On Jon Bellion

The greatest artist you've never heard of

Jan 11, 2026

Back in July of 2025, Word on Fire (a prolific Catholic ministry led by Bishop Robert Baron) put out an article on Jon Bellion. It is well worth the read, and it inspired me to finally write my own Substack on the same artist: Jon Bellion

The majority of you reading this are probably asking, “Who is that?” Rightfully so. Knowing about Jon Bellion is one of those if you know, you know situations. Broadly speaking, he is a musical artist who has written and produced songs for the likes of Justin Bieber, The Jonas Brothers, Rihanna, and countless more of some of the biggest artists of the last decade or so. But, speaking both subjectively and more specifically, he is one of (if not the) greatest musical artists of all time. His accolades that have come from writing and producing for some of the most popular musicians of the times are just a cherry on top of my justification for him being one of the (if not the) greatest musical artists of all time.

Something that I use as criteria to determine greatness is the ability to not just be great at a thing, but to be great at many things. Some people are only great at one or a couple of things, and that is great, don’t get me wrong. But greatness cannot be adequately measured by being great at a mere thing, but rather by being great at most/all things. Jon Bellion is great at everything he puts his hands and mind to. He is a great musician, singer, producer, composer, writer, storyteller, artist, creator, and is striving to be a great husband, father, and follower of Christ, as his most recent album reveals, which focused entirely on those themes.[1]

Another thing I use as criteria to determine greatness, especially with artists/creatives of any kind, is how well they use their art as a medium to convey truth. Now, I do not want to move away from the topic of this article, but for the sake of this criterion, my sanity, and all people everywhere, truth is objective. I am happy to dive into that at another time, but it is an important statement to make in the day and age we live in. This criterion actually stems from someone who is not potentially the greatest musical artist of all time, but rather the greatest theologian of all time: St. Augustine of Hippo. I hope by now it shouldn’t be too shocking that I am weaving St. Augustine into a Substack about a musical artist. In Soliloquies, St. Augustine makes the point that the liberal arts ought to be an expression or revelation of the truth. Every form of art ought to be a reflection of the truth, but St. Augustine warns against those who try to make art the truth itself, therefore denying the inherent objectivity of truth.[2]

When it comes to using art as a medium to convey truth, not only has Jon Bellion done that throughout the whole of his career, but his discography reveals how using art as a medium to convey the truth has changed both him and his art. His discography (and even the work he has done for other artists) shows a progressive revelation of truth to the consumer and a gradual change in Jon Bellion as the truth of God and what it means to know and follow Him has impacted his heart and life. Jon Bellion, in my opinion, uses the arts as they are intended (at least by St. Augustine), which is the reflection of the truth from different angles. Think of how light passes through a prism based on the position of the prism, so it is, as St. Augustine would understand, with art. The prism (truth) remains the same while the artist (the mover of the prism) uses the light at different angles (different forms of the arts) to show the fullness of beauty and goodness of the prism (truth).

Now that some qualifiers have been stated on how I define greatness (the list is longer, but that is enough for now), it seems as though it would be appropriate to focus on the subtitle of this Substack: The greatest artist you’ve never heard of. Jon Bellion is a New Yorker to the bone, as is made evident in many of his lyrics. He has been making music since he was very young and has even said in some interviews that he would produce music for people if they would do his schoolwork in college. He signed with Visionary Music Group in 2012 and then with Capitol Records, where he would go on to release the album that kickstarted his road to fame, called The Human Condition, in 2016. In 2018, he released Glory Sound Prep and then went on a six-year hiatus from releasing music due to being trapped in his record deal. After taking a brief break from making his own music while getting out of his malevolent record deal, he released his most recent album, Father Figure. He talks about this and more of his story in depth on the George Janko Podcast and the Modern Wisdom Podcast. A quick note: these podcasts, as well as some of Jon Bellion’s music, can contain some coarse language at times.

The point of this Substack is not meant to be a biography of Jon Bellion, but some context is helpful since the majority of you, as the subtitle states, probably do not know of him. Circling back to the criteria that I put forth, Jon Bellion’s discography is truly great. From his first album to his most recent one, he masterfully weaves together music that sounds great while crossing all boundaries of musical genres, lyrics that contain both trivial matters and deep philosophical/theological questions, as well as production/composition that would blow the mind of any music theory nerd. All of this while having beautiful album covers, visually stimulating music videos, and amazing behind-the-scenes clips of how Jon works, like the making of his song Guillotine. Somehow, with all of his ability to be great at basically anything he puts his mind to, from a consumer’s perspective, he has never lost his sense of humility as just another child of God trying to figure out this thing we all call life while making beautiful art along the way.

When it comes to the other piece of criteria I mentioned, Jon Bellion, as the artist, or one who moves the prism to reflect the light, which is the art, that best brings out the beauty and goodness of the prism itself, which is the truth, is not perfect. Not only is he, as the prism-mover, not perfect, but the way he makes light shine through the prism is also not perfect. That is because we, as humans, like art, are not perfect. Only the prism, which is the truth itself, is perfect. As humans, we are all trying (at least when I am feeling optimistic about humanity… which is rare) to reflect the truth as best we can through the medium of art, although art looks different for each of us. Although much like the rest of us, Jon Bellion is not perfect, nor is his art; it is one of the (if not the) most beautiful expressions of musical art that I have come across. Sure, you can bring up famous composers from history or extremely talented and famous pop stars as a counterargument, but most of those people only do a few things well, whereas Jon Bellion does almost everything well. If you would like proof of this claim, look no further than the live concert that he livestreamed during the recent pandemic and try to tell me that he isn’t the greatest musical artist to ever grace the earth.

Is he my favorite musical artist of all time? Probably. Is that causing me to have bias as I write this about him? Probably. Is this whole Substack a bit overzealous and completely subjective? Probably. Is it possible that my subjective claim of Jon Bellion being the greatest artist of all time is objectively true? Well, I suppose that question is for you to answer. Give Jon Bellion a worthwhile listen and see if the light allows you to behold the full beauty and goodness of the prism, fellow prism-mover.

Soliloquies of Ezra Smith

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