Noah Kahan Biography 2026: Age, Height, Wife, Singer Career, Stick Season, The Great Divide & Net Worth

Noah Kahan is an American singer-songwriter from Vermont who turned a small-town folk album into one of the defining records of the decade. Born Noah Berkenkamp Kahan and raised on a tree farm in Strafford, he released Stick Season in 2022, watched it climb for two years, and became a stadium act in the process. His 2026 album The Great Divide debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for three weeks.

He is also one of the most candid artists in pop about mental health, a subject he addresses through his Busyhead Project and in the Netflix documentary Out of Body. In late October 2026 he announced the Last of the Bugs World Tour, a 2027 stadium run that includes three nights at Wembley. Here is everything to know about his age, height, wife, career, awards, and net worth.

Quick Facts

Noah Kahan is usually mentioned alongside Zach Bryan, Hozier, Gracie Abrams, Kacey Musgraves, Post Malone, Sam Fender, and Lizzy McAlpine — the collaborators and peers who share his folk-pop territory. Fans also search for him with Brenna Nolan, Busyhead Project, The Great Divide, and Wembley, the 2027 shows that mark how far the career has traveled.

Early Life & Education

Noah Berkenkamp Kahan was born on January 1, 1997, in Strafford, Vermont, and grew up on a tree farm. He is the third of four children. His father, Josh Kahan, is Jewish and taught him to play guitar; his mother, Lauri Berkenkamp, is Christian and wrote parenting guides for a living, which is how he learned to write. He has said his Jewish roots are a large part of his identity.

He started writing songs at eight, had early lyrics published locally through the Young Writers Project, and got his first guitar at ten. By twelve he was fronting a band called the Bloodthirsties through a local rock program, and by his teens he was uploading original songs to SoundCloud and YouTube. He attended Hanover High School in New Hampshire, where he played varsity soccer.

His influences were never especially fashionable for a teenager in the 2010s: Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, Counting Crows, Hozier, Sam Fender, Mumford & Sons, and Green Day. That combination explains the sound he eventually landed on — acoustic storytelling with a pop chorus and a rock band underneath it.

Career Journey

2017–2021: Busyhead and the Long Apprenticeship

Kahan went on tour at 19, opening for the German band Milky Chance. Over the next few years he opened for Ben Folds and Anderson East, The Strumbellas, George Ezra, Dean Lewis, James Bay, and Dermot Kennedy — an education in how to play to a room that has not come to see you.

His breakthrough single, “Hurt Somebody,” went gold in the United States and charted internationally, and it preceded his debut album, Busyhead, in 2019. I Was / I Am followed in 2021. Neither made him a star. They made him a working songwriter with a small, devoted audience, which turned out to be the right foundation.

2022–2024: Stick Season and the Slow Explosion

Stick Season was released on October 14, 2022. It debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 — his first appearance on the chart — and then kept moving. The title refers to the Vermont period between fall and first snow, and the album’s specificity is exactly why it traveled: a record about a small state became a record about everyone’s hometown.

The deluxe edition, Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever), arrived in June 2023 with seven additional tracks, and Kahan then did something unusual: he released collaborations of the same songs with other artists, one at a time. “Dial Drunk” with Post Malone, “Call Your Mom” with Lizzy McAlpine, “She Calls Me Back” with Kacey Musgraves, “Northern Attitude” with Hozier, “Everywhere, Everything” with Gracie Abrams, and “Homesick” with Sam Fender. He also appeared on Zach Bryan’s “Sarah’s Place,” which reached No. 14 on the Hot 100.

The album climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2024, and “Stick Season” became a genuine international hit: No. 1 in the UK in January 2024, No. 1 in Australia that February, and No. 9 on the Hot 100 in April. A final version, Stick Season (Forever), arrived in February 2024 with two more collaborations, and a live album, Live From Fenway Park, followed in August. He was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammys and named to the Time100 Next list in 2023.

2025–2026: The Great Divide and Stadiums

Kahan announced The Great Divide on January 28, 2026, and released the title track two days later. “Porch Light” followed in March, and the album arrived on April 24, 2026. It debuted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart in May and spent three consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with record-breaking streaming and vinyl sales for a rock album debut.

The title track became his highest-charting single, peaking at No. 6 on the Hot 100. He toured The Great Divide through 2026 — his first stadium run — played Glastonbury in 2025, appeared at the 78th Emmy Awards in September 2026, and contributed “Draw You Out” to The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping album in October. That same month he received his first Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award nomination, which he treated as the culmination of a decade of work.

On October 29, 2026, he announced the Last of the Bugs World Tour for 2027: stadium shows from Athens, Georgia, through Detroit, Montreal, and East Rutherford, then Europe for Berlin, Milan, Paris, Dublin, and three nights at Wembley Stadium in London from July 23 to 25. The European presale opens November 10, with general sale on November 12.

Career Stats

Personal Life

Kahan married Brenna Nolan on August 23, 2025. They had been together since at least 2014, having met long before “Stick Season” existed, and they got engaged on July 17, 2023, during a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The relationship has stayed remarkably private given how much of his catalog is about longing, home, and the fear of being left behind.

