Jimmy Demers

From an early age Jimmy Demers displayed both a remarkable vocal gift and an instinctive sense of how to deploy it, growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, where his singing began at four. Together with his brother, songwriter Donnie Demers, he launched his professional path in 1982 by appearing on Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon and later placed as runner-up on Ed McMahon’s Star Search during the mid-1980s. Before long his voice became a sought-after studio presence on sessions for Cher, Paula Abdul, Garth Brooks, Dionne Warwick, and Bob Hope alike. He next entered the boy band Truth Inc., which secured a deal with Interscope Records and scored a middling pop hit, “Sex on the Beach,” in 1990. Between those projects Demers lent his voice to numerous advertising jingles, among them prominent campaigns for Coca-Cola, AOL, and McDonald’s. In 2007 he performed his brother Donnie’s composition “Let the Best of You Go Free” before a stadium crowd exceeding 65,000 at the closing ceremony of the World Summer Games Special Olympics, an experience that stood out as an emotional pinnacle. Concord Music Group then signed him, and his debut solo album, Dream a Little, appeared on the label in 2008; the set featured the Diane Warren song “Nothing Hurts Like Love” along with three tracks arranged by Victor Vanacore.