Arizona Zervas is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from Maryland. His song "Roxanne" reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, after being prominently featured in Spotify playlists and by users in TikTok videos.[1] The success of the single led him to tour nationwide in 2019, and in November of that same year he signed with Columbia Records.[1] "Roxanne" also topped the charts in New Zealand, and reached the top 40 in the UK and several other nations. Arizona Zervas released his first song in the eleventh grade.[2] His debut single "Don't Hit My Line" was released in 2016.[3] This was followed up by the release of more than 30 singles - with nearly every song totaling 1 million streams on Spotify. A debut three-song EP Living Facts was released in 2018.[3] Zervas released his first charting song "Roxanne" on 10 October 2019. It quickly became a viral hit on the app TikTok.[3] The song reached number 1 on Spotify's United States Top 50 chart on 8 November, becoming the first track by an unsigned, fully independent artist to top the chart since the beginning of 2017.[3] The song subsequently debuted at number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as debuting at number 24 on the UK Singles Chart and reached number 1 in New Zealand, becoming his first number one on any national chart. The song sparked a bidding war among labels, and on 15 November 2019, it was reported that Zervas had signed with Columbia Records.[1] This marks Columbia's second major signing of a viral star in 2019 following the label's deal with Lil Nas X, thanks to his breakout hit "Old Town Road".[1] Since the release and success of "Roxanne", the singer has gone from having just over 500,000[4] monthly Spotify listeners to nearly 15 million listeners currently.[3] Zervas writes and engineers all of his songs himself, working with a range of producers including RedLightMuzik, J-Glad and 94skrt, who produced "Roxanne".[3] According to Billboard magazine, Zervas has performed more than 50 shows across the US, including at New York’s Webster Hall.[3]
