Background Pentatonix began with
Kirstin Maldonado (born May 16, 1992),
Mitch Grassi (born July 24, 1992), and
Scott Hoying (born September 17, 1991), who grew up together and were schoolmates at
Martin High School in
Arlington, Texas. For a local radio show competition to meet the cast of
Glee, they arranged and submitted a trio version of "
Telephone," the hit song by
Lady Gaga and featuring
Beyoncé. Despite losing the competition, their singing sparked attention at their school, and they began performing. Their version of "Telephone" subsequently gained attention on
YouTube. vocal range was a prominent element of Pentatonix's sound from the group's founding through his departure in 2017. Hoying and Maldonado both graduated from
Martin High School in 2010, Grassi in 2011. Hoying went off to the
University of Southern California (USC) to pursue a degree in popular music performance, while Maldonado pursued a degree in musical theatre at the
University of Oklahoma. While at USC, Scott Hoying joined group called
SoCal VoCals. He found out about
The Sing-Off from another member of the group, Ben Bram (also their arranger, producer, and sound engineer), and was encouraged to audition for the show. Through a mutual friend, Hoying met
Avi Kaplan, a highly recognized vocal bass in the a cappella community. Then, the trio found
Kevin Olusola on YouTube through one of his videos which had gone viral. Olusola was shown simultaneously beatboxing and playing the cello. Olusola was born in
Owensboro, Kentucky, and graduated pre-med from
Yale University. The group met the day before the auditions for the third season of
The Sing-Off began. The group successfully auditioned for the show and eventually went on to win the title for 2011 (season three). Pentatonix, as suggested by Scott Hoying, is named after the
pentatonic scale, a musical
scale or
mode with five
notes per
octave, representing the five members of the group. They replaced the last letter with an "x" to make it more appealing. The quintet derives its influences from
pop,
dubstep,
electro,
reggae,
hip hop, and classical music.
PTX Vol. 1 and PTXMas (2011–13) Scott Hoying and Kirstie Maldonado dropped out of college in hopes of winning
The Sing-Off, while Mitch Grassi skipped his high school graduation to audition for the show. After they won, all of the members relocated to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career as recording artists. The main goal of the group was to become the first mainstream a cappella group in recent times. In January 2012, having signed with Sony Pictures-owned label
Madison Gate Records, the group began working on their first album with producer Ben Bram. During that six-month period of picking covers and writing originals, Pentatonix released covers of both popular and classic songs on YouTube. In interviews, the members mention that it was a way to stay relevant to their audience that enjoyed their work on "The Sing-Off", in addition to gaining new fans. Almost all of their covers, including "
Somebody That I Used to Know" by
Gotye featuring
Kimbra, "
Gangnam Style" by
PSY and "
We Are Young" by
Fun, went viral on YouTube. Their first
EP,
PTX, Volume 1, was released on June 26, 2012, charting at number 14 on the US
Billboard 200 chart and number 5 on the digital chart. It sold 20,000 copies in its first week of release. The group promoted the album through press appearances on
Access Hollywood, VH1
The Buzz, Marie, and local television shows. Pentatonix were also featured on the Chinese version of
The Sing-Off as guests where Kevin showcased his fluency in Mandarin. Pentatonix also embarked on their first national headlining tour in the fall of 2012. The tour was sold-out and spanned 30 cities. The group released their Christmas EP,
PTXmas, on November 19, 2012. The group released their video of an original arrangement of "Carol of the Bells" the following day. The group performed on "Coca-Cola Red Carpet LIVE! @ The 2012 American Music Awards" Pre-Show on November 18, the Hollywood Christmas Parade, and the "94.7 THE WAVE Christmas Concert Starring Dave Koz and Kenny Loggins" on December 16. The group was also featured guests on Katie Couric (ABC),
Home and Family (Hallmark),
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Big D NYE. Ryan Seacrest's website named Pentatonix the 2012 "Featured Artist of the Year" for their expansive growth online in just one year. The Christmas album was re-released on November 19, 2013, as a deluxe edition containing two additional tracks. One of these, "Little Drummer Boy" charted in several
Billboard categories including peaking at number two on the "Streaming Songs" chart and number one on the Holiday 100 chart, receiving a number of
Billboard awards.
PTXmas reappeared on the
Billboard charts again in November 2014, placing No. 24 on the
Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the Holiday charts, giving Pentatonix three albums on the
Billboard 200 at the same time. On
Billboards 2014 Year-End charts, PTXmas was No. 8 on the
Catalogue Albums chart and No. 119 on the Top
Billboard 200 Albums chart, with Pentatonix ranked as No. 46 on the Top
Billboard 200 Artists chart. As of December 24, 2014, PTXmas has sold 356,000 copies.