• Wife: Brenna Nolan, married August 2025; together since at least 2014.
• Family: Father Josh Kahan, mother Lauri Berkenkamp, and three siblings; he is the third of four children.
• Home: Vermont, with periods in Nashville and Watertown, Massachusetts.
• Faith: Jewish, with a Christian mother; he has said his Jewish identity is central to him.
• Mental health: He has spoken openly about anxiety and OCD, and about therapy as a routine part of his life.
• Charity: The Busyhead Project, which funds mental health resources in Vermont and beyond.

Dating History and Affairs

There is essentially one relationship in the public record, and it became a marriage. Kahan and Brenna Nolan were together for roughly a decade before they married, through the years when he was opening for other artists and the years when he was headlining stadiums. They got engaged in Cabo San Lucas in July 2023 and married in August 2025.

He has kept the details of the relationship out of interviews, and there are no public reports of a split or a previous engagement. The songs are where the information lives: Stick Season is full of the fear of losing someone, and The Great Divide is about what happens after you decide to stay.

Controversies

Kahan has not been involved in a serious scandal, but he has attracted a specific kind of criticism that follows artists who become very popular very slowly: the accusation that his sadness is a brand. Some listeners have argued that the mental health framing around his work is marketing rather than candor, particularly as the Busyhead Project grew alongside his commercial success.

He has generally answered that by being more specific rather than less. He talks about therapy in plain terms, funds actual programs, and has said that the songs are not metaphors for a mood board but records of particular years. The Netflix documentary Out of Body was partly an attempt to show the difference.

The other recurring debate is genre. Stick Season was embraced by country radio and by folk audiences, and his collaborations with Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves placed him inside Nashville’s ecosystem without his ever making a country record. That has been read both as a healthy blurring of lines and as an invasion, depending on who is doing the reading.

Awards & Achievements

• Grammy Awards, 2024: Best New Artist — nominated.
• Grammy Awards, 2025: Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Cowboys Cry Too” with Kelsea Ballerini — nominated.
• Billboard Music Awards, 2024: Top Rock Album for Stick Season — won.
• iHeartRadio Music Awards, 2024: Best New Artist (Alternative or Rock) — won.
• Time100 Next, 2023: Named to the list.
• Billboard 200: The Great Divide spent three consecutive weeks at No. 1.
• UK Albums Chart: The Great Divide debuted at No. 1.
• MTV Video Music Awards, 2026: Best Alternative for “The Great Divide” — nominated.
• Kids’ Choice Awards, 2026: First nomination, for his music.

Physical Statistics

He has never published official measurements. His visual identity is built around the Vermont-adjacent wardrobe — flannel, boots, a beat-up cap — and the fact that he still looks slightly surprised to be playing rooms of that size.

Quotes

“Holy sh– I finally did it. After 10 years of tireless effort / Long flights, hundreds of hours in the studio. I did it / I’m nominated for a Nick Kids’ Choice Award.”

Noah Kahan, on X, October 2026

“I’m finally gonna get slimed. I can feel it dripping down my scalp and into my eyes and nostrils. It tastes.. like freedom.”

Noah Kahan, on X, October 2026

Favorites

• Favorite Artists: Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, Counting Crows, and Hozier — the songwriters he grew up on.
• Favorite Place: Vermont, and the tree farm where he grew up.
• Favorite Collaborator: Post Malone, with whom he made the “Dial Drunk” remix that broke him to a wider audience.
• Favorite Sport: Soccer, which he played in high school.
• Favorite Instrument: Acoustic guitar, though he also plays mandolin and piano.
• Favorite Food and Color: Not publicly disclosed.

Earnings

Kahan’s earnings are not public. His income comes from touring, recorded music, publishing, and brand partnerships, and the stadium tours of 2026 and 2027 represent a different financial category from the club and theater dates he played for most of his career. A three-week No. 1 album and a Wembley residency also raise the value of every subsequent deal.

Estimates of his net worth generally fall between $10 million and $20 million as of 2026. That range is an unconfirmed estimate rather than a disclosed figure, and it is likely to move substantially once the 2027 stadium tour is complete.

Interesting Facts

• He grew up on a tree farm in Strafford, Vermont.
• He wrote his first songs at eight and got his first guitar at ten.
• He fronted a band called the Bloodthirsties at twelve.
• Stick Season debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 and eventually reached No. 2.
• He released six different collaborations of songs from the same album.
• He married Brenna Nolan in August 2025 after roughly a decade together.
• The Great Divide spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
• He will play three nights at Wembley Stadium in July 2027.
• The Busyhead Project funds mental health resources in Vermont.

Did You Know Already?

• His mother wrote parenting guides for a living and taught him to write.
• He was named to the Time100 Next list in 2023.
• He contributed “Draw You Out” to The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping album.
• He has spoken publicly about living with OCD.
• Vermont proclaimed September 19, 2024, “Noah Kahan’s Busyhead Project Day.”
• He played Glastonbury in 2025.

Social Media Links

• Instagram: @noahkahan
• TikTok: @noahkahan
• X (Twitter): @NoahKahan
• YouTube: Noah Kahan
• Official Website: noahkahan.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Noah Kahan’s career is the argument for patience. Stick Season did not arrive as a hit; it became one over two years, through deluxe editions, collaborations, and a live show that turned theaters into singalongs. By the time The Great Divide debuted at No. 1, the audience had been built one room at a time.

What makes him interesting is that the scale changed and the subject did not. The songs are still about a small state, a long relationship, and a mind that will not quiet down. He has just gotten very good at making those things sound like they belong in a stadium.

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