From North Philly
to the World.
Mike Terrell is a Philadelphia-born, Los Angeles-based R&B singer, songwriter, and storyteller, and at his core, a hopeless romantic. His music explores the beauty, complexity, and sometimes messy realities of love, sung by a man who has lived every side of it and still believes in it.
"I love love. I've just been through every side of it."
He was born in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia and raised in North Philly, a city that shaped his voice, his hunger, and his soul. He started singing in church, joined local gospel groups, and fell in love not just with the music but with the rehearsals, the creativity, the road, and the late-night diners after gigs.
"I knew I wanted to sing after I joined a local church singing group in Philly. The rehearsals, the creative part, the traveling, the late night diners after gigs. I knew this was something I began to fall in love with."
He trained with the Keystone State Boychoir, one of the world's most prestigious youth choral programs, which has sung for presidents, popes, and Nobel Peace Prize winners on all seven continents. The choir gave him his classical training, including music theory and sight-reading, and it was with the KSB that Mike first toured Norway as a young boy. Decades later, Oslo became one of his top streaming cities.
He attended Philadelphia's CAPA, the same legendary school that produced Boyz II Men, Questlove, Black Thought, and Leslie Odom Jr., as a Theater major. He then earned a scholarship to Columbia College Chicago to study Music Business, before leaving his junior year to play Sammy Davis Jr. as an Equity lead at the Black Ensemble Theater. The Chicago Sun-Times covered it. Playbill covered it.
The move to Los Angeles came during COVID. When his lease expired in Chicago, Terrell chose to trust God and drive west on a TV residual check rather than renew. His first LA gig was a gospel live recording, and that session put him in the room with some of the most respected singers in the city.
Then came Sunday Service. LA singer Isaiah Jaay saw Mike's videos on Instagram and referred him to audition for Kanye West's Sunday Service Choir. About 100 singers auditioned. A handful made it, and only two of them were men. Mike was one of those two. He sang with the choir from 2021 to 2024.
From there, LA kept opening doors. In 2022 he toured with Post Malone, Alicia Keys, and Snoh Aalegra. He became Jon B's principal supporting vocalist and joined Jonathan McReynolds on the road and in the studio, where his vocals landed on two Grammy-nominated projects. He has recorded for Stevie Wonder, Chloe Bailey, and Smokie Robinson, performed with Will Smith, Kirk Franklin, and Chandler Moore at the BET Awards, and sang behind CeCe Winans on CBS.
In 2026 he took that voice global, singing at London's All Points East festival with Elmiene & The Sunday Service Choir, then returning to London on October 11 to perform the U.S. National Anthem at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the NFL's Eagles vs. Jaguars game. His hometown team, an ocean away from home.
His mother, his superwoman and his rock, sang background vocals for gospel artists in her younger years. Mike is living one of her first loves. Full circle. Now he's telling his own stories, starting with "On This Side," out now.
