Platinum-selling, award-winning country artist Tebey unveils his vibrant, country twist to Maroon 5’s global hit ‘Payphone‘. Available for streaming today, his reimagined version injects the pop classic with a lively, twangy energy, seamlessly transforming it into a country hit. Blending upbeat banjo picking and Tebey’s signature vocal tone, the track adds a fun, foot-tapping layer to the familiar story of lost love — proving that great music knows no genre boundaries.
“Maroon 5 has long been one of my favourite bands, and if I was going to cover one of their songs, it was definitely going to be Payphone,” shares Tebey. “Not every song can transcend genres. It has to have a melody (and lyric) that can stand on its own two feet, no matter how it’s sung or produced. Payphone has both, and that’s why it was so fun for me to turn it country.“


Building his reputation as one of the most innovative and versatile artists in today’s country genre, ‘Payphone’ isn’t the first countrified cover that Tebey has released — his CCMA Award winning country re-imagination of ‘Blinding Lights‘ took social media by storm earlier this year after Tebey released a short clip on his channels, which led to over 13 million views in just one week. His unique country twist on the acclaimed, record-breaking pop song rapidly captured the attention of users worldwide, leading to the official DSP release in a matter of days, and has since garnered over 15 million streams worldwide and over 75 million impressions across social platforms. The track has now been added to country radio in over 15 countries and won Innovative Campaign of the Year at the 2024 CCMA Awards.


The release follows Tebey’s recent single ‘Hangover At My Place‘ with multi-award winning country artist Tenille Arts. The classic call-and-response track seamlessly blends Tebey and Tenille’s vocals, creating a captivating interplay between the sweeping chorus and irresistible harmonies. Quickly gaining over 500k steams, the single has recently been serviced to radio in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Benelux, Sweden and Norway. The track marks a brand new chapter of original music for Tebey as he heads into the New Year. 


For more information about Tebey and new music, be sure to follow Tebey across platforms or visit www.tebeyofficial.com.

ABOUT TEBEY:

Peterborough, Ontario native and current Nashville resident, Tebey is an award-winning artist, producer and accomplished songwriter with over 113 million streams, 670,000 Canadian radio spins and an audience of 998 Million to date (Mediabase). Overall, he has had four Top 5 Canadian country radio singles, five Top 10 singles and five Top 20 singles as a recording artist. Though he’s been experiencing a steady trajectory for well over a decade, the past five years have yielded some of Tebey’s biggest successes. These accomplishments include three #1 songs as a writer: a US Billboard #1 with Justin Moore’s ‘Somebody Else Will’ a Canadian #1 with Gord Bamford’s “Dive Bar” and his first #1 as an artist and writer with his Gold single “Who’s Gonna Love You”, which also received a SOCAN award. His massive hit “Denim on Denim” reached Platinum status and another crowd favourite “Happened on a Saturday Night” also hit Gold in sales. 


Tebey’s most successful album to date, The Good Ones, included multiple Top 10 hits including the title track, a duet with Quebec pop star Marie Mai, followed by the Sink With The Sun EP in 2022. Tebey released his single “Hold Your Horses” this past January, followed by his viral sensation “Blinding Lights – Country Version” and then his countrified take on Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home”. He has also continued to perform shows around the world, including two headline tours across Canada, The Good Ones Tour (2020) and the Shotgun Rider Tour (2022/2023) and more recently shows in Sweden and the UK.