Jason Mraz

He was once engaged to singer-songwriter Tristan Prettyman but later broke off the engagement.

He is a vegan and claims that his food choices have influenced his music. He is actively involved with a number of social issues like environment, human rights, LGBT equality, etc. He established the Jason Mraz Foundation in 2011 with an aim to support charities working for human equality, environment preservation and education.

He was born on 23 June 1977 to Tom Mraz and June in Virginia where he was raised. He is of Czech descent and his surname means “frost” in Czech. His parents divorced when he was a kid, but in spite of his broken family he had a comfortable childhood growing up in a safe and friendly neighborhood.

He attended Lee Davis High School where he was a cheerleader. After graduation he went to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, New York where he studied for a few months.

He later enrolled at the Longwood University in Virginia but dropped out to pursue a career in music.

He moved to San Diego in 1999 where he began performing for the band Elgin Park. Along with Toca Rivera he started performing at the coffee house Java Joe’s where he performed for three years building up a fan base.

He signed a contract with Elektra Records in 2002 and released his major label debut album ‘Waiting for My Rocket to Come”. The album reached No. 55 on the Billboard 200. Eventually the album went Platinum for selling a million units.

In 2003, he opened for Tracy Chapman at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 2004, he went on a tour and while on the tour, he released a live album ‘Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom.’

His second studio album, ‘Mr. A-Z’ was out in 2005. It was a moderate success and peaked at No. 5 on Billboards Top 200. It contained the songs ‘Life is Wonderful’ and ‘Geek in the Pink’.

He performed in Singapore in the annual Mosaic Music Festival in 2006. That year he toured all over the US and also went to the UK and Ireland to perform in other musical festivals.

His album, ‘We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things’ is his most successful album so far. The album peaked at No. 3 in the Billboard 200 and spawned hits like ‘Make it Mine’ and ‘I’m Yours’.