45 Facts About Jacob Collier

Jacob Collier was born on 2 August 1994 and is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator.

Jacob Collier is known for his energetic live performances, in which he often conducts the audience to sing harmony or play percussion parts.

In 2014, Jacob Collier signed with Quincy Jones's management company and began working on his one-man, audio-visual live performance vehicle, designed and built at the MIT Media Lab by Ben Bloomberg.

In 2016, Jacob Collier released his debut album, In My Room, which he recorded, arranged, performed and produced himself in the back room of his family home in Finchley, North London.

In 2018, Jacob Collier began working on Djesse, a four-volume, 50-song album featuring more than two dozen artists and ensembles.

In 2017, Jacob Collier was awarded Grammy Awards for his arrangements of the "Flintstones" theme and Stevie Wonder's "You and I" on his first album.

In 2020, Jacob Collier won Grammy Awards for his arrangements of "All Night Long " from Djesse Vol.

Jacob Collier grew up in North London with two younger sisters.

Jacob Collier's mother, Suzie Collier, is a violinist, conductor, and professor at the Royal Academy of Music's Junior Academy.

Jacob Collier's maternal grandfather, Derek Collier, was a violinist who taught at the Royal Academy and performed with orchestras around the world.

At age 10, Jacob Collier portrayed Tiny Tim in the Arthur Allan Seidelman film A Christmas Carol.

Jacob Collier attended Mill Hill County High School in north London and the Purcell School for Young Musicians in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

Jacob Collier briefly studied jazz piano at the Royal Academy.

Jacob Collier began uploading homemade, multi-instrumental content to YouTube in 2011 with a vocal arrangement of "Pure Imagination" from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and in 2013 a multi-instrumental rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing".

The videos presented split-screen multitrack recordings of Jacob Collier singing each part of the arrangements' harmonies.

In 2015, Jacob Collier launched a live show and toured Europe and the US.

Central to the show was a custom-built vocal "Harmonizer" instrument that enabled Jacob Collier to sing multi-voice harmonies in real-time.

In July 2015, Beats by Dr Dre asked Jacob Collier to provide music for "The Game Starts Here" England Rugby World Cup campaign commercial.

Jacob Collier recorded an a cappella version of the hymn "Jerusalem" for the commercial, which was shown on national television before each England match.

In late 2015, Jacob Collier began preparing his debut album In My Room after performing with WDR Big Band in a concert in Cologne, Germany.

Jacob Collier wrote eight of the eleven songs and arranged, recorded and produced the album in the music room of his family home, playing every instrument himself.

Jacob Collier recorded and mixed the album over three months.

Jacob Collier embarked on a one-man world tour which included the 2016 Montreux Jazz Festival.

Jacob Collier received more than 130 melodies and donations, including from British jazz artist Jamie Cullum, Ben Folds, Herbie Hancock, and Kevin Olusola of the a cappella group Pentatonix.

Jacob Collier arranged "White Christmas" for them; it appeared on A Pentatonix Christmas and won a Contemporary A Cappella Society award for Best Professional Arrangement by a Non-Scholastic Group.

In December 2016, Jacob Collier collaborated with 150 students at MIT to produce a live concert in Kresge Auditorium, titled "Imagination Off the Charts", playing alongside orchestral arrangements of his repertoire.

In February 2017, Jacob Collier won two Grammy Awards for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for the Stevie Wonder song "You and I", and Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for a cover of "Flintstones".

Jacob Collier helped to score the DreamWorks' film The Boss Baby with composer Hans Zimmer.

Jacob Collier performed with Zimmer and Pharrell Williams at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Jacob Collier toured internationally for two and a half years between 1 July 2015 and 18 December 2017, while hosting masterclasses and performances with orchestras and big bands around the world, including the Metropole Orkest.

On 29 October 2018, Jacob Collier announced a new four-volume, 50-song musical project, entitled Djesse.

Jacob Collier titled it as such as a reference to his initials: JC.

Jacob Collier produced, arranged, and orchestrated the music, in addition to singing and playing various instruments.

In January 2019, Jacob Collier embarked on a world tour in support of the Djesse series.

In November 2020, Collier released the book Songs of Jacob Collier, featuring solo piano and vocal arrangements for 19 of his compositions.

Jacob Collier co-wrote and provided background vocals for SZA's single "Good Days," released on 25 December 2020.

Jacob Collier contributed background vocals to Coldplay and BTS's "My Universe", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2021.

On 2 May 2022, Jacob Collier was the subject of Alan Yentob's BBC One television documentary series Imagine.

On 29 September 2022, Jacob Collier released his first live album, Piano Ballads, which includes 11 covers largely improvised by Jacob Collier on stage, many of which involve a spontaneous audience choir.

On 8 December 2023, Jacob Collier performed "Last Christmas" at the Royal Christmas Concert at Westminster Abbey.

At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Jacob Collier won the Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals award for "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning".

Jacob Collier performed at the Grammy Awards ceremony, playing "Both Sides Now" with Joni Mitchell, Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, SistaStrings, Blake Mills, and Lucius.

Jacob Collier came from a family of musicians and was introduced to music at an early age.

Jacob Collier's recording career began in the family home, in a room filled with instruments where his mother used to teach violin lessons.

Jacob Collier recorded himself singing and playing instruments, mostly covers of jazz standards or pop songs, using a split screen recording technique to display his vocals, and uploaded the recordings to YouTube.