Birdy

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 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 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.