Claire Elise Boucher, known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer.
73 Facts About Grimes
Grimes subsequently signed with 4AD and rose to prominence with the release of her third studio album, Visions, in 2012.
Outside of music, Grimes had a voice role in the 2020 action role-playing video game Cyberpunk 2077 and is a judge on the music competition game show Alter Ego.
Grimes was born Claire Elise Boucher and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 17,1988.
Grimes is of French Canadian, Italian, and German-Ukrainian descent.
Grimes's mother, Sandy Garossino, is a former Crown prosecutor and arts advocate; her father, Maurice Boucher, a former banker, works "in the business side of biotech".
In 2006, Grimes graduated from Lord Byng Secondary School and relocated from Vancouver to Montreal to attend McGill University focusing on neuroscience and Russian language, but left the university in early 2011 before finishing her degree.
Grimes listed "grime" for all three, without knowing what the grime music genre was.
In January 2010, Grimes released her debut album, Geidi Primes, a concept album inspired by the Dune series, followed by her second album, Halfaxa, in October of the same year.
Visions won the Electronic Album of the Year Award and Grimes was nominated for the Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the Junos.
Grimes won the Artist of the Year Award at the 2013 Webbys.
In interviews following the album's release, Grimes explained that she was assigned a strict deadline by which to have her third album finished far before it was complete, resulting in her recording the bulk of Visions while isolated in her Montreal apartment for three consecutive weeks.
Grimes went on the Visions Tour from 2012 to 2014 with supporting acts Born Gold, Myths, Elite Gymnastics, and Ami Dang.
In March 2012, Grimes collaborated with Cop Car Bonfire's Tim Lafontaine and went under the name, Membrain.
In July 2012, Grimes toured as a supporting act with Diplo and Skrillex on the Full Flex Express Canadian Train Tour.
In December 2013, Grimes employed the services of Jay-Z's management company, Roc Nation.
On June 26,2014, Grimes premiered the new track "Go", produced by and featuring Blood Diamonds.
In July 2014, Grimes was featured on Bleachers' song "Take Me Away" from their album, Strange Desire.
On March 8,2015, Grimes released a self-directed video for a demo version of "Realiti" from an abandoned album.
Grimes then toured in the fall of 2015 as the headliner of her own Rhinestone Cowgirls Tour with opener Nicole Dollanganger.
Grimes won the 2016 International award at the Socan Annual Awards and the 2016 Harper's Bazaar Musician of the Year Award in October.
Grimes continued touring through the summer of 2016, performing at various music festivals across North America and opening for Florence and the Machine on select dates of the How Beautiful Tour.
In 2016, Grimes helped write Troye Sivan's song Heaven from the album, Blue Neighbourhood.
On February 2,2017, Grimes premiered on Tidal the high budget futuristic music video of "Venus Fly", starring herself and Janelle Monae.
Grimes won Best Dance Video for "Venus Fly" at the Much Music Video Awards.
In 2017, Grimes won a JUNO Award for Video of the Year, featuring "Kill V Maim".
On October 19,2017, Grimes released a cover of Tegan and Sara's "Dark Come Soon" with Hana.
Grimes later revealed on an Instagram post that she would eventually be releasing two albums, and that "they would be separated by a period of time", with the first being released with 4AD, and the second with an undisclosed label.
Grimes stated that this first album would be "highly collaborative and [characterized by] most glorious light", with the second highlighting themes of "pure darkness and chaos".
In 2018, Grimes composed the theme music for Netflix's animated series Hilda.
On October 19,2018, Grimes was featured on Jimmy Urine's "The Medicine Does Not Control Me" from the album, Euringer.
On November 29,2018, Grimes released the single, "We Appreciate Power" featuring Hana, which was described as an industrial rock and nu metal song.
On December 11,2018, Grimes performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Grimes appeared on Bring Me the Horizon's "Nihilist Blues" from their sixth album, Amo.
Grimes released the music video for "Violence", featuring i_o, on September 5,2019.
