Birdy - Pop Singers, Timeline and Life

She was born on May 15, 1996, in London, United Kingdom. Her birth name is Jasmine Lucilla Elizabeth Jennifer van den Bogaerde. Her father is Rupert Oliver Benjamin van den Bogaerde, an author, who has written the book, Daybreak into darkness, under the name, Rupert Bogarde. Her mother is Sophie Patricia (nee’ Roper-Curzon), who is a concert pianist.

Her parents were married in 1997 and have two other children, Jake, who was born in 1997, and Caitlin, who was born in 1999. She has two older half-brothers, Moses and Sam, from her father’s first marriage.

She grew up in an old mill house on the estate of her maternal grandfather, Lord Tyneham, in the New Forest area of Southern England near Lymington, Hampshire. She studied in Durlston Court School, Priestlands School and Brockenhurst college.

She started learning the piano at the age of seven from her mother. She started writing her own songs at the age of eight. In 2008 at the age of 12, she won the UK talent contest ‘Open Mic UK’, which is a spin-off of the talent competition, ‘Live and Unsigned’. She won in both the under-18 category as well as the Grand Prize, against ten thousand competitors. She sang her own song ‘So be free’, in the competition, in front of two thousand people.

She performed live on piano for BBC Radio three’s pianothon in London in 2009. In 2011, she released the cover version of the song ‘Skinny Love’ by Bon Iver. The song became her first hit on the UK singles chart and debuted at number seventeen. The song was certified Platinum in Australia six times. The song was featured on the episodes of TV series ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ and, ‘Being Human’.

In July 2011, she performed In BBC Radio 1’s ‘Live Lounge’ programme. In this session she sang covers of various songs including ‘Shelter’, and ‘A Team’. Her cover rendition of the song ‘Shelter’ in this session, was later featured on The Vampire Diaries’ episode, ‘The End of the Affair’, which aired in September 2011.

She released her debut album titled Birdy, in November 2011. The album featured eleven tracks, out of which, ten were cover versions and one, ‘Without a word’, was original. The album peaked at number one in Belgium, Netherlands, and Australia, number thirteen in the UK, and at number forty in Ireland. Two cover tracks from the album, ‘Skinny Love’ and ‘People help the People’, reached number two and number ten respectively, in Australia.

In June 2012, she recorded the song ‘Learn me Right’, with the British band ‘Mumford & Sons’. The song was featured in the soundtrack of the animated movie ‘Brave’, produced by Pixar studios. For this song, she along with Mumford and Sons, was nominated for a Grammy award in 2013 in the ‘best song for visual media’ category.

Her song ‘Just a game’, was featured in the soundtrack of the 2012 movie, ‘The Hunger Games’. In August 2012, she released the EP, ‘Live in London’, which contained eight tracks Including the song ‘Just again’, and her cover of the Ed Sheeran song ‘A Team’. On August 29, 2012, she performed in the opening ceremony of the London Paralympic Games.

In February 2013, she performed at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy. In July 2013, she announced the release of her second studio album titled ‘Fire Within’, Via a YouTube video. The first single from the album, ‘Wings’, was released on July 22, 2013 and was featured in ‘The Vampire Diaries’ episode home on May 15, 2014. The album was released in the UK and adjoining countries, in September 2013. In North America, the album was released in June 2014.

In September 2013 she appeared on the BBC Radio 1 show Live lounge, in which she sang a cover of the song, ‘Let her go’, by the English singer, songwriter, and musician called Passenger. The song was featured on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge 2013 album. She released an EP titled ‘Breathe’ in the UK in October 2013.

In October 2014, she sang a cover version of Madonna’s song ‘Lucky Star’, which appeared on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Sounds of the 80s’ album.

She contributed three songs for the soundtrack of the 2014 romantic tragedy movie, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. She featured as a guest artist in the song ‘I'll keep loving you’, in French DJ David Guetta’s 2014 album, ‘Listen’.

In August 2015, she co-wrote the song ‘Let it all go’ with English singer and songwriter Rhodes. The single was released in the UK in September 2015 via digital download. in October 2015, she performed a cover version of the song, ‘Firestone’ by Norwegian DJ Kygo, featuring Australian singer Conrad Sewell, in the BBC Radio 1 program Live Lounge. This cover version was featured on BBC Radio 1’s ‘Live Lounge 2015’ album.

In March 2016, she released her third studio album titled ‘Beautiful Lies’. In April 2016, the Japanese version of the album ‘Beautiful Lies’ was released featuring a bonus track titled ‘Lights’. In April 2016, she performed a cover version of Tracy chapman's song fast car in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. In May 2016 she performed in the opening ceremony of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards night.

In June 2016, she released three instrumental piano albums Titled ‘Ornithology’, ‘Vogelfrei,’ and ‘Nightbird’. These albums were released digitally and were available for commercial download on Amazon and Google Play Store. In September 2016, she collaborated with Passenger on the song ‘Beautiful Birds’. In November 2016 she collaborated with the British DJ duo Sigma on the song ‘Find Me’. The song peaked at Number thirty-six on the UK singles chart and number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

In December 2017, she signed a global music publishing deal with Warner / Chappell Music, the music publishing arm of Warner Music Group. As of 2018, she has sold over 10.5 million records worldwide and has released three studio albums, four EPs, three instrumental albums In MP3 format, seven singles, and six music videos.

Her self-titled debut album, released in 2011, reached number one on the Australian, Belgian, and Dutch album charts. It reached number three in Switzerland, number four in New Zealand, and number five in France. It was certified triple Platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP), France, Platinum by the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), and gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Her song ‘Skinny Love’ from this album peaked at number one in the Netherlands and number two in Australia.

Her second album ‘Fire Within’, released in 2013, reached number five In Australia and number eight in the UK. Her third album ‘Beautiful Lies’, released in March 2016, reached number five in Hungary, Ireland, and the UK.

She was nominated for a Grammy award in the ‘best song for visual media’ category in 2013, for her song ‘Learn me right’ which was a collaboration with the British band Mumford and Sons, for the soundtrack of the animated movie ‘Brave’. She won the best International Rock/Pop Artist award, at the Echo Awards 2014 in Berlin Germany, in March 2014. She was nominated for the Brit awards In the British female solo artist category in 2014.

She has stated that she likes to spend her free time with her boyfriend and that he is in the same industry as she but has refused to divulge his name.

She was nicknamed Birdy by her parents because of the way she opened her mouth as an infant while being fed.

She belongs to an aristocratic British family from her mother’s side.