PTX Vol. II (2013–14) The band went on their second national headlining tour from January 24, 2013, to May 11, 2013, and simultaneously wrote additional original material for their second EP,
PTX, Vol. II. The group released the first single, a cover of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' "Can't Hold Us" on August 20, 2013. The group also promoted
PTX, Vol. II on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show in November 2013, after the success of "The Evolution of
Beyoncé" mashup on YouTube. That week, the band was featured on "Around the World with Diane Sawyer" and were named "Persons of the Week". In March 2013, Pentatonix and
violinist
Lindsey Stirling released their cover of the
Imagine Dragons song "
Radioactive", and won for Response of the Year at the
YouTube Music Awards. In July of the same year, along with
American Idol contestant and fellow Arlington Texan
Todrick Hall, they released "The Wizard of Ahhhs", which mashes up several songs to create one song. The music video follows the story of the 1939 film
The Wizard of Oz with the artists dressed as its numerous lead roles. ,
Missouri in 2013.
PTX Vol. II was released on November 5, 2013, in conjunction with their second album single on YouTube: a medley of
Daft Punk songs. The video went viral, garnering 100 million views in the first year. The medley was later nominated for and won
Best Arrangement, Instrumental or a Cappella of the
57th Grammy Awards.
PTX, Vol. II debuted at number ten on the
Billboard 200 and number one on the Independent charts, selling 31,000 copies in the first week. Pentatonix subsequently re-released a deluxe version of PTXmas on November 18, 2013, with two new tracks, "Little Drummer Boy" and "Go Tell It On The Mountain". Their YouTube video of "Little Drummer Boy" peaked at number 13 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 21, 2013. In May 2014, Pentatonix signed with
RCA Records, a "flagship" label of
Sony Music Entertainment.
PTX Vol. III debuted at number 5 on the
Billboard 200. The group also revealed on August a second full-length Christmas album, ''
That's Christmas to Me, titled after the title track of the album, an original song that was penned by Pentatonix themselves. and peaked at number 2 on the Billboard'' 200, and number 4 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart. A single from the album, the group's cover of "
Mary, Did You Know?", both debuted and peaked on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 26, at number 7 on
Billboards Adult Contemporary chart, and at number 44 on the
Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart. Another single ''"That's Christmas To Me"
, the title track from the album, also peaked at number 8 on the Billboard''
Adult Contemporary chart. Pentatonix is also the first act to top both the Holiday Albums and Holiday Songs charts simultaneously since the Holiday 100 launched as a multi-metric tabulation in December 2011. The album is also the highest charting Holiday album by a group since 1962. On December 10, 2014 ''That's Christmas to Me'' was certified gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America. On December 24, 2014, the album was certified Platinum. By year's end (December 31, 2014),
Billboard reported the album had reached a total of 1.14 million copies sold—becoming the 4th best selling album of 2014 by any artist of any genre (being surpassed only by Taylor Swift's
1989, the
Frozen Soundtrack, and Sam Smith's
In the Lonely Hour) and was the Top Selling Holiday Album for 2014. On February 11, 2016, the album was certified Double Platinum.
Self-titled album, A Pentatonix Christmas, and PTX, Vol. IV (2015–2017) In late December, Scott Hoying stated that for 2015, "Pentatonix is transitioning towards original music." A release of a full-length album consisting of only original material was planned. Hoying also stated, "We're at the point in our careers now [where] we must go to original music, and we want to go to original music; we have so much to say, and I think it's gonna be quite a journey." On August 28, 2015, Pentatonix announced on social media that a
self-titled album, the group's third full-length album and first album made of mostly original music, would be released on October 16, 2015. On September 4, 2015, Pentatonix released "
Can't Sleep Love" the first single from their upcoming album of original songs. On September 18, 2015, a second version featuring
Tink was released online. On October 9, 2015, Pentatonix released their second single, a cover of Jack Ü and Justin Bieber's "
Where Are Ü Now". The album ended up being released one day early as a surprise gift to their fans. On that same day, Pentatonix released their third single, "Sing". The album debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200. In the US, the album started with 98,000 units (88,000 in pure album sales). In August 2016, the music video of Pentatonix's "
Perfume Medley," a medley of songs by the Japanese girl group Perfume, was also released. The medley consisted of the songs "
Spending All My Time", "
Pick Me Up", "
Chocolate Disco", and "
Polyrhythm". Their second full-length Christmas album, titled
A Pentatonix Christmas, was released on October 21, 2016. It features 11 songs, including the two originals "The Christmas Sing-Along" and "Good to Be Bad". It debuted on the
Billboard 200 at number three with 52,000 albums sold in its first week, and later peaked at number one. The album also debuted atop the
Billboard Holiday Albums chart, their second number one on that chart after ''That's Christmas to Me''. It marked a departure from the group's typical sound, focusing on covers of
standards of
rock,
blues,
country, and older pop music.
