by Tokyo Ghoul creator Sui IshidaChristina Victoria Grimmie (March 12, 1994 — June 10, 2016) was an American singer and YouTuber.
Grimmie's father took notice of her singing talent when she was 6, and she started playing piano at age 10. She later began posting videos to YouTube in 2009, when she was 15, under the name zeldaxlove64. Almost 100 of her videos were covers of popular songs, with her cover of "Party in the USA" being the first to gain notable recognition. As her popularity grew, she was discovered in 2011 by Selena Gomez's parents, who soon became her managers, with Gomez additionally becoming her mentor as well as a close friend.
Grimmie also wrote her own songs, with her debut EP Find Me and debut album With You both fully consisting of original music. She gained further prominence in 2014 after appearing on the sixth season of The Voice, where she was coached by Adam Levine and placed third. (Host Carson Daly would later admit he was "shocked" she didn't actually win.)
Following her appearance on the show, Levine and Lil Wayne expressed interest in signing Grimmie to their respective labels (222 Records and Young Money Entertainment), but she ended up signing with Island Records, although she announced less than a year later that she had been dropped. From there, her career continued through new single releases leading to the release of her second EP, Side A, in 2016. That year, she also made her first film appearance in the romantic comedy The Matchbreaker — although the film's release unfortunately ended up being posthumous.
On June 10, 2016, Grimmie was murdered by an assailant at a meet-and-greet in Orlando, FL, who shortly afterwards committed suicide. Several official posthumous works have been released as approved by her family, such as Side B (the follow-up to Side A that she had been working on at the time of her death) and her second album All Is Vanity. In 2019, her backing band, including her older brother Marcus, formed the group The Similar.
Discography:
- 2011 - Find Me (EP)
- 2013 - With Love
- 2014 - The Complete Season 6 Recordings
- 2016 - Side A (EP)
- 2017 - Side B (EP)
- 2017 - All Is Vanity
- Non-album singles note :
- 2014: "Must Be Love"
- 2015: "Cliché"
- 2015: "Stay With Me"
- 2015: "Shrug"
- 2018: "Little Girl"
- 2019: "Hold Your Head Up"
This singer provides examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Downplayed in her song, "Tell My Mama". The boy didn't seem to be that bad, but maybe just a bit dangerous and mysterious.
- Animated Music Video: "Invisible". A sad Justification, as it's the only non-lyric video made after her death...and a powerful tribute to her love of anime.
- Badass Boast: "Not Fragile", where she sings about being unbreakable and "not fragile like that", the soundtrack of Liv & Maddie with Dove Cameron and Baby Kaely,
"What a Girl Is.", her cover of "Titanium", and the posthumous "Invisible" are a few examples. - Ballad of X: “The Ballad of Jessica Blue”, the four music videos accompanying Side A.
- The Band Minus the Face: The Similar, starting 2019.
- Be Yourself: "Ugly" was a song that's all about you being secure with yourself and not letting people tear you down.
- Bowdlerize Being a devout Christian teenager, she sometimes made minor edits to her covers (“Cause your ''love'' takes me to paradise”.)
- Broken Bird: She didn't seem to be one herself, but in her song "King of Thieves" she sings a certain line.Christina: I can't open up for anyone anymore.
- Call-Back: Christina references when she did covers on her YouTube channel in her song, "My Anthem".Christina: It's not a cover- I hope you won't bother.
- Carpe Diem: "My Anthem" was about Christina living her dreams, singing what she wants no matter if people didn't like it. And of course, enjoying the present.Christina: Ooh, I wanna live for the moments. That are gone before we're thinkin' about them. I'm singin' this cause we'd be nothin' without them. And this is my anthem, yeah.
- Cartoon Creature: Christina's flying, roundish, purple sidekick in the "Invisible" video. He was later released as a plush toy and named Lucas.
- Charity Motivation Song: "Love Song to the Earth" with freakin' Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi and Victoria Justice! Also the cover of "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler, to help HSUS.
- Cover Version: Between Youtube and The Voice, this is the majority of her output. She wanted to move away from them in favor of her originals, but never quit them completely, up to using "One Dance" to open what would be her last show.
- Due to the Dead: Covering Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" in February 2012. She admits it's one of the few, if not only, times she doesn't play her keyboard, and covers the video up with pictures of Houston.
- Follow Your Heart: "Advice" advises us to follow our hearts and our dreams.
- Gamer Chick: And how! She streamed on Twitch under the name of Zurplox, she named her keyboards Ness and Lucas (and said she wanted to name her sons that someday), and according to her friends, she had an encyclopedic knowledge of Legend of Zelda. She even briefly hosted a gaming series, Power Up, on Disney's Youtube.
- God-Is-Love Songs: "With Love" can be interpreted as a love song instead of the singer's relationship with God/Jesus.
- Grief Song: Unfortunately, she's been on the receiving end of several. "Clouds" by Before You Exit (the band she was touring with when she was killed) and "Blink of an Eye" by Tori Kelly are both about her.
- It Never Gets Any Easier: A fair few of her songs are about her and getting over guys. "Think of You" and "King of Thieves" come to mind.
- Long-Distance Relationship: Her song "Counting" is all about her and this guy who are far away from each other.
- Naked People Are Funny: The song "Ugly" is about imagining people naked to make yourself feel better. Basically.
- No Name Given: The football star in "The One I Crave", as opposed to James, Pete and John.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Implied by the refrain in "Shrug."
- One-Book Author: She was apparently getting into acting, but her only movie role was as the female lead in the posthumously-released rom-com The Matchbreaker.
- Posthumous Collaboration: "Hard Mode" by Stephen Rezza, from the upcoming album Songs For Christina.
- Posthumous Popularity Potential: While having a formidable career in her own right post-The Voice as well as a massive YouTube following, she didn't become a household name until she was murdered. Ticket sales for her movie, The Matchbreaker, and sales for her EP Side B, after her death are notable examples.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Whoever beat her in The Voice ended up having nothing on Team Grimmie. Of course, she had a bit of an advantage before and after...
- Set Behind the Scenes: Her YouTube channel included one for a lot of her songs.
- Shout-Out: The chorus to "Pressure" is one to her favorite quote:
- Shrinking Violet: Maybe not, but in her song, "Tell My Mama" she said that she hung up the phone as soon as the person she was calling answered.
- Teen Idol: Started posting to Youtube at 15, by 17 opening for Selena Gomez, and at 20 was at least acquaintances with a good chunk of the early-New 10s Radio Disney set. She was maturing her sound for the mainstream when she died.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: "Feelin' Good" is about someone who used to be sad, but eventually became overexcited about finally becoming happy.
- Weakness Turns Her On: Subverted in "The One I Crave". There was a guy named Sweet Pete but she didn't like how he couldn't hold a conversation.
- What Does She See in Him?: The song "Get Yourself Together" is a message to a girl who didn't know that a guy was totally poisonous.
- Women Are Delicate: Defied in her song "Not Fragile". She sings about how she is unbreakable and "not fragile like that."
- Word Salad Lyrics: Played for Laughs with “Above All that is Random”.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: "Ugly" and Implied in "Advice"
It was only just a dream...