On November 29,2019, Grimes released the single "My Name Is Dark".
On February 27,2020, Grimes released a music video for the song "Idoru".
On June 17,2020, Grimes was featured on Ashnikko's song, "Cry" from her mixtape, Demidevil.
Grimes made an appearance on the Adult Swim sketch comedy show, The Eric Andre Show.
Grimes collaborated with Benee on the dance-style song "Sheesh" on the latter's debut album, Hey U X, released on November 11,2020.
Grimes's song, "Kill V Maim" was featured in the soundtrack of the 2020 film, Mainstream.
On December 18,2020, nine months after the release of her fifth studio album, Miss Anthropocene, Grimes changed the cover art for the album on all streaming platforms.
The new cover art is a painting by Rupid Leejm that Grimes commissioned to use.
On May 8,2021, Grimes made an appearance on a Saturday Night Live sketch as Princess Peach alongside host Elon Musk as Wario.
Grimes used the Discord server to tease new music frequently, and released a snippet of a song called "Shinigami Eyes" which she continued to promote in subsequent social media posts, as well as an upcoming collaboration with British DJ Chris Lake.
Grimes spoke about an upcoming concept album with Billboard, describing it as a "space opera".
On July 23,2021, Grimes made a cameo appearance in the short film Discord: The Movie, alongside Awkwafina, Danny DeVito, and J Balvin.
On September 30,2021, Grimes released a new song titled "Love".
On December 3,2021, Grimes released a new song titled "Player of Games".
In December 2021, Grimes teased a collaboration with the Weeknd on Discord saying that the collaboration would be released in 2022.
In January 2022, Grimes partnered with the video game Rocket League for the Neon Nights event.
In January 2022, Grimes announced a 10th anniversary vinyl of her album Visions.
Grimes was featured in the music video for Bella Poarch's "Dolls" which was released on July 15,2022.
Grimes is an opening act on select dates for Swedish House Mafia's "Paradise Again Tour" alongside Kaytranada, ZHU, and Alesso.
Grimes appeared on Bella Poarch's song, "No Man's Land" from the Dolls EP, which was released on August 12,2022.
Grimes confirmed that the song is called "Sci Fi" and is set for release in mid-2022.
Grimes confirmed that the album was in the process of being mixed.
In January 2023, Grimes gave an update on her delayed sixth album, Book 1, announcing that her career was a 'side quest' now and that her children, friends and family were her priorities.
Grimes's lyrics were described by The Guardian as "generally elusive and impressionistic, shying away from specifics".
Grimes's work has been likened to various artists, including Bjork, Julianna Barwick, Siouxsie Sioux, and Enya.
Grimes has stated that she loves British rock bands like Bring Me the Horizon and Foals.
Grimes was described by Tastemakers Magazine as an "alien love-child of Aphex Twin and ABBA".
Grimes has done exhibitions showcasing her works and has stated that "[she has] always been a visual artist".
Grimes's art is influenced by Japanese anime, manga, and comic artists such as Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes.
Grimes's illustrations have appeared in gallery shows, including at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Grimes created an alternate cover for Image Comics' The Wicked + The Divine, and designed a capsule collection of t-shirts for Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent, in 2013.
Grimes has a step-brother who raps under the name Jay Worthy; they collaborated on the single "Christmas Song", released on the Rough Trade bonus disc of her Visions album.
In 2014, Grimes wrote a blog post expressing her aversion to hard drugs.
Grimes has a lisp; she stated that she "likes it", and has no desire to undergo speech therapy.
From 2007 to 2010, Grimes was in an on-and-off relationship with Devon Welsh, then lead vocalist of Majical Cloudz.
From 2012 to 2018, Grimes was in a relationship with electronic musician Jaime Brooks, who supported her on the Visions Tour performing as Elite Gymnastics.
In 2018, Grimes began a relationship with business magnate Elon Musk.
Grimes said via Instagram that Go Won of the South Korean girl group Loona, with whom she collaborated in 2018, is her son's godmother.