MUSIC: Kina Grannis

I discovered Kina Grannis a few weeks back when a friend posted a barrage of her songs and YouTube videos on Facebook. I thought to myself, who the hell is Kina Grannis? So, I took a chance and watched her video cover of Iron and Wine's Flightless Bird, American Mouth. 

I was hooked.

If this was American Idol, the judges will say that she made the song her own. And, that she connected.

The connection was so strong that I not only played the song non-stop in one day, I also downloaded the original version (plus Iron and Wine's five albums) and this lady's singles.

The song, itself, was already beautifully - very poetic. But with Kinna's rendition, - which is actually twice as long as the original - the song became gentler, more emotional. The "family home video" music video also gave that intimate feel. 


But, that didn't stop there. Trying to satisfy my curiosity, I checked her YouTube Channel (kinagrannis) and this 24-year-old singer-songwriter will provide you with the most wonderful covers ever. My favorites, so far, are Falling Slowly (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova), Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen), 1234 (Feist), New Soul (Yael Naim) and Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis). She did more covers but I just can't view them all in one day, can I?

If you check her channel, you could see that most of her videos have more than a million hits. Clearly, she's very popular. But why is she still unheard of in this part of the world? Why hasn't any big record label honcho grabbed this talented lady yet?

Actually, she has "performed" at the Super Bowl XLII and been signed to Interscope Records, but decided to go independent instead. Methinks, the big record label honcho decided to make her into the next Colbie Caillat or, worse, have someone write songs for her (think Kelly Clarkson versus Dick Clark). If this is the case, she may have felt a loss of creative freedom and the best way to maintain her sanity and originality is to make it big her own way. Good for her and I agree!

Here are other things I learned about Kina Grannis (all information are available on Wiki, of course);

• Her song Message From Your Heart won the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest. Hence, the aforementioned "performed" at the Super Bowl.
• She is of Japanese, English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish descent.
• Some of her songs were featured in TV shows like General Hospital and College Life.
• An avid supporter of cancer research, she would perform regularly on charity events for the cause.
• She has a new album called Stairwells and her latest single is Valentine (video below) which, is available on free download from kinagrannis.com.