* En anglais uniquement
Combining her love of classical music with electronic dance and hip-hop, California artist
Lindsey Stirling is a violinist, dancer, and performer who surpassed early viral fame with a solo career that captured an audience in the pop mainstream. Early on, she was known for her YouTube cover videos and for competing on the 2010 season of America's Got Talent, but she quickly became a crossover success after the release of her self-titled 2012 solo debut. As the decade progressed, she issued multiple Top Five, gold-certified albums, including 2014's
Shatter Me and 2016's
Brave Enough, both of which found her expanding her sound with singers including
Lzzy Hale,
Dia Frampton,
Christina Perri,
Rivers Cuomo, and others.
Stirling has continued to explore new musical territory, releasing the 2017 holiday album
Warmer in the Winter and collaborating with vocalists
Amy Lee and
Elle King on her chart-topping 2019 album
Artemis. In 2020 she joined
Avril Lavigne for the song "We Are Warriors" and in 2021 paired with
Mako on the song "Lose You Now."
Born in Santa Ana, California,
Stirling grew up in Arizona and began studying classical violin at the age of five. In her teens, she played in a rock band called Stomp on Melvin and competed in the Junior Miss competition, winning the Arizona Junior Miss title. An active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she studied therapeutic recreation at Brigham Young University. In 2010,
Stirling appeared as the "hip-hop violinist" on NBC's America's Got Talent, in which she showcased her unique performance style of dancing and playing the violin at the same time accompanied by electronic backing tracks. After finishing in the quarter-finals of the show,
Stirling began focusing more on filming videos for her YouTube channel. Working with director/cinematographer Devin Graham, she produced a series of videos featuring her in beautiful, evocative outdoor settings or with striking visual accompaniment; one of her videos, "Crystallize," ended up being viewed more than 100 million times. She released her self-titled debut album of all-original material in 2012 through her own Lindseystomp label. The album sold over 200,000 copies in the United States as an independent release, and was certified gold in Germany (selling over 100,000 copies there), Austria, and Switzerland.
After successful concert tours throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Russia,
Stirling signed a deal with
Lady Gaga's management firm, Atom Factory, and reissued her eponymous debut album through
Universal Music. In 2013,
Stirling released a pair of collaborative EPs -- one with
Tyler Ward, the other with
Ward and Chester See. Her sophomore long-player,
Shatter Me, arrived the following year. It was her first to include collaborations with other vocalists (
Lzzy Hale,
Dia Frampton), and it debuted at number two on the album charts. Along with taking part in several new collaborations (Jesse J,
Pentatonix,
Joy Enriquez),
Stirling devoted much of 2014 and early 2015 to a massive world tour that took her across North America, through Europe, and into Oceania.
In June of 2015 she announced the completion of an autobiography, The Only Pirate at the Party, and began work on a new album. Released in 2016,
Brave Enough was a partially fan-funded production that included the single "Arena." The album -- which debuted atop both the Billboard classical and dance/electronic charts -- featured appearances from
Weezer's
Rivers Cuomo, Indian-American rapper
Raja Kumari, Christian rapper
Lecrae,
Christina Perri, and
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. Her collaboration with the latter, "Something Wild," was chosen as the theme song to the
Disney reboot of
Pete's Dragon, which was released in 2016. At the end of the year and into 2017,
Stirling embarked on a mammoth world tour in support of the album, taking in dates in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and into South America. In May, she was awarded the Top Dance/Electronic Album at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards for
Brave Enough. The single "Love's Just a Feeling" appeared at the same time and featured guest vocals from Irish singer/songwriter
Rooty.
In October 2017,
Stirling released her fourth studio album, the holiday-themed
Warmer in the Winter, which featured guest spots from
Trombone Shorty,
Alex Gaskarth of
All Time Low, and
Sabrina Carpenter. That same year, she competed on the 25th season of Dancing with the Stars. She returned to music in 2019, releasing the single "Underground" and announcing her fifth studio album,
Artemis. The album, which used the eponymous goddess as a framework for exploring perseverance, was released in September of the same year.
Artemis featured guests
Amy Lee of
Evanescence ("Life Goes on and On") and
Elle King ("The Upside").
Lee returned the favor, including
Stirling on
Evanescence's 2020 song "Use My Voice." The violinist was also featured that same year on singer
Avril Lavigne's song "We Are Warriors."
In 2021, she released the standalone single "Lose You Now" featuring vocalist
Mako. Building upon the
Artemis instrumental "Guardian,"
Stirling tasked
Mako with penning the lyrics for the track, which was created as a tribute to her late father. ~ Matt Collar