Hayley Williams

Hayley Williams was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on December 27, 1988, and after her parents divorced she and her mother moved to Franklin, Tennessee. That's where she started Paramore with Josh Farro, Zac Farro and Jeremy Davis, and through every lineup change since, she's the one member who sings on all six of the band's albums, from All We Know Is Falling to This Is Why. She and Taylor York took home the 2015 Grammy for Best Rock Song with "Ain't It Fun".

Her voice has always been bigger than the band's pop-punk frame. She cut "Teenagers" for the Jennifer's Body soundtrack, turned up on B.o.B's "Airplanes", which climbed to No. 2 on the Hot 100, and has sung alongside everyone from New Found Glory and American Football to Turnstile and David Byrne.

Going solo let her get stranger and more intimate. The Petals for Armor EPs and album in 2020 and Flowers for Vases / Descansos in 2021 traded arena-sized hooks for something more knotted and exposed. Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, released in 2025 on her own independent label, Post Atlantic, sounds like the loosest she's ever been, and "Parachute" floats and aches in equal measure. The album picked up three Grammy nominations, and in 2026 she launched a new project, Power Snatch, with producer Daniel James.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.