Hayley Nichole Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman who is best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and keyboardist of the rock band Paramore.
Born and raised in Mississippi, Williams moved to Franklin, Tennessee at the age of 13 just after her parents divorced in 2002. In 2004, she formed Paramore alongside Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jeremy Davis. The band currently consists of Hayley Williams, Zac Farro and Taylor York. The band has released five studio albums: All We Know Is Falling (2005), Riot! (2007), Brand New Eyes (2009), Paramore (2013), and After Laughter (2017).
Williams released her debut solo single “Simmer” on January 22, 2020, and announced on the same day that her debut studio album, Petals for Armor, would be released on May 8, 2020. The album was preceded by two EPs entitled Petals for Armor I and II that make up the first two thirds of the album. Her second solo record, Flowers for Vases / Descansos, was released less than a year later on February 5, 2021.
Aside from Paramore and preceding her solo career, Williams recorded the song “Teenagers” for the soundtrack of Jennifer’s Body(2009) and has collaborated with artists such as October Fall, The Chariot, Set Your Goals, Zedd and New Found Glory. In 2010, she was featured on the single “Airplanes” by B.o.B. It peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. A sequel to the song, “Airplanes, Part II”, features new verses from B.o.B. and a verse from Eminem, while Williams’ vocals remain the same. This collaboration led to a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Other ventures in which Williams has explored include online beauty and music series Kiss-Off on Popular TV launched in 2015 and the hair-dye company Good Dye Young, launched in 2016.
Early life
Hayley Nichole Williams was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on December 27, 1988, the daughter of Joey and Cristi Williams. She has two younger half-sisters. After her parents divorced in 2002, Williams moved with her mother to Franklin, Tennessee. She met future bandmates Josh and Zac Farro at her new school. Shortly after settling in Franklin, she began taking vocal lessons with Brett Manning. While still at school, she tried out for a local funk cover band, The Factory, where she met Jeremy Davis. Williams’ childhood neighbor was NBA player Rodney Hood.
Music career
Williams was discovered in 2003 by managers Dave Steunebrink and Richard Williams, who signed the 14-year-old to a two-year production deal. At the time she was writing pop songs with songwriters in Nashville. Williams was introduced to Atlantic Records A&R Tom Storms through Richard Williams’ attorneys Jim Zumwalt and Kent Marcus, and then signed to the label by Jason Flom. The label’s original plan for their new artist was to make her a solo pop artist, but Williams objected to this, saying that she wanted to be part of a band and play pop punk music.
Williams performing on Warped Tour 2007
Atlantic decided to go along with her wishes, and she then formed Paramore with Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jeremy Davis. The music of Paramore was originally supposed to come out on Atlantic Records, but the label’s marketing department decided it would be better for the image of the band to not have them attached to a huge label. They instead released their music through a “cooler” niche label, Fueled by Ramen. According to Williams, the name “Paramore” came from the maiden name of the mother of one of their first bass players. Once the group learned the meaning of the homophone “paramour” (“secret lover”), they decided to adopt the name, using the Paramorespelling. The band’s debut album, All We Know Is Falling, was released in 2005 when Hayley was only 16 years old. Paramore has since released four more studio albums, Riot! (2007), Brand New Eyes (2009), the self-titled Paramore (2013) and After Laughter (2017). In June 2009, the band welcomed Taylor York (rhythm guitar) as an official member, although he had already been playing as a touring member with the band since 2007. In December 2010, two of the founding members of Paramore (Josh and Zac Farro) left the band. The news was posted by Williams on Paramore’s website, with Josh later posting a blog post confirming their departure, calling the group “a manufactured product of a major label, riding on the coattails of ‘Hayley’s dream'”.
Williams performing in 2010
In 2006, Paramore toured outside of the US for the first time, which included a headline tour of the UK and supporting post-hardcore rock band The Blackout on the Give It A Name Festival in Europe. The following year, she and the rest of Paramore made an appearance in the music video for “Kiss Me” by New Found Glory. In the 2007 Kerrang! Readers’ Poll, she finished second to Evanescence’s Amy Lee in the “Sexiest Female” category, going on to win the first place spot for “Sexiest Female” a year later in the 2008 poll, and again in the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 poll. She also appears as a playable character in the video game Guitar Hero World Tour after completing “Misery Business” in the vocalist campaign.
