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July Girl Crush: Christina Grimmie

A couple of years ago, Christina Grimmie was just a girl obsessed with video games, who loved to sing and play the piano.

Now, after building a successful YouTube account and competing on NBC’s The Voice, she’s a bonafide singer living her dream.

Christina aptly named her YouTube channel zeldalover64 and began uploading videos of both covers and originals.

She posted her first video on July 17, 2009, singing a cover of a Hannah Montana song called “Don’t Wanna Be Torn.” With the support of her father, Christina started taking piano lessons, but despite her training, she prefers to play by ear. YouTube took notice of her after her cover of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” in early August of 2009. Her breakout video was a cover she did with Sam Tsui of Nelly’s “Just a Dream,” which has had more than a combined total of 115 million views.

One of her YouTube subscribers happened to be Selena Gomez’s dad, Brian Teefey, who contacted Christina and offered to manage her career. Together, they produced Find Me, an EP which was released for digital download on June 14, 2011. The album was first only sold at Christina’s shows and once it was released independently it debuted at number 35 on the Billboard 200. Christina described the album as a little bit of pop and dance. To promote her album, she went on ClevverTV and toured with Selena Gomez & the Scene as an opening act. She continued to tour with Selena in the summer of 2011 for her We Own the Night Tour. The tour, which had 31 shows and spanned the country, was Christina’s debut as a professional singer.

Once the tour ended, Christina was asked to perform at the 2011 American Music Awards. She sang “Not Fragile” with the Scene backing her at the Coca-Cola Red Carpet show and performed with Taio Cruz on his hit song “Higher.” As of April 28, 2013, she has been the 4th most subscribed to musician on the site, having over 2 and a half million subscribers and garnering over 279 million views.

Following her guest appearance on Disney Channel’s So Random, she made the bold decision to move to Los Angeles to pursue her singing career. Creative Artists Agency, who represented artists such as Chris Brown and Christina Aguilera signed Christina in April 2012. She continued working with Disney, starring in a web show called Power Up: with Christina Grimmie which had a short run, ending on June 5, 2012. Christina opened again for Selena Gomez, this time for her Stars Dance Tour, performing songs from her sophomore album With Love.

After completing her second album, Christina announced on her Facebook page that she would be auditioning for “The Voice” and received overwhelming support from her family, friends and of course, Team Grimmie, which is the nickname of her fans. For the Blind Auditions, she floored the judges with her rendition of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” getting all four judges to turn their chairs. Christina was a strong competitor from the start of the show and was even touted to win the whole thing. Adam Levine, Christina’s coach said that she was “one of the most motivated contestants out of all six seasons” and she reminded him about himself in that she was willing to do anything she could to make her dream come true. Christina ended up placing third in the competition and she was pretty sure that if it weren’t for her “frands,” her special name for Team Grimmie, she wouldn’t have gotten that far.

Currently, Christina is on tour with The Voice and is planning her next album. Christina, who turned 20 on March 12, has never been more driven and focused to continue to put out music that people enjoy and to be an inspirational artist.