New bass, Top Pop, Vol. I, Christmas Is Here!, and The Best of Pentatonix Christmas (2017–2019) In May 2017, the band announced in a YouTube video that Avi Kaplan would leave the group following their upcoming tour. The split was amicable and centered on his inability to keep up with the touring demands of the group, and deal with the distance from his family. Kaplan performed his last concert with Pentatonix on September 3, 2017, in
Essex Junction, Vermont. On October 13, Hoying introduced
Matt Sallee as the group's new bass. On February 27, 2018, the group announced via their social media the upcoming release a new album titled
PTX Presents: Top Pop, Vol. I on April 13, 2018, to be followed by a tour in the summer. It marked their first album with Sallee and without Kaplan. It was preceded by three singles: their cover of "
Havana", a medley of
Dua Lipa's "
New Rules" and
Aaliyah's "
Are You That Somebody?" titled "New Rules x Are You That Somebody?", which they released along with a music video on March 9, and a cover of
Charlie Puth's "
Attention", which they released along with a music video on March 23. On September 20, 2018, the group announced their third full-length holiday album titled
Christmas Is Here! to be released on October 26 of the same year and
The Christmas Is Here! Tour to accompany the album. They also announced the first single from the album, a cover of "Making Christmas" from
The Nightmare Before Christmas which was released on September 28. The album was released on October 26, 2018. On October 25, 2019, Pentatonix released their newest Christmas album, a greatest hits compilation album called
The Best of Pentatonix Christmas. It includes mostly older songs, plus some new ones, such as a cover of "
Do You Hear What I Hear" with posthumous vocals from
Whitney Houston and "
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," the latter featuring Sallee on lead. The EP contains Pentatonix covering
Billie Eilish's "
When the Party's Over",
Dua Lipa's "
Break My Heart",
the Cranberries' "
Dreams",
The Weeknd's "
Blinding Lights", and
Clean Bandit's "Cologne". and "12 Days of Christmas." It also includes an original song, "Thank You." On August 14, 2020, Pentatonix released "Happy Now", their first original single in five years, and the first of an upcoming album of original content. On October 14, Pentatonix released "Be My Eyes", and announced the date of
The Lucky Ones, the first full-length album of originals since 2015, for February 12, 2021. Like
At Home and
We Need a Little Christmas, it was recorded in isolation because of the pandemic. A music video for "Coffee in Bed" was released on the same day as the album. The album received general critical acclaim. The deluxe version released on September 10, 2021, with new songs like "Anchor", "Petals", "Midnight in Tokyo" (ft.
Little Glee Monster), and more.
Evergreen, Holidays Around the World, and The Greatest Christmas Hits (2021–2024) On September 27, 2021, Pentatonix announced their fifth upcoming Christmas-themed album,
Evergreen, and released the single "
It's Been a Long, Long Time" on the same day. They later released their rendition of "
I Just Called to Say I Love You" as a single. Their renditions of "
Over the River" with Lindsey Stirling and "
The Prayer" were also released as singles. The album was released on October 29, 2021. The title track is an original song. The tour for the album, "Pentatonix: The Evergreen Christmas Tour 2021," began on November 27, 2021. The album was nominated for the best traditional pop vocal album at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Following the album the group released a 70-track compilation album of previously released Christmas music called "White Christmas." On September 21, 2022, they announced their sixth Christmas album,
Holidays Around the World, and released the single "Prayers for This World" the same day. The album focuses on celebrating different cultures during the holiday season, and includes new versions of songs previously released by the band plus four originals: "Kid on Christmas" with
Meghan Trainor, "Star on Top", "Prayers For This World", and "Invincible". The album was released October 28, 2022. The group also announced their 2022 North American Christmas tour "Pentatonix: A Christmas Spectacular". It was preceded by a one-off show at the
Hollywood Bowl with
Darren Criss on September 29. The tour began on November 17 in
Oakland, California. On December 9, 2022, they released a second version of "Do You Hear What I Hear" with Matteo, Virginia, and
Andrea Bocelli, which appeared in the deluxe edition of the Bocelli album
A Family Christmas released in 2023. On August 11, 2023 Pentatonix released a new original single called "I Rise". In September 2023, they announced another Christmas compilation album called
The Greatest Christmas Hits on their website, which was followed by a subsequent tour. On September 25, 2023 they released the lead single, "Please Santa Please". The album was released on October 20, 2023, and features 8 new songs. In 2024, the group released the single "
Meet Me Next Christmas" for the romantic comedy film of the same name.
Christmas in the City (2025–present) In early 2025, Pentatonix signed to Republic Records. On September 25, 2025 the group announced their seventh Christmas-themed album "Christmas in the City", which was released on October 24, 2025. They also released an original single, "Bah Humbug". They embarked on the Christmas in the City tour in North America starting on November 8 in West Valley City, Utah. This album includes their collaboration with Frank Sinatra on his 1960 recording of “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” which reached Number 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart, in December, 2025. == Other media ==