Williams performing as part of Paramore on Monumentour in 2014
Williams wrote and recorded the song “Teenagers”, which was featured in the soundtrack for the feature film Jennifer’s Body. After the release of “Teenagers”, Williams stated that she had no plans to establish herself as a solo artist. In 2010, she appeared on the tracks “Airplanes” and “Airplanes, Part II” from alternative rapper B.o.B’s debut album, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray. When it was released as a single, “Airplanes” peaked within the top ten in nineteen countries, including the number one position in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
EDM producer Zedd and Williams collaborated on the track “Stay the Night”, from his debut studio album, Clarity, which was released in 2013. Williams was honored with the “Trailblazer Award” in the 2014 Billboard’s Women in Music Awards for making a unique mark in music and paving the way for other artists. In 2015, Williams starred as the ‘Crimson Curse’ in Taylor Swift’s music video for her single, “Bad Blood”, alongside sixteen other celebrities. Along with band member and co-writer Taylor York, Williams was nominated for and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song at the 2015 ceremony for the song “Ain’t It Fun”. In July 2015, Williams won the APMA for Best Vocalist. In 2019, she collaborated with American Football on the song “Uncomfortably Numb”, which appeared on the band’s third self-titled studio album.
In December 2019, on her 31st birthday, Williams announced she would be releasing solo music in 2020, with a “taste” of it to come in January. Flyers consisting of a picture of Williams under the title Petals for Armor began appearing in several US cities and abroad. Her debut solo single “Simmer” was released on January 22, 2020, with its accompanying music video. That same day Williams announced that her debut studio album, Petals for Armor, would be released on May 8, 2020. It was later revealed that she would release an EP, Petals for Armor I, on February 6, 2020, in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music. On March 19, she announced that she was postponing the release of the second half of the EP, and instead released the song “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris” featuring boygenius.
In January 2021, Williams started teasing a project titled Flowers for Vases / Descansos. She unofficially released the single “My Limb” by giving a CD with the track on it to a dedicated fan. Williams released the album on February 5, 2021.
Endorsements
Williams performing at Rock im Park in Nuremberg, Germany, in 2013
In March 2013, Williams announced she was partnering with MAC Cosmetics for the release of a new makeup collection on April 9, 2013. The four-piece collection included a bright orange lipstick, an orange nail polish, a shimmery coral eye shadow and a beauty powder. Hayley appeared on the April 2013 cover of Nylon magazine to promote Paramore’s self-titled album.
In October of that year, Williams partnered with the Hard Rock Café’s PINKTOBER charity campaign to raise awareness and funding for breast cancer and its research.
In 2015, she launched the online beauty and music series “Kiss-Off” on Popular TV.
In 2016, after over four years of planning, Williams launched her own hair dye company, Good Dye Young, alongside her hair and makeup artist, Brian O’Connor. The colors offered by the company included an orange, Riot!; a pink, Ex-Girl; a blue, Blue Ruin; a yellow, Steal My Sunshine; a red, Rock Lobster; a purple, PPL Eater; a green, Kowabunga; a teal, Narwhal; and a black, None More Black.The dyes are vegan and cruelty-free.
Williams performing in 2018
In 2017, Good Dye Young launched a temporary hair dye line, that disappears after one wash, called Poser Paste, and in May 2020, they released Lighter Daze, a range of five semi-permanent pastel colours.
In March 2021, Williams announced her collaboration with Tea Huntress, a tea manufacturer in Nashville. Two new blends are available as part of the collaboration, called Bloom and Alibi. A portion of each sale will be donated to Thistle Farms, an organization that helps women survivors of trafficking, abuse, and addiction.
Personal life
Williams is a Christian and regularly discusses her faith in relation to her music. She has criticized the judgmental nature of some in the Christian community. The Farro brothers cited differing attitudes on faith as contributing to their exit from Paramore. Beginning in 2007, Williams was in a relationship with Chad Gilbert, lead guitarist of New Found Glory. They became engaged on Christmas Day 2014. They were married on February 20, 2016. On July 1, 2017, the couple formally announced that they had separated and their pending divorce was eventually finalized by the end of 2017, during Paramore’s touring cycle for After Laughter.
Williams has publicized her decisions against such practices as smoking, drinking, or use of recreational drugs.
Mostly starting from the After Laughter era onwards, Williams has been vocal about her experiences with depression, which caused her to briefly leave Paramore in mid-2015. In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music in February 2020, she revealed she had suicidal thoughts, but that she ultimately did not act on them. In a February 2021 interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, she discussed how she’s been impacted by generational trauma and revealed she’s been in therapy since the conclusion of Paramore’s After Laughter tour in 2018.
