Christina Grimmie

Christina Victoria Grimmie  was an American singer and songwriter known for participating in The Voice and for her covers of hit songs by contemporary pop musicians.

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 signed to Island Records for a short time before being dropped by them.

On June 10, 2016, Grimmie was shot by an unknown male assailant following a Before You Exit concert in Orlando, Florida. The suspect committed suicide. She was hospitalized in critical condition and pronounced dead hours later due to her injuries

Grimmie grew up in Marlton, New Jersey where she attended Baptist Regional Elementary School and Cherokee High School.

She was 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 said she played by ear.

In a number of her videos and interviews, Grimmie identified herself as a Christian.

Grimmie was homeschooled for her junior year in 2010.

Grimmie began posting videos to her YouTube channel 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 became known for her cover with fellow YouTuber Sam Tsui of Nelly's "Just a Dream", which has had more than 128 million views between the three official versions of the video as of February 9, 2016.

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.[18] 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.

Grimmie performed in the UNICEF charity concert, and 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 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.[20] 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 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.

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, 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," said Grimmie.

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, Adam Levine, Usher, Shakira, and Blake Shelton, turned their chairs for her, and she opted for Adam Levine. She finished in 3rd place, behind winner Josh Kaufman and runner-up Jake Worthington.