Writing for other artists is nice because it lets you take a break from being totally in your head about yourself and lets you try things you might not try for yourself. - Ryan Beatty

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While known for his deeply personal solo records, Ryan Beatty has spent years working alongside other artists, contributing to projects that span pop, rap, and alternative music.

Growing up in Clovis, California, Ryan Beatty first gained attention through YouTube covers before entering the Radio Disney pop circuit. At 18, he stepped away from that world, followed by years of legal disputes with his former management and label that kept him from releasing music. He returned independently in 2018 with his debut Boy in Jeans, on his own terms.

And while he's spent the last several years building a world of his own, releasing four studio albums, he's also helped shape the worlds of other artists. His work as a songwriter and collaborator might seem like a separate chapter from his solo career, but the two have always been connected.

Most recently, he worked with Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus.

He was called on to work on Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER in its earliest stages, secretly working on the project for four years before its release. The result earned him 4 co-writing credits on “PROTECTOR,” “JUST FOR FUN,” “II HANDS II HEAVEN,” and “BODYGUARD”—dubbed the Beehive's favorite song from the album.

COWBOY CARTER went on to win Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammys: Beyoncé’s first AOTY win, placing his writing on one of the biggest musical projects of the decade!

What makes the collaboration even more impressive is that COWBOY CARTER came together alongside his own album, Calico. In a Billboard interview, he explained that he worked on both projects at the same time, always aware of the different worlds each record needed to live in. Moving between those two spaces, he said, helped him grow as an artist. And although writing for another artist requires a different approach, he explains that he still brings his own perspective to each song; like on “JUST FOR FUN,” traces of his own life carry through, with Beyoncé singing about Clovis, the town where he grew up.

Beyoncé isn’t the only artist who’s turned to him to help bring a song to life. Just last year, Miley Cyrus reached out while working on the title track of her album Something Beautiful. She called on him to help finalize the song with his own words; as Miley put it, she “knew that Ryan had them”, like he was carrying one of the project's infinity stones.

Long before he became “an artist’s artist”, it was his collaboration with BROCKHAMPTON that put his songwriting skills on the map.

Working with BROCKHAMPTON introduced Beatty to a whole new audience; the band's ferociously dedicated fan base considered him an honorary member, helping to propel his music into the spotlight.

He became a consistent collaborator with the band, working with them throughout two of the SATURATION projects, their Iridescence Era and Ginger project; one of the tracks he worked on for Ginger was “SUGAR,” where he sang alongside Dua Lipa on the track's remix edition; a song he co-wrote and is considered to be the band's breakout to a global audience.

A loyal, honorary member of the band, Beatty not only appears vocally on the group's last two albums, but stretched the collaboration to band member Kevin Abstract’s 2019 solo album Arizona Baby, credited as a co-writer and featured artist.

That same year, as Tyler, the Creator rolled out his Grammy Award-winning album IGOR, Beatty was credited as a vocalist on the tracks “I THINK” and “I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE,” where Tyler uses Beatty’s vocals in the background, utilizing him as an instrument rather than a true feature. The collaboration happened after Tyler sent him a DM praising his song “Party’s Over”, which, of all things, led to them collaborating on Tyler's holiday EP, Music Inspired by Illumination & Dr. Seuss' The Grinch in 2018; after this collab, working on IGOR became a sure thing.

For Ryan Beatty, writing for other artists has been a “happy accident”. He describes it as a different creative muscle, allowing him to step outside his own head and explore ideas he might not try in his solo work. But that doesn't mean disconnecting from the music. Whether writing for himself or someone else, he needs to feel emotionally connected to what he's creating.

And we hear that in his COLORS performance.

Stripped-back and intimate, his rendition of “Delancey” brings the focus back to his voice and songwriting as he reflects on the emptiness of searching for love in the wrong places, once again highlighting the emotional depth at the heart of both his own music and the music he has helped create for others.