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Award-winning singer-songwriter Michael Nelson, who records under the moniker BANNERS, has a staggering 1.5 billion streams to his name to date – not bad for lad from Liverpool who began his musical career in the city’s famous cathedral. Nelson’s father is well-known record producer Ken Nelson, who produced albums for the likes of Coldplay, Gomez and Badly Drawn Boy. “I remember going to the studio and just being enthralled by it all,” he recalls. “I knew that was where I needed to be for the rest of my life.” Michael observed his father working with bands and started to think about the craft of songwriting for the first time. “I started to write songs. At first, I wrote a few for a girl I had a crush on,” he says, laughing about his early teenage ventures in songwriting. “After that, I also started doing some backing vocals in the studio and started to try to find my own path in this business.” He became a household name in North America and Canada, had a viral TikTok moment with his song ‘Someone To You’ that led to himearning 15 million engagements daily (a figure that’s still growing) and his music amassed over 1.5 billion streams. ‘Someone To You’, also went Platinum and Gold in multiple countries and he appeared on American Idol as a mentor to the contestants.