, the 'All About The Bass' singer herself started out her career as a songwriter before going on to be a Grammy award-winning artiste. "It's about time the songwriters get to shine," Trainor said during the episode. "It's really cool to show viewers at home how to write a song and how it's a journey and not something that magically appears," she added.
The winner for the latest episode of Songland hails from Tarzana, California, and we all know her as Kole. However, according to her Instagram profile, her real name is Nicole. Kole graduated from UCLA in 2017. After she graduated she worked with producers like Wayne Wilkins (Natasha Bedingfield "Unwritten" and Beyoncé "Sweet Dreams.") Kole is also an actress and pianist.
During her appearance in the episode, we got to know a little more about Kole and how she fell in love with songwriting. "Music has just always been a huge part of my life. I was pretty ostracized in middle school, I didn't have a lot of friends, so I felt really isolated and music was the thing I turned to get me through those years," she said. According to her social media page, Kole has been writing songs since the age of 11.
Kole's song 'Hurt Me' is about the aftermath of a breakup and how you rise above it. During the episode, while talking about her song Kole said, "It was inspired by a little breakup that I went through. After we broke up, I kept hearing he was going around to my friends and talking about me. Then I get this crazy text and I’m like 'alright, instead of answering this, I’m just gonna go and write a song about it.'"
Prior to her appearance on 'Songland' Kole used to write and sing pop songs. She also released them on streaming sites like Spotify. Some of the songs she wrote are 'Shiitake', 'Let It Burn', and 'Wildflower'. Kole has also performed at The Shrine and The Palladium, alongside Cassian (opening for Rufus du Sol) and SNBRN (opening for Gryffin).
With such strong names to back her experience and her talent, it was only a matter of time. In fact, before Trainor announced she that chose Kole's song 'Hurt Me' as her next hit single, she disclosed that the song sounded ready and upgraded, thanks to Ryan Tedder's help. So that must have sounded like 'music' to Kole's ears.
'Songland' airs every Tuesday night on NBC. Check your local listings for more information.