Cody Simpson, 17-year-old singer from Australia, was just announced as a competitor of Season 18 of Dancing With The Stars, but who is this young heartthrob – find out here.

This is Cody Simpson (via Instagram):

These are his abs:

This is his music:

Cody Simpson Biography – How He Was Discovered

Simpson was born in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, and was a competitive swimmer in his youth. He has a younger brother, Tom, and a younger sister, Alli Simpson, 15, an aspiring model, actress and singer.

In 2009, a 12-year-old, guitar-playing Simpson began putting videos of him singing on YouTube. Soon, he was discovered by producer Shawn Campbell and signed to Atlantic Records.

Simpson released his first single, “iYiYi” featuring Flo Rida in May 2010, and soon after moved to L.A. to focus on his career as a musician. Simpson’s rise to stardom is documented in his official autobiography Welcome to Paradise: My Journey.

Simpson released his first album in 2010 when he was just 13, 4U – EP, and has released four albums in the years since: Coast to Coast (2011), Paradise (2012), Surfers Paradise (2013) and The Acoustic Sessions – EP (2013). Simpson has been compared to Justin Bieber, and he even opened for the singer on his “Believe” tour in 2013. He has also opened for Big Time Rush and is a regular fixture on Radio Disney.

Uinterview spoke with Simpson in 2012, when he recorded a cover of “I Want Candy” for the animated film Hop. Simspon revealed to Uinterview that he always writes songs from the heart and prefers to sing songs he can really relate to, saying, “I like to make sure everything I’m singing about is coming from the heart, you know? There’s a lot more to singing and a lot more to being a singer than just singing a song, you know?"

Read the rest of Uinterview's Exclusive Interview HERE.

While Simpson may not be a household name in the U.S. just yet, he has a huge fan base, with 6.2 million followers on Twitter and over 2 million followers on Instagram. The video for his latest single, “La Da Dee,” has over 4 million views on Youtube, and was featured in the film Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – his most well-known song “Pretty Brown Eyes” has over 16 million views.

Cody Simpson Dating Model Gigi Hadid

Previously linked to Kylie Jenner, Simpson is currently dating Gigi Hadid, 18, a model. Hadid recently made her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut, and is also a reality television star, having appeared on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills with her mother, Yolanda Foster. Hadid, currently a student at New York University (NYU), attended the Vanity Fair Oscar Party with the singer Sunday night. The two have been dating for about nine months.

Hadid tweeted out a message of support after it was announced that Simpson would compete on the upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars, writing, “Proud no matter the outcome, but I know he’s got skills!!”