* En anglais uniquement
Under her stage name of
Eden xo, singer/songwriter
Jessie Malakouti makes glossy, dance-oriented electronic pop music. After stints in bands, she reached number 14 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in 2014 with the solo project's first single, "Too Cool to Dance."
Eden xo's debut EP, The Question, arrived in 2019.
Born
Jessica Eden Malakouti in Southern California in 1989, she graduated high school at age 16 and moved to Los Angeles. She spent 2006 to 2008 fronting the all-girl hip-hop and dance-pop-influenced band Shut Up Stella, who were signed to Epic Records. After parting ways with the group and the label,
Malakouti signed a publishing deal with
EMI and spent the next two years in London working on material with French house-music producer Fred Falk. In 2009, she released the single "Standing Up for the Lonely" on
Ministry of Sound.
Upon returning to Los Angeles in 2010,
Malakouti formed the electro-pop outfit Jessie and the Toy Boys, who gained notice for such singles as "Valentine," "We Own the Night," and "Push It," which reached the Top Ten on the Billboard dance chart. The band's debut EP, Show Me Your Tan Lines, appeared in 2011. That same year, they joined
Britney Spears as an opening act on her Femme Fatale tour. After a planned Jessie and the Toy Boys full-length album never surfaced,
Malakouti signed to Virgin and released the 2013 single "White Girl Wasted" under her own name. In 2014,
Malakouti debuted her
Eden xo moniker with the single "Too Cool to Dance" on Virgin. It reached the Top 20 of the Dance Club Songs chart. She followed it up in 2015 with "The Weekend," and her version of
Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now" was featured on the pilot episode of the Fox series Scream Queens.
After leaving Virgin,
Eden xo released a series of one-off singles that included collaborations with
Raja Kumari ("Drips Gold") and
Travis Mills ("Say That Again") in 2017. In the meantime, she found demand as a songwriter for others, writing for the likes of
Kygo and
Ava Max before deciding to concentrate on her own recording career. She emerged from the studio with the EP The Question on independent label AlphaOmega Records in May 2019. It featured an appearance by U.K. production duo
Just Kiddin'. That year, "Bad Girls Go to Heaven," her duet with prior collaborator
Bonnie McKee, aired on an episode of the CW network's Dynasty. Mid-2020 brought the release of "American Youth French Kissing," the first track from
Eden xo's debut album. ~ Matt Collar & Marcy Donelson