In 2015, Williams responded to feminist criticism of “Misery Business” – a single from Paramore’s album Riot! – citing her youth and inexperience as a contributing factor to the song’s allegedly misogynistic lyrics. In a blog post addressing the criticism, Williams described herself as “a proud feminist. Just maybe not a perfect one”. In June 2020, Williams temporarily handed control of her Instagram account to Nashville-based activist group Teens4Equality to highlight their work in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Artistry
Influences
Williams cites artists such as Saves the Day, MewithoutYou, Radiohead, The Cure, No Doubt, Slick Shoes, The Chariot, Now, Now, Jimmy Eat World, New Found Glory, Fireworks, Set Your Goals, Tegan and Sara, H2O, Lemuria and The Swellers as her favorite bands. She has noted her admiration for such female singers as Debbie Harry, Emily Haines, Siouxsie Sioux, Gwen Stefani, Beyoncé, and Brody Dalle of The Distillers.
Voice
Williams is a soprano with a four-octave range. Emilee Lindner of MTV News has noted her ability to sing in the whistle register, and Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone her “acrobatic” singing style. Thrills also notes Williams’s slight country twang in some of her songs. Alternative Press wrote that Williams “has more charisma than singers twice her age, and her band aren’t far behind in their chops, either.” Singer-songwriter John Mayer praised Williams’s voice in an October 2007 blog post, calling her “The great orange hope” (her hair being orange at the time).
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
AUS |
AUT |
BEL (FL) |
GER |
IRE |
NZ |
POR |
SCO |
UK |
||
| Petals for Armor |
|
18 | 6 | 51 | 117 | 24 | 38 | 24 | 21 | 1 | 4 |
| Flowers for Vases / Descansos |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Extended plays
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat. |
|||||||
| Petals for Armor I |
|
19 | |||||
| Petals for Armor II |
|
— | |||||
| Petals for Armor: Self-Serenades |
|
— | |||||
| “—” denotes a recording that did not chart | |||||||
Singles
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Alt. |
US Rock |
SCO |
NZ Hot |
UK Sales |
|||||||||
| “Simmer” | 2020 | 21 | 10 | 54 | — | 1 | Petals for Armor | ||||||
| “Leave It Alone” | — | 39 | — | — | — | ||||||||
| “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris” | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| “Over Yet” | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| “My Friend” | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| “Why We Ever” | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| “Dead Horse” | — | 36 | — | — | — | ||||||||
| “Teardrop” | 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||||||
| “My Limb” | — | — | — | 40 | — | Flowers for Vases / Descansos | |||||||
| “—” denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
As featured artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
AUS |
AUT |
CAN |
GER |
IRE |
MEX |
NZ |
SWI |
UK |
||||
| “Airplanes” (B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams) |
2010 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 2 | — | 1 | 5 | 1 |
|
B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray |
| “Stay the Night” (Zedd featuring Hayley Williams) |
2013 | 18 | 11 | 20 | 22 | 15 | 8 | 44 | 20 | 56 | 2 |
|
Clarity |
| “Vicious Love” (New Found Glory featuring Hayley Williams) |
2015 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Resurrection: Ascension | |
| “Bury It” (Chvrches featuring Hayley Williams) |
2016 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 49 | — | — | — | Every Open Eye | |
| “Uncomfortably Numb” (American Football featuring Hayley Williams) |
2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | American Football | |
| “—” denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
Other appearances
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Alt. Dig. |
US Rock Dig. |
||||||||||||
| “Teenagers” | 2009 | — | — | Jennifer’s Body: Music from the Motion Picture | |||||||||
| “Rainbow Connection” (with Weezer) |
2011 | 13 | 23 | Muppets: The Green Album | |||||||||
| “—” denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
Guest appearances
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| “Keep Dreaming Upside Down” (October Fall featuring Hayley Williams) |
