Kina Grannis (born August 4, 1985) is an
American guitarist and
singer-songwriter.
Grannis was the winner of the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest. As a result of winning, she earned a recording contract with Interscope Records and had her music video played during the commercials of Super Bowl XLII.
Her progress in the competition was covered in The Orange County Register and The Wall Street Journal. Grannis has also been featured on FOX News Los Angeles, Good Day L.A. and Yahoo!.
Biography
Early life and career beginnings
Grannis is of Japanese, English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish descent. She grew up in Mission Viejo, California, where her love in music rooted. In elementary school she composed and submitted piano compositions to district art competitions, and soon afterward she began playing the violin, an instrument she played throughout high school. At 15 years old she taught herself the guitar, now her primary instrument.
She attended Viejo Elementary School, Newhart Middle School and from 1999 to 2003 Capistrano Valley High School.
Grannis enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles in 2003. Two years later staff members of the University's Thornton School of Music asked her to produce an album in its music and music industry departments. That album, Sincerely, Me, which is on CD, was released the same year. In 2007 she graduated Summa Cum Laude in social science with an emphasis on psychology. While attending USC, she was inducted into academic societies Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.
Solo career
In 2006, Kina recorded and self-released two more albums,
One More in the Attic and
In Memory of the Singing Bridge. In early 2007 she recorded "Ours to Keep" written by Rachael Lawrence and Deborah Ellen. This song would be featured regularly on
General Hospital and was in an episode of the
ABC Family's mini-series
Samurai Girl in September 2008.
On November 14, 2007 she created her YouTube account and began posting videos of her songs online. Her first video, "Message From Your Heart," was her entry into the Crash the Super Bowl contest, which landed her a contract with Interscope Records. Since then, her YouTube videos have received more than 55 million views and has propelled her to become one of YouTube's most popular personalities. Grannis planned to work with Interscope Records to produce a new album, but in January 2009 she announced she left the label to be an independent artist.
On February 24, 2008, Kina sang the national anthem for the Auto Club 500 NASCAR race in Fontana, California.
In June 2009 her songs "Never Never" and "People" were used in episodes of MTV's reality series College Life. On January 13, 2010 Grannis was the headliner at a sold-out show at The Troubadour club in Los Angeles.
Stairwells was released on February 23, 2010 and included many original songs already appearing on YouTube, as well as three previously unreleased songs: "World in Front of Me," "In Your Arms" and "Mr. Sun." Stairwells debuted at No. 139 on the Billboard 200, No. 5 on the Billboard Top Internet Albums chart, No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and No. 18 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart. The location of her release party for Stairwells, the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica, was the subject of an article in the Orange Country Register because the venue enabled her to show her gratitude to her fans.
On March 13, 2010, her single "Valentine" was played by Paul Gambaccini on BBC Radio 2, the most popular radio station in the UK. The music video for "Valentine" directed by a young and talented viral video director Ross Ching has been viewed well over 8 million times on Youtube.
Grannis' Stairwells Springtime Tour began in San Francisco on May 24, 2010 and concluded in late June after several stints on the East Coast and in Canada. Her Fall Tour began on September 17, 2010 and concluded on November 17, 2010. On July 10, 2010 she played at Lilith Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.
In 2010, Kina was featured as Judy in a miniseries by Wong Fu Productions entitled "Funemployed".
In early 2011, Kina was awarded the title of Sirius/XM CoffeeHouse's 2010 Singer-Songwriter Discovery of the Year after a months-long online voting period.
World in Front of Me Tour
In 2011, Kina has her first world tour. Starting in April, she performed in the eastern regions of
Canada, continuing down the eastern and southern regions of the
United States. She continued in May, through the northwest region of
North America back up to
British Columbia, and ending in
Los Angeles. Shows in
Europe and southeast
Asia as well as
Australia have been planned for later in the year, with official dates and locations for the former announced as set in October.
Personal life, Charity work
Grannis has two sisters, Misa and Emi, both of whom have occasionally been featured in her
video blogs. Her father, Gordon, is a
chiropractor. and her mother Trish a
graphic designer. An avid supporter of cancer research, Grannis has performed at several Southern California
Relay For Life functions over the years. In late 2007 she contributed her music to the
Band Together: To Fight Measles benefit album. In October 2008 she participated in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco to support the
Leukemia Lymphoma Society, raising $6,000 for the organization. In 2009 for that year philanthropic organization Sister to Sister adopted her song "Message From Your Heart."
Discography
Albums
Sincerely, Me. (2005)
#"Blindly"
#"Highlighted in Green"
#"Next Time"
#"Try"
#"Another Day"
#"People"
One More In the Attic (2006)
#"Living In Dreams"
#"Why Can't I?"
#"Never Never"
#"Some Days"
#"What Is Said"
#"In Theory"
#"Wandering and Wondering"
#"Running Away"
#"Missing You"
#"Alone Together" (CD Bonus Track)
In Memory of the Singing Bridge (2006)
#"Walk On"
#"Down and Gone (the Blue Song)"
#"Too Soon"
#"Breathe Honesty"
#"Don't Cry"
#"Night"
#"!"
#"Memory"
#"Untitled"
Stairwells (2010)
#"World in Front of Me"
#"In Your Arms"
#"Valentine"
#"Strong Enough"
#"Together"
#"The Goldfish Song"
#"Heart And Mind"
#"Cambridge"
#"Stars Falling Down"
#"Delicate"
#"Message From Your Heart"
#"Stay Just A Little"
#"Back To Us"
#"Mr. Sun"
Stairwells (Re-Release 2011)
#"World in Front of Me"
#"Message From Your Heart"
#"Gone"
#"Valentine"
#"In Your Arms"
#"It's Love"
#"The One You Say Goodnight To"
#"Stars Falling Down"
#"Heart And Mind"
#"Without Me"
#"Delicate"
#"The Goldfish Song"
#"Mr. Sun"
Stairwells Deluxe (2011) also includes:
#"Together"
#"Strong Enough"
#"Cambridge"
#"Stay Just A Little"
#"Back To Us"
#"Sounds of Silence" (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
#"Disturbia" (Rihanna cover)
#"White Winter Hymnal" (Fleet Foxes cover)
Singles
"Message From Your Heart"
"Valentine"
Songs in other media
Television Appearances
Good Day, LA (KTTV, Los Angeles) – February 5, 2008
NASCAR California 500 (Fox, National) – February 24, 2008
The Early Show (CBS, National) – June 19, 2010
San Diego Living (XETV, San Diego) – September 14, 2010
The Morning Show (WJXT, Jacksonville) – October 6, 2010
Good Day (WOFL, Orlando) – October 8, 2010
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official site
Category:American pop singers
Category:Musicians from California
Category:American singer-songwriters
Category:American female singers
Category:American people of Japanese descent
Category:2000s singers
Category:2010s singers
Category:American musicians of Japanese descent
Category:1985 births
Category:Living people
Category:Interscope Records artists
Category:American female guitarists
Category:University of Southern California alumni
![Two Is Better Than One - Boys Like Girls ft Taylor Swift [AJ Rafael-Kina Grannis]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110831115833im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Uwxq8dVWvlQ/0.jpg "Two Is Better Than One - Boys Like Girls ft Taylor Swift [AJ Rafael-Kina Grannis]")
