Christian Leave

Album cover for Christian Leave's Heartbreak Room

        Genre: Pop
        Age: 19
        Est. 2014
        Label: godmode
        Monthly Listeners: 1.4 M





Christian Akridge— better known as Christian Leave— began his online presence on Vine where he amassed over 800,000 followers before the eventual death of the popular video-sharing app. He was known for his comedy vines and quickly in 2014 started touring alongside other social media influencers with Pressplay, a talent management agency. On tour, fans got the opportunity to meet all these heartthrobs, as well as watch them perform. At the time, Christian was uploading song covers on YouTube, his most viewed being “Cigarette Daydream” by Cage The Elephant with 685,000 views. Along with his song covers, Christian also uploaded comedic videos, his most viewed in that category gained 262,000 views and was titled “The Gargle Challenge.”

After showcasing his talent through all these renditions of popular songs, Christian finally released his own music in 2016 through an EP he called “Hope.” The song “Please Notice” off that EP remains as his top song on Spotify with over 42 million plays, as well as on Apple Music. It is a nearly two-minute ballad about yearning for the love and affection of someone he loves, which the last verse leaving you wanting more. His last release included two songs, with my personal favorite, “Darling,” another love song. He writes his own songs, and the genuine lyrics and emotion resonate deeply with his fans.

This past year, Christian has taken a hiatus from posting YouTube content aside from music, as his last five uploads have been exclusively videos of his original songs. It looks like he has shifted his focus almost entirely from comedy over to music. But who’s to say Christian can’t do both? He often makes appearances in the videos of Viners-turned-YouTube-comedians Drew Phillips and Enya Umanzor, another two of my favorites, contributing to the comedic element of their rather eccentric sketches.

It’s no doubt that Christian’s comedic talent had a big hand in getting his music where it is today. It seems that having a music career was his goal all along, but without the exposure that the now 19-year-old got through Vine, it would have taken him much longer to have his talents discovered by a mass audience. Art is becoming more and more competitive with the increased exposure that comes with social media. Every person with simply a smartphone has a platform available to share their artistic talents on. Christian’s musical and comedic talent, as well as his good looks, all made for the perfect recipe to kickstart his fame for an eventual career as a musician.

On August 9th of this year, he tweeted “I’VE BEEN MAKING THE BEST MUSIC I’VE EVER MADE AGH I’M SO PROUD OF IT AND I THINK EVERYONE’S GOING TO LIKE IT. (hopefully) I’VE NEVER REALLY BEEN CONFIDENT IN MY ART AND IT’S A GOOD FEELING TO HAVE.” It’s refreshing to see artists using their fame to pursue their passions, rather than pandering to an audience. The music reflects the artist’s effort and I’m sure we’ll be hearing great things from Christian Leave in the future.