Entertainment Music FIRST LISTEN: YouTube Cover Star Leroy Sanchez Releases New Original Single 'Man of the Year' The Spaniard has nearly 2.9 million YouTube followers thanks to his impressive covers of Adele, Sam Smith and others By Jeff Nelson Jeff Nelson Instagram Twitter Jeff Nelson is the Senior News Editor, Entertainment at PEOPLE. For nearly a decade, he has worked across the brand's entertainment verticals, reporting on breaking news and writing and editing across platforms, as well as securing A-list cover exclusives, including Barry Manilow's coming out and an at-home interview with Madonna. Jeff has appeared as an expert on Good Morning America, Extra, HLN and SiriusXM, as well as at RuPaul's DragCon as a moderator. He studied magazine journalism at Drake University, graduating with a B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication. People Editorial Guidelines Published on June 29, 2017 01:55 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Add this man to your summer playlist! Rising star Leroy Sanchez will release his new single “Man of the Year” on Friday, and PEOPLE has an exclusive first listen to the track, a soulful, lovesick bop reminiscent of Justin Timberlake and Ed Sheeran. Over the past few years, the singer has found Internet fame on YouTube, where he’s amassed nearly 2.9 million followers thanks to his impressive covers, from Adele‘s “Hello” to “Stay with Me” by Sam Smith. And stars — including Shawn Mendes, Tori Kelly and Jessie J — have noticed the up-and-comer’s talent and sent him kudos online. Casey Curry Born and raised in Spain, 25-year-old Sanchez self-taught himself to play guitar at age 14 and moved to Miami when he was 18 to pursue a career in music after producer Jim Jonsin (Beyoncé, Usher, Jamie Foxx) came across his cover clips online. Now based in L.A., the singer-songwriter has toured endlessly and worked with a number of industry heavyweights (he was featured on rapper Machine Gun Kelly‘s 2015 track “Gone”) while he prepares to release his debut EP later this summer. “I’m trying to get the best representation of who I am as an artist, and that will be a mixture between what I’ve been doing on YouTube — which is me and my acoustic guitars in there — and also out of soulful singing,” Sanchez tells PEOPLE of the upcoming release. “I focused on the vocals a lot; that’s what I enjoy and what, I think, people have liked to listen to all these years.”