Fun facts about 2025 Rose Parade music performers

Background and Fun Facts on 2025 Rose Parade music performers:

Aloe Blacc

The R&B/hip hop singer, born to Panamanian parents and raised in Laguna Hills, graduated from USC. “I Need a Dollar” was an international top 20 single in 2010 across the pond before becoming well-known at home. Three years later, Swedish EDM DJ/producer Avicii got Blacc to co-write and sing on “Wake Me Up,” which topped music charts worldwide. Then the singer landed his first U.S. top 10 single, the platinum certified “The Man.” Upcoming album “Stand Together,” slated for February, contains songs paired with philanthropic causes. Country/pop artist Hunter Hayes is among the collaborators.

Fun facts

“Wake Me Up” currently ranks among the top 50 most streamed songs on Spotify (2.533 billion)

His given name is Egbert Dawkins III.

Songwriting credits on “The Man” include Elton John & Bernie Taupin because it interpolates “Your Song.”

Blacc was featured vocalist on tracks by other EDM artists Tiesto, David Guetta, Paul Oakenfold, and Zedd.

Debbie Gibson

Fun facts

Gibson owns one of the Liberace’s Baldwin pianos.

She starred with Tiffany, another ‘80s teen pop music queen, in the campy 2011 Syfy flick “Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.”

Gibson can be seen briefly in a dinner scene during the first “Ghostbusters” movie.

As the Night Owl, Gibson performed in disguise on “The Masked Singer” in 2023

She is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest female music artist to write, produce and perform a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100.

Gibson appeared in the music video for Michael Jackson’s “Liberian Girl” off 1987’s “Bad.”

Getting to know the other 2025 Tournament of Roses music performers

Kiesza

A multiple Juno Award-winning electro pop singer from Canada, Kiesza had a 2014 international top 10 single with “Hideaway.” The accompanying debut album “Sound of a Woman” also included her cover of ‘90s Eurodance hit “What is Love” by Haddaway. Kiesza’s latest EP is “Dancing and Crying Vol. 1.”

Fun facts

At 17, Kiesza joined her brother in the Canadian navy, where she spent three years as markswoman and code breaker.

The 2015 DreamWorks animated film “Home” contained two Kiesza soundtrack co-writes – for herself and Jennifer Lopez.

She competed in Miss Universe Canada.

Kiesza has been a featured vocalist on songs by Duran Duran, Lindsey Stirling, and Pitbull.

Betty Who

Australian dance pop singer/actress Betty Who (born Jessica Newham) started playing cello at age 4, moved to Michigan for classical studies of the instrument, attended Berklee School of Music and taught herself piano and guitar. During the 2010s, Who scored three Billboard Dance Chart toppers: A cover of Donna Lewis’ Nineties pop hit “I Love You Always Forever,” “Somebody Loves You,” and “All of You.” More recently, Who made her acting debut in the 2020 HBO Max film “Unpregnant” and last year, debuted on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown.” Who’s latest album is 2022’s “Big.”

Fun facts

The stage name Betty Who was taken from a song Newham wrote as a teen.

Who hosted the Amazon Prime reality dating series “The One That Got Away” in 2022.

Netflix series “Queer Eye” used Who’s remixed version of Widelife’s “All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)” for its second season theme song.

Brian Culbertson

The smooth jazz multi-instrumentalist once played trombone during a 2 a.m. jam session with Prince during the latter’s Rio Las Vegas residency.

Culbertson was a guest musician on Donny Osmond’s 2004 album “What I Meant to Say.”

He founded the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway festival in 2012.

Since the mid-2000s, Culbertson has had a dozen tracks reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Smooth Jazz Airplay chart.

Chapel Hart

The female country music vocal trio first gained national attention after competing on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” in 2022 and eventually placed fifth.

Chapel Hart is from Mississippi and comprised of two sisters and their cousin.

After writing and recording “You Can Have Him Jolene,” an answer song to Dolly Parton’s signature 1973 hit “Jolene,” the late Loretta Lynn asked the women to do a similar update to one of her famous tunes. The result was “Welcome to Fist City.”

They contribute guest backing vocals on Darius Rucker’s 2023 album “Carolyn’s Boy.”

Brandon Bennett

In 2008, the Louisiana-bred singer was named “The Ultimate Elvis Tribute Act” during Elvis Presley Enterprises’ annual contest held in conjunction with Graceland.

He spent several years in the long-running Chicago production of “Million Dollar Quartet,” the Tony-winning jukebox musical about Sun Records.

Over the years, Bennett has worked with members of Elvis Presley’s band, such as D.J. Fontana, the Sweet Inspirations and The Jordanaires.

Aloe Blacc photo by Anthony Williams.