Christina Victoria Grimmie,, known on YouTube as zeldaxlove64, is an American singer/songwriter
known for her covers of hit songs by artists such as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez,
Christina Aguilera, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.
In June 2011, she released her debut EP, Find Me.
In June 2012, she told a reporter that she wanted to stop doing covers and start writing
only original music.
In 2014, Grimmie participated in Season 6 of NBC's singing competition, The Voice and
finished in third place.
Adam Levine, her coach on the show, announced in the finale that regardless of the results,
he was signing Grimmie to his label, 222 Records.
Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne also supported Grimmie on the show and Lil Wayne offered
to sign Grimmie on his label, Young Money Entertainment.
She ultimately signed to Island Records.
Early life Grimmie grew up in Marlton, New Jersey.
She is of Italian and Romanian descent.
Her father noticed her talent for singing when she was six years old and she started
playing the piano at age ten Despite having received piano lessons, she says she plays
by ear.
In a number of her videos and interviews, Grimmie identifies herself as a Christian.
Grimmie was homeschooled for her junior year in 2010.
Career 2009-10: YouTube recognition and discovery
Grimmie began posting videos to YouTube in 2009, at age 15.
The first video she uploaded was a cover of Hannah Montana's, "Don't Wanna Be Torn."
She first reached YouTube stardom early on with her cover of Miley Cyrus's "Party in
the U.S.A." in August 2009.
She is best known for her cover with fellow YouTuber Sam Tsui of Nelly's "Just a Dream",
which has had more than 115 million views between the three official versions of the
video as of May 23, 2014.
Since uploading her videos, she has had over 375 million views and over 2 million subscribers
on her channel as of April 28, 2013, which has made her the 4th most subscribed musician
on YouTube.
She also placed at number 2 at the top 5 of the MyYouTube competition, behind Selena Gomez,
and in front of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and Justin Bieber.
As her popularity grew on YouTube, Grimmie was discovered by Gomez's stepfather, Brian
Teefey, who met with her in May 2010 and became her manager.
2011: Find Me Grimmie has performed in the UNICEF charity
concert, and has also performed backup vocals for Selena Gomez & the Scene, and was on the
first ever DigiTour in 2011, specially designed for YouTube artists.
Gomez became her mentor.
She has appeared on the Billboard Social 50.
She also opened for Selena Gomez & the Scene, Allstar Weekend and the Jonas Brothers during
the Concert of Hope.
She toured for six weeks with Selena Gomez & the Scene opening for them in the We Own
the Night Tour.
She released an EP, entitled Find Me, on June 14, 2011.
Her debut single 'Advice' was released to Radio Disney on June 11, with the music video,
directed by Sean Babas, being released on July 19 on her YouTube channel.
She appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show performing with fellow YouTuber, Tyler Ward, a cover
to Lil Wayne's "How to Love" that aired on October 10, 2011.
On November 20, 2011, Grimmie performed at the 39th American Music Awards of 2011 Pre-show
alongside with Taio Cruz to a special rendition of "Higher".
She also performed her song 'Not Fragile' at the American Music Awards of 2011 Coca-Cola
Red Carpet Show along with Selena Gomez's band the Scene.
Christina Grimmie was the special musical guest performing her hit song 'Advice' on
Disney Channel's So Random!
which premiered on December 11, 2011.
2012-13: With Love In January 2012, Grimmie moved to Los Angeles
to pursue her singing career.
Grimmie was signed to Creative Artists Agency who have signed the likes of Chris Brown and
Christina Aguilera in early April 2012 after moving to LA.
On Disney.com, she starred in the web show 'Power Up: with Christina Grimmie, which ran
from March 29, 2012 until June 5, 2012.
She also revealed that she would be working with a new feature band, to be named Rising
Tide, which is a teen group originally from her hometown area in New Jersey.
She then opened for Gomez on her North American dates of her Stars Dance Tour, performing
songs from her second album With Love, which was released on August 6, 2013.
On October 3, 2013, her Music Video for "Tell My Mama" had its Exclusive Video Premiere
on Billboard.com.
The video is "about a guy that I start liking in school, and he's sort of a dangerous kid,
and I am the type of girl that tells my mom about everything," says Grimmie.
2014: The Voice Grimmie auditioned for Season 6 of NBC's singing
competition, The Voice, as revealed on her Facebook page.
During the Blind Auditions, she performed Miley Cyrus' hit song "Wrecking Ball".
All four coaches, namely Adam Levine, Usher, Shakira, and Blake Shelton turned their chairs
for her, but she opted for Adam Levine.
She finished in 3rd place, behind winner Josh Kaufman and runner-up Jake Worthington.
– Studio version of performance reached the top 10 on iTunes
2014-present: Post-The Voice and major label debut
During the competition, Grimmie's coach Adam expressed intentions to sign her to his record
deal, 222 Records, with Lil Wayne also showing interest in signing her to his record deal,
Young Money Entertainment.
She ultimately chose to sign with Island Records.
She is currently touring with the previous contestants of The Voice including season
5 winner Tessanne Chin, runner-up Jacquie Lee, Will Champlin, season 1 runner-up Dia
Frampton and fellow season 6 finalists Kristen Merlin and Jake Barker.
The Voice Summer tour started on June 21, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas.
She is currently writing and recording music for her sophomore album, her third major release,
and first release being signed to a label.
The lead single is expected to be released in July 2014, with the album following later
in the year.
Grimmie announced via Facebook that filming for the lyric video for the single started
on July 6, 2014.
On July 11 she announced that her new single would be called "Must Be Love."
On July 15, 2014 she announced via a live stream that the song would be released on
July 31, 2014.
"Must Be Love" was produced by Elof Loelv and recorded at ZAC Recording in Atlanta,
Georgia.
Influences She grew up listening to contemporary Christian
artist Stacie Orrico: "She has a really awesome voice and I was so drawn to it.
I think the reason I do have a soul voice is because I grew up listening to her and
she was my huge, huge influence.
I wanted to sound just like her, I wrote songs that kinda sounded like something she would
do."
Grimmie cited Christina Aguilera as her main influence vocally.
She also said she admires Beyoncé for her vocals.
She said she likes dubstep and DJ music, as well as rock 'n roll and heavy metal, listening
to Metallica, Pantera, Iron Maiden, and Tool.
Discography Studio albums
Extended plays Singles
Releases from The Voice Music videos
Filmography Awards and nominations
Concert Tours Opening act
DigiTour - Lancaster PA, Washington D.C., New York NY
Selena Gomez & the Scene – We Own the Night Tour
Selena Gomez – Stars Dance Tour The Voice – Summer Tour
References
External links Official website
YouTube channel