Getty Alessia Cara and Kevin Garrett at the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2016.
Alessia Cara is performing tonight in honor of Aretha Franklin’s life and legacy, as part of the “Aretha! A GRAMMY Celebration for the Queen of Soul” musical tribute. Although the “Best New Artist” Grammy-winner has been linked to fellow recording artist Kevin Garrett since 2016, it appears as though the two have broken up.
Kevin Garrett opened for Alessia Cara on her “Know It All” tour in 2016, and the two were photographed at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards together. In an interview with ET Canada following the 2016 Juno awards, Cara opened up about her relationship with Garrett and how he’s also a musician; she said “keep an eye out for him, guys,” remarking that since he’s American, “maybe he’ll win for International Artist one day.”
In late November 2018, Cara told the New York Post that she was focused on having time for herself and her career, and not on dating. They reported that she was single“Oh, my God, no, I’m not even thinking about [dating] right now. That’s the last thing on my mind,” she says. “Right now is just a period where I wanna think more about myself, because I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to do that [with] my career. Giving so much of myself to a bunch of different people, I’ve never had that time for me, so I think I’m gonna take advantage now.”
At around the same time, her album The Pains of Growing was released, and one of the songs, “Not Today,” stood out as an emotional breakup track. Of writing the lyrics, Cara told Ryan Seacrest “The song ‘Not Today’ … it’s extremely personal… I open up about things I’ve never opened up about like going to therapy and crying on the bathroom floor about someone … I think it’s important to be honest even though it feels a little naked… I guess in that particular song or situation I was going through a breakup which alone is very difficult.” She did not specify if the breakup she went through when writing “Not Today” was with Garrett, or if it was written about a previous ex.
not many artists get to say they wrote the whole thing by themselves, forever proud of you for this one @alessiacara, congratulations on a terrific album 💜
Whether the two were together at the time or broken up, Garrett tweeted his support for Cara when The Pains of Growing released, writing on Twitter “not many artists get to say they wrote the whole thing by themselves, forever proud of you for this one @alessiacara, congratulations on a terrific album.”
According to Billboard, Garrett signed a worldwide deal with AWAL in October 2018; his album is set to come out in two weeks. When the news broke that Garrett was signing with AWAL, the recording company’s CEO Lonny Olinick said in a statement “It’s been amazing to watch Kevin grow his career from a songwriter and producer to artist. He’s already shared stages with Mumford & Sons, X Ambassadors, Alessia Cara, Oh Wonder and more, establishing himself as an artist on the rise. We couldn’t be more excited to support his rapid growth and welcome him to the AWAL family.”