Featured In
ALBUMJavelinSufjan Stevens
Albums by Sufjan Stevens
ALBUMJavelinSufjan Stevens
ALBUMReflectionsSufjan Stevens, Timo Andres & Conor Hanick
ALBUMA Beginner's MindSufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine
ALBUMConvocationsSufjan Stevens
ALBUMThe AscensionSufjan Stevens
ALBUMAporiaSufjan Stevens & Lowell Brams
ALBUMThe DecalogueTimo Andres
ALBUMThe Greatest GiftSufjan Stevens
ALBUMPlanetariumSufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly & James McAlister
ALBUMCarrie & LowellSufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens's Popular Music Videos
Life with Dignity (Helado Negro Remix)
Sufjan Stevens
Saturn
Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly & James McAlister
Reach Out
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine
Will Anybody Ever Love Me?
Sufjan Stevens
So You Are Tired (Lyric Video)
Sufjan Stevens
Artist Playlists
Sufjan Stevens Essentials
Equal parts singer, songwriter, storyteller, and composer.
Sufjan Stevens: Deep Cuts
An omnivorous songwriter unbeholden to his acoustic.
Inspired by Sufjan Stevens
These songwriters took after his gentle, shape-shifting folk.
Sufjan Stevens: Influences
Mixing a classical, folky intimacy with avant-garde eccentricity.
Artist Biography
An explorer as much as an artist, Sufjan Stevens has created a body of work that includes gentle folk songs, glistening symphonies, reimagined Christmas carols, and fluttering electronics. Despite the diversity, there are universalities in his songs: The delicate heartbreaker “Mysteries of Love,” the martial “Decatur,” and the solemn “Fourth of July” somehow all feel intimate, expansive, graceful, and giddy.
Born in Detroit in 1975 and raised in Michigan, Stevens released his stylistically omnivorous debut, A Sun Came, in 1999. He then moved to New York to get a master’s degree in writing, honing the storytelling that would weave into the layered orchestration of 2003’s acclaimed Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State. That album was the gentle setup in a joke he made about creating an album for each of the 50 states; 2005's baroque pop-esque Illinois was the series' second and final installment.
In the years to follow, Stevens contributed to the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack, collaborated with Son Lux and The National, produced a live show consisting of a film he wrote and directed, and whose score was performed by an orchestra (2007's The BQE), and put out more albums including 2015's Carrie & Lowell, which showed a likewise deep connection between places on maps and tender spots in his memory and heart. He joined his stepfather, Lowell Brams, on the 2020 instrumental Aporia, and dedicated 2023’s emotionally affecting Javelin to the memory of his partner, who died that year.
Hometown
Detroit, MI, United States
Genre
Alternative