Until I Found You: Georgia Brown

by Fayeruz Regan 01.2023

We are living in an age of aggressive clout-chasing. People are tumbling to their deaths in the Grand Canyon mid-selfie. TikTok challenges induce medical emergencies—all in the pursuit of online popularity. Then there’s Georgia Brown. She’s sitting on something big, but chooses not to cash it in for her fifteen minutes.

The song Until I Found You hit the Top 10 Billboard charts, recently went platinum, and catapulted singer-songwriter Stephen Sanchez into worldwide fame. And the first word uttered from his aching doo-wop ballad is “Georgia.” Georgia is not only the inspiration for this song, but sang harmony in the recording.

Until I Found You is a stand-out because it hearkens back to a more innocent time, when lyrics were earnest and crooners were too talented to be auto-tuned. TikTok clips of this song were popular enough to blow up on Instagram, where the algorithm hit me hard. The song can tease out a sense of longing within seconds. On Instagram, Sanchez credited Georgia with harmony vocals, linking to her account. That’s when I discovered that she’s a VCU student right here in Richmond.

While Georgia doesn’t hide the fact that she’s the Georgia, she doesn’t promote it either. The song is everywhere you go – in bars, on the radio, most definitely online; but you have to do a little digging to find her. And here is why: Georgia Brown is more than a muse. Others might have clambered to make this hit song their “thing,” but that’s the very situation she wants to avoid.  

Too often, women are known only for what the powerful men in their lives have accomplished. This is the reason that Lily-Rose Depp refused to publicly speak on her father’s trial. Artist Frida Kahlo was overshadowed by her husband Diego Rivera. Kim Kardashian is still hounded in interviews to answer for someone she’s no longer married to. These are but a few examples.

Georgia is an artist in her own right, and contributes to the cultural fabric in Richmond. We delved into some of her projects. But first, the breakup.

Because Until I Found You is climbing the charts, one would assume that the romance is still fresh. In reality, Stephen and Georgia ended their relationship over a year ago. In interviews, he speaks fondly of her, citing her as a friend and an important part of his life. But when a song makes you swoon like theirs does, fans become hungry for answers. The comments section of his posts are flooded with questions about their relationship, and proclamations of undying love from young girls.

I knew Georgia’s direct messages (DMs) would be flooded with queries from strangers, but I reached out anyway. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to be interviewed and asked for some time to consider. We recently met up for brunch at Les Crepes in Carytown. 

The first thing you notice about Georgia is a beaming smile, free of affectation. She wears a black leather jacket and long black velvet skirt, with blonde hair cascading down one shoulder. She orders a vanilla latte and strawberry crepe, and we get into it.

It was the summer before her senior year of high school, and Georgia was spending a lot of time on TikTok because of the pandemic. She was living with her parents in a small mountain town outside of Roanoke. On TikTok, she came across Stephen Sanchez, who was also at home with his family. He spent hours in his bedroom writing and playing music. Georgia admired his talent and sent a message asking if he were planning on releasing any music.

Thus began a long-distance friendship with Sanchez, who lived in Sacramento, California. At first, they   only wrote about music. But soon after, Stephen wanted to talk on the phone and get to know her. Eventually, Georgia told her parents she had a friend from out of town that she wanted to have visit. You can still find videos of them singing together from the early days of their courtship. The TikTok clips feature them sitting on the floor in what is clearly Georgia’s childhood bedroom.

Then, Stephen hit a rough patch in his life and called off the long-distance relationship. He references this in Until I Found You. Georgia was hurt, and they didn’t speak for a little while. Then, as Stephen’s star continued to rise, he moved to Nashville to be closer to record labels. Around November or December of her senior year, he reached out to let her know he’d made a mistake, was moving to Nashville, and wanted to take her out on a proper date.

And a proper date it was. In a grand gesture, he came to Roanoke for the weekend. He spoke with Georgia’s father, opened car doors, and took her to a fancy dinner. After that, they were all in. “I started to feel like I was living a double life,” Georgia explains. “I had my high school life here in Virginia. But I’d often drive six hours to see him in Nashville. I made a different group of friends out there.” Georgia has family in Nashville and stayed with them during her high school visits. The friends she made during this time are still close to her today.

In May of 2021, Stephen wrote Until I Found You in ten minutes, sending a clip to Georgia in a voice memo. She loved it, and they recorded the song together in Nashville. She came up with the harmony on her own, and they spent hours in the studio together – even recording a more intimate, acoustic guitar version. It was released on September 1, 2021 and became a global phenomenon. However, their relationship ended a couple of months after the song’s release.

“He was my first real love,” says Georgia. “But college was a big turning point for me. It’s where we start to discover who we are as people.” She admits that college was rough for the first few months, and it was difficult to juggle school with her long-distance relationship. “I moved to Richmond to go to VCU, and the drive to Nashville went from six hours to eight hours,” she says. “I don’t think Stephen fully understood the time commitment I had with my new life. He never really had a normal life, and didn’t get how busy I was.”

