Yonny laughs when he admits he hadn’t been to he Crocodile, Neumos, or Barboza until after he’d already started performing.

“I’ve lived here my whole life,” he says. “But I never really went to any shows. The Seattle scene was something I only really discovered in 2022.” That same year, he met producer Evan George, who would become both collaborator and guide. “He introduced me to this whole world I wasn’t even aware of,” Yonny recalls.

Yonny’s first solo show came that year on Halloween night at the now-closed Café Racer. “It went from me being in my room at three in the morning pretending to perform, to actually having people in front of me enjoying the art I made,” he says. “It just made everything feel real.”

Over the next few years, that reality would only expand. In 2024, his breakout single “City in Motion” took off, earning more than two million streams and soundtracking a major Sounders FC and Hometeam streetwear campaign. The music video, shot around Seattle’s streets and landmarks, turned a rising artist into a symbol of the city’s next wave. “All of a sudden it became the slogan for the whole campaign,” Yonny says. “Then I’m on the Space Needle with Ken Griffey Jr. It still hasn’t really kicked in yet. It’s something you’d dream of.”

Born Yonatan Daniel to an ethiopian immigrant mother in Lynnwood, Yonny grew up listening to Ne-Yo, Michael Jackson, and the rhythms of Ethiopian pop. His sound, melodic and introspective with a hint of West Coast cool, draws from all of it.

His 2024 album, Everywhere, But Always, builds on that eclectic foundation. Even as he signed with Warner Records and started splitting his time between Los Angeles and Seattle, Yonny stayed grounded in his roots. “There might be eyes you don’t even know are watching,” he says. “But for me, the responsibility is just staying true to myself. Being me is what got me here.”

This fall, he celebrated the album’s one-year anniversary with an intimate hometown show backed by a live jazz band. For Yonny, the night represented balance. “I want to bring Seattle everywhere else,” he says. “It starts with really wearing that on my chest.”

Yonny sees himself as part of a generational shift. “We’re laying the foundation for the next chapter of Seattle hip-hop,” he says. “Other regions have had their moments—the South, the Bay, L.A., New Yor—but the Pacific Northwest hasn’t really had ours yet. I think that’s about to change.” And when it does, Yonny hopes people won’t be surprised when they hear a new artist and learn they’re from Seattle. “Because that’s all it ever is right now,” he quips with a grin. “People say, ‘Oh, really?’ I want it to be like, ‘Of course. Of course they’re from Seattle.’”