Christina Grimmie

Christina Victoria Grimmie (March 12, 1994 – June 10, 2016) was an American singer and YouTuber.

Christina Victoria Grimmie was born to Tina (née Milos) and Albert Grimmie in the Marlton section of Evesham Township, New Jersey, on March 12, 1994.

Her mother worked as a receptionist until she was diagnosed with breast cancer; her father worked at Verizon Communications.

She had an older brother, Marcus (who served as Christina's road manager during her performances).

Grimmie was of Italian and Romanian descent and grew up in Marlton, New Jersey, where she attended Bethel Baptist Christian School, Marlton Middle School, and Cherokee High School.

Her father noticed Grimmie's talent for singing when she was six years old, and she started playing the piano at age 10.

Despite having received piano lessons, Grimmie said she played by ear.

In 2009, she began posting covers of popular songs onto YouTube.

Grimmie began posting videos to her YouTube channel in 2009 at age 15, under the username of zeldaxlove64.

Grimmie stated that she began a musical YouTube channel so that people could connect with her music, and because her friend persuaded her to post her videos on the popular video-sharing website.

The first video Grimmie uploaded was a cover of Hannah Montana's "Don't Wanna Be Torn".

She first earned recognition for her cover of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A." in August 2009.

Grimmie's covers first gained attention and stood out due to her voice, personality, and interpretations of well-known songs.

Grimmie was homeschooled for her junior year of high school in 2010.

That same year, she covered Nelly's "Just a Dream" with fellow YouTubers Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider in a video which received more than 190 million views over the course of ten years.

Later, it also became available on iTunes and Spotify.

After releasing her debut EP, Find Me (2011), her YouTube channel reached one million subscribers.

In 2011, she placed No. 2 in the MyYouTube competition, behind Selena Gomez.

As her popularity grew on YouTube, Grimmie was discovered by Gomez's mother, Mandy Teefey; Teefey and her husband Brian soon became Grimmie's managers.

Grimmie performed in the UNICEF charity concert, and also performed backup vocals for Selena Gomez & the Scene; she appeared on the first DigiTour in 2011, which was created specifically for YouTube artists.

Gomez became her mentor.

Grimmie 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.

The album was released independently and debuted at number 35 on the Billboard 200 chart in the US.

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 with fellow YouTuber Tyler Ward, performing a cover to Lil Wayne's "How to Love"; the episode aired on October 10.

On November 20, Grimmie performed at the 39th American Music Awards of 2011 pre-show alongside Taio Cruz to a special rendition of "Higher" and also won her first award.

She also performed her song "Not Fragile" at the Coca-Cola Red Carpet Show along with Selena Gomez & the Scene.

She and the band then appeared together in a commercial for Xbox's Kinect.

After she reached two million subscribers, she released her debut studio album, With Love (2013).

Grimmie then became a contestant on season six of The Voice, finishing in third place.

Adam Levine, her coach on the show, announced in the finale that, regardless of the results, he would sign her to his label 222 Records.

Lil Wayne also offered to sign her to his label, Young Money Entertainment.

She was signed with Island Records for a short time before being dropped.

Grimmie released her second EP, Side A, in 2016.

That same year, she took on an acting role, making her only motion-picture appearance in The Matchbreaker.

On June 10, 2016, Grimmie was fatally shot while signing autographs following a concert performance at The Plaza Live in Orlando, Florida.

Side B, a follow-up to Side A, was made available on Spotify and iTunes in 2017, and in June 2017, Grimmie's second and final album, All Is Vanity, was released posthumously.

In 2019, her YouTube channel reached four million subscribers, although it dropped below four million in 2020, settling at 3.91 million as of January 2024.