Music like Mikky Ekko

John Stephen Sudduth (born December 17, 1984), known professionally as Mikky Ekko, is an American recording artist and record producer from Nashville, signed to Interscope Records. He is best known for writing and being featured on Rihanna's 2013 single "Stay", which charted in multiple countries, becoming Ekko's first-charting material. Ekko released Time, his debut studio album, in January 2015 through RCA Records. Fame, his second album, was released in November 2018 on Interscope Records.

Born John Stephen Sudduth in Louisiana, Mikky Ekko had a restless childhood as the son of a preacher, moving around America's deep south. Having settled briefly in Tupelo, Mississippi, and absorbed as much gospel as he could, he relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, and started playing in bands. Ekko began working as a songwriter for other artists, but realized that he wanted to be a singer himself. He released his first EP Strange Fruit (produced by Tim Lauer) on February 15, 2009, containing the first songs he'd written by himself, most of them a cappella. Ekko says of Nashville: "fortunate to be in a city that's so loving and hospitable." From September 2009, he toured with the Nashville-based collective group Ten Out of Tenn.