BIRDY - BIRDY

UK singer-songwriter Jasmine Van den Bogaerde, better known by her professional name Birdy was born on 15th May, 1996. Her mother was a concert pianist, Sophie (nee Roper-Curzon) and her father, Rupert Bogarde a writer. She was raised in a mill house on the Pylewell Park estate (Lymington, UK) of Birdy’s maternal grandfather, Baron Teynham. She attended Priestlands School in Lymington, UK until the age of 16, before going on to Brockenhurst Sixth Form College to study for her A-levels. After she won the Under 18s category of the UK talent contest Open Mic UK at the age of 12, Bogaerde was soon offered a publishing contract by Good Soldier Songs Ltd, run by Christian Tattersfield, chairman of Warner Music UK. In 2011, at the age of 14, she released a haunting cover version of the Bon Iver "Skinny Love", which reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart. The track was later featured in an episode of The Vampire Diaries. Her self-titled debut album, "Birdy", was released on 4th November, 2011 and featured "Skinny Love" , "1901" and "People Help The People", other notable tracks from the album include James Taylor's" Fire and Rain" and “Terrible Love” The album reached #1 in Australia, Belgium and The Netherlands, it also peaked at #13 in the UK. In 2011, "Skinny Love" sold 259,000 copies in the UK becoming the third biggest selling rock single of that year. As of August 2016, the song had sold almost 800,000 copies in the UK. In 2012, Birdy released an 8 track EP " Live in London “ which featured several tracks from her debut album plus a version of the Ed Sheeran song "The A Team “and "Just a Game from “The Hunger Games” In July 2013 Birdy announced via YouTube, that her 2nd album would be released later in the year. She also previewed two new songs "Wings "and "No Angel" which would both be featured on her second studio album "Fire Within" Her second studio album, "Fire Within" was released 23rd September, 2013. It featured 11 original songs, either written or co written by Birdy including Strange Birds, co-written with Sia. The first single from the album was “Wings” released as a digital download then officially released in the UK on 8th September 2013. The song reached #8 on the UK charts, becoming Birdy’s first UK top 10. It was also featured in an episode of The Vampire Diaries. Subsequent singles were “No Angel”, Light Me Up” and “Words as Weapons” In 2014, Birdy submitted three songs to the soundtrack of the film “The Fault In Our Stars” which stars “Shailene Woodley” and “Ansel Elgort”. “Not About Angels” was the second released single from the soundtrack album. Other Birdy contributions were “ Tee Shirt" and “ Best Shot" On 25th March 2016, Birdy's third album "Beautiful Lies" was released, it featured the singles, "Keeping Your Head Up" ,"Wild Horses" and "Words" Once again her songwriting abilities were evident as she wrote or co wrote all of the 14 tracks. Also in 2016 she was featured on the "Sigma" single " Find Me which was only a minor success in the UK. Her song Ghost In The Wind" also appeared on the soundtrack of the film The Edge Of Seventeen After an extensive tour of USA and Asia, she took a break from music, only to return with a new single called “ Open Your Heart" in 2020. The song was featured on the 4 track EP called “Piano Sketches” Birdy’s fourth studio album “Young Heart” was then released on 30th April 2021, the first single “ Surrender” was issued earlier in 2021, a day after she had announced that her new album was coming. Birdy described the album as a heartbreak album heavily inspired by Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” 2023 saw the release of Birdy's fifth studio album “Portraits” It was released on 18th August 2023. “Raincatchers” was issued as the first single, which had been released earlier in 2023. Subsequent singles from the album have since followed, “Heartbreaker”, “Your Arms” and “Paradise Calling” Birdy's music is described as folk, pop, indie folk. She cites her early music influences as Classical Music and Pop music that her parents would play. along with her own influences, which are so evident in her music(Bon Iver, George Michael and Keane) Album Discography: Birdy (2011) Fire Within (2013) Beautiful Lies (2016) Young Heart (2021) Portraits (2023) Sites: Discogs, Wikipedia and YouTube. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.