Frannk Whitte was five years old when he saw Michael Jackson on a screen for the first time, and Jackson felt like a superhero to him. He got the glove. He tried to dance like him. That turned into drum lessons at seven or eight, and by thirteen he was producing his own beats. At fifteen, after his first breakup, he wrote and recorded a song for the first time and sent it to friends without telling them it was his. They liked it before they found out. That was the moment, he says, that told him to keep going.
He’s been at it for close to a decade now, with songs like “I Can Finally Know,” “Grooving Without Moving,” “Night Shift” and “Taste” already part of his catalog. His debut album, “Who,” is a separate rollout, a new track every couple of weeks, with the full project landing by mid-November. Born in Sao Paulo and now splitting time between Brazil and Los Angeles, Whitte says the sound just follows wherever he is emotionally when he sits down to write. “I’m not chasing a label or a category,” he says. “I’m chasing honesty.”
The last three years changed things. Whitte spent that stretch being mentored by Corey Rooney, the legendary producer and songwriter. So when he’s asked who he’d want to collaborate with, given the choice of anyone, the answer is Michael Jackson. “Even though he’s not with us anymore, I feel like I caught a glimpse of his magic through my mentor,” Whitte says. “That connection has been a gift.”
That word, magic, comes up more than once when he talks about why he does this. “To me, music is the closest thing we have to magic,” he says. “In a world that can feel really shallow and manufactured, I want to create something that breaks through, something personal and real.” He wants someone to hear a song and land back in a specific night, or a person, or a version of themselves they hadn’t thought about in a while, whether that means dancing, crying, or just sitting with something real.
Once “Who” is fully out, Whitte says he wants people to sit with it before he moves on to anything else. He’s already planning one or two shows in Sao Paulo once the album drops in full. He posts updates on Instagram and TikTok, and his music is streaming now on Spotify.
He was five when Michael Jackson gave him something to chase. Years and one pivotal mentorship later, he’s still chasing it, just with a much clearer idea of what it looks like when he catches it.