When things became strained, he drove to Richmond to see her, presumably to end the relationship. When he saw Georgia face-to-face, he became hesitant. But she reassured him that if he had come all that way to break up, perhaps it was for the best. “Honestly, I always felt like I was too young to have gone through some of the emotions I have. Stephen and I are both very emotional people, and it can be overwhelming,” she tells me.

After the breakup, things started to fall into place at VCU. She fell in love with interior design and spends hours “in the zone” – working on drafts and losing track of time. It’s even brought her closer to her father, a fellow interior designer. I have never heard a college student be so zealous about their studies.

“It surprised Stephen, I think, to see how well I was doing after the breakup,” Georgia recalls. Which brings me to my point: What could have been seen as a tragic end to her “claim to fame” sounds more like a rebirth. Rather than clinging to a song that gives her cultural cache, she’s forging her own path. 

She and her friend Maggie are singer-songwriters, and can be found at open mic nights around town. With guitar cases in hand, they test material they wrote themselves. She is an accomplished ceramist, and features her creations on Instagram via Georgia Brown Ceramics. In fact, this page is a catchall for all of her creative endeavors. She samples clips from songs she’s written; folksy, whisper-soft tunes that she strums along to. She shares blueprints from her interior design projects, charcoal drawings, and of course, her ceramics. She was trained professionally in ceramics even before she became a college student, and has a penchant for bowls and mugs with twee features. Some have a nose, others are heart-shaped, and many have playful dot patterns.

Georgia has fallen in love with Richmond. “I’m from the country but I always knew I was a city girl. I love the diversity,” she says. She can often be found thrift shopping or attending concerts at The National. She also works as a nanny a couple times a week. “I was actually a preschool teacher for a year. I love children,” she says. She lives in a house in the Fan District with a handful of other girls, and they are the best of friends. “I’ve found new best friends – people who will be in my wedding,” she says. It’s almost as if she knows how hard this becomes later in life.

Some of her musical influences are The Lumineers, whose songs she likes to perform. She admires Taylor Swift, and that “girl boss” strength that’s gotten her through rough times. And with an even softer tone, she praises Phoebe Bridgers. “She’s the reason I started writing music,” she admits. Georgia laments that men in the music industry often take credit for things that women have created, and is writing a term paper on the subject. 

Georgia is wary of releasing any music until she has enough money to buy herself a decent amount of control. “I’m not seeking fame. I’ve seen what it’s like. It’s hard to make meaningful connections when you’re in the spotlight. I want to really be able to show myself and be able to touch people – even if it’s just one person. Stephen’s life is a roller coaster. I want a family and kids, and I like the idea of a practical career path, and my music being an independent project.”

But if you think that she chose interior design for practicality, think again. She loves hospitality design, such as hotels and restaurants. “I’m a people person, and I have a strong eye for spaces that can bring people together. Maybe I’ll even design music venues,” says Georgia.

Recently, VCU’s art department had a clean-up day for the end of the semester. There was a playlist going, and Until I Found You was in rotation. Georgia had a couple of friends in her class that knew the full story, and promptly changed the station. For such a young girl to be pulled into the whirlwind of that song, it must be triggering. I say as much to Georgia, and she agrees. “It’s everywhere. And I mean everywhere. How it affects me depends on what mood I’m in. Sometimes I’ll be out in public and distracted, and I don’t really feel anything. Other times, I will hear it and it takes me right back. When I’m in my own space, I change the song.”

Georgia doesn’t have the luxury of dealing with a normal break-up. Her song follows her everywhere. Strangers reach out to her online, automatically siding with her and up in arms about Stephen. They assume he broke her heart because he was the famous one. On Instagram, the exes haven’t erased their history together, but it’s clear they don’t follow one another. 

“I still check in on him every couple of months to see what he’s up to,” she says. When I ask if she were going to see Stephen during his upcoming tour, she demurs. She doesn’t want to be known just for “being that girl from that song,” and is hesitant to bring on unwanted attention.

“I’ve made mistakes and Stephen’s made mistakes. All is forgiven, and we only want what’s best for one another.” She is a picture of grace, wise beyond her years. As a mother myself, I almost want to interview Georgia’s parents to learn how to raise a resilient child. It’s a trait that younger generations are often mocked for lacking. She credits her mother for teaching her to be independent.

But as the song seems to play on a loop, she admits that her parents have worried about her. Just as the strangers who message her online do. Just as I have. But after meeting her, I know Georgia’s going to be just fine.

As we finish our crepes, Georgia Brown tells me she is looking forward to her “brunette era.” Her cousin was going to complete the transformation, followed by a photo shoot. Always looking forward, Georgia seems excited for what may be her next rebirth.