2006 | A Season in Hell |
| “Then Came to Kill” (The Chariot featuring Hayley Williams) |
2007 | The Fiancée |
| “The Church Channel” (Say Anything featuring Hayley Williams) |
In Defense of the Genre | |
| “Plea” (Say Anything featuring Hayley Williams and Kenny Vasoli) |
||
| “Fallen” (Death In The Park featuring Hayley Williams) |
2008 | Death In The Park EP |
| “Tangled Up” (New Found Glory featuring Hayley Williams) |
2009 | Not Without a Fight |
| “The Few That Remain” (Set Your Goals featuring Hayley Williams) |
This Will Be the Death of Us | |
| “Airplanes, Part II” (B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams andEminem) |
2010 | B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray |
| “Fallen” (Death In The Park featuring Hayley Williams) |
Death In The Park | |
| “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume” (MewithoutYou featuring Hayley Williams) |
2012 | Ten Stories |
| “All Circles” (MewithoutYou featuring Hayley Williams and Daniel Smith ofDanielson) |
||
| “Babe” (What’s Eating Gilbert featuring Hayley Williams) |
Nashville Session | |
| “What’s His Name” (Domestikated featuring Becca (Hayley Williams)) |
Five Minutes in Timeout! | |
| “Wearing Your Ring” (What’s Eating Gilbert featuring Hayley Williams) |
2015 | That New Sound You’re Looking For |
| “As U Wave” (HalfNoise featuring Hayley Williams) |
2017 | The Velvet Face EP |
| “Nineteen” (Tegan and Sara featuring Hayley Williams) |
Tegan and Sara Present The Con X: Covers |
Notes
- ^ “Flowers for Vases / Descansos” did not enter the Billboard 200 chart, but peaked at number 59 on the US Album Sales chart.
- ^ “Flowers for Vases / Descansos” did not enter the UK Albums chart, but peaked at number seven on the UK Album Downloads chart.
- ^ “Over Yet” did not enter the Alternative Airplay chart, but peaked at number 25 on the Alternative Digital Song Sales chart.
- ^ “Airplanes” did not enter the Mexico Airplay chart, but peaked at number seven on the Mexico Ingles Airplay chart.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Association | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Kerrang Readers’ Poll 2007 | Sexiest Female | Herself | Nominated |
| 2008 | Kerrang Readers’ Poll 2008 | Won | ||
| Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica | Premio Fashionista 2008 | Won | ||
| MTV Video Music Brazil | Best International Act 2008 | Won | ||
| 2009 | Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica | Premio Fashionista 2009 | Won | |
| Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 | Sexiest Female | Won | ||
| Kerrang Readers’ Poll 2009 | Won | |||
| 2010 | Kerrang Readers’ Poll 2010 | Won | ||
| 2010 MTV Video Music Awards | Video of the Year | “Airplanes” (featuring Hayley Williams) – B.o.B | Nominated | |
| Best Hip-Hop Video | Nominated | |||
| Best Collaboration | Nominated | |||
| Teen Choice Awards 2010 | Hook Up Song | Won | ||
| 52nd Annual Grammy Awards | Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | “Decode” – Williams, Josh Farro and Taylor York | Nominated | |
| 2011 | Kerrang Readers’ Poll 2011 | Sexiest Female | Herself | Won |
| 37th People’s Choice Awards | Favorite Song | “Airplanes” (featuring Hayley Williams) – B.o.B | Nominated | |
| BET Awards 2011 | Video of the Year | Nominated | ||
| Best Collaboration | Nominated | |||
| 53rd Annual Grammy Awards | Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals | “Airplanes, Part II” (featuring Hayley Williams and Eminem)– B.o.B | Nominated | |
| 2012 | Kerrang Readers’ Poll 2012 | Sexiest Female | Herself | Won |
| NME Awards 2012 | Hottest Female | Nominated | ||
| Kerrang! Awards 2012 | Nominated | |||
| Tweeter of the Year | Won | |||
| 2013 | Kerrang! Awards 2013 | Hottest Female | Nominated | |
| 2014 | Alternative Press Music Awards 2014 | Best Singer | ||
| iHeartRadio Music Awards | EDM Song of the Year | “Stay the Night” (featuring Hayley Williams) – Zedd | ||
| MTV Video Music Awards 2014 | Best Editing | |||
| MTV Clubland Award | Won | |||
| Billboard Women in Music | Trailblazer Award | Herself | ||
| 2015 | 57th Annual Grammy Awards | Best Rock Song | “Ain’t It Fun” – Williams and Taylor York | |
| Kerrang! Awards 2015 | Best Tweeter | Herself | ||
| Alternative Press Music Awards 2015 | Best Vocalist | |||
| 2020 | 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards | Best Alternative |