Kimbra lee johnson biography

She got her first record contract at 17 after she was signed up by Mark Richardson to his independent label, Forum 5. In her interview with Daily Mail, Kimbra revealed that she suffers from asthma and has to keep an asthma inhaler near her microphone during her live shows to prevent any unfortunate episode. In , she was made the ambassador of the not-for-profit organization, So They Can, which focuses on education and works on building local economies through social business and microfinance assistance.

Did we miss anyone? TV Stars. She auditioned multiple times for talent competitions until she finally participated in one and won a prize. Notably, when Kimbra was 12 years old, she had the opportunity to perform the national anthem at a university sports event, where she was heard by an audience of 27, people. In , at the age of 17, she won the Juice TV music video contest with her video for 'Simply on My Lips,' which led to her first contract and a move to Australia.

While working on material for her debut album, Kimbra began performing in Australia with her concert band. In , she released her first single, 'Settle Down,' which immediately charted in New Zealand and gained attention online. However, some believe that after this joint project, Kimbra will struggle to step out of Gotye's shadow. He helped a young Jamiroquai get his career started and he had worked with many big stars, but had become disillusioned with the narrow-minded nature of the UK scene.

He moved to Melbourne and started his own label, Forum 5. In , Kimbra performed at Christian music festival Parachute, and then relocated to Melbourne to work on her first single for Forum 5. The final version gained pace with the introduction of an odd clapping rhythm and then a fully-fledged beat created by pop producer M-Phazes. There was a retro-influence to her look and her sound.

Her songs often centred around her jazzy vocals that were matched with licks of trumpet or scat backing vocals, while her hair had pronounced bangs at the front and a surreal amount of volume on either side. In the meantime, Kimbra had signed to Warner Music Australia in June , which meant her music would be promoted on both sides of the Tasman and she would also have the potential of releases further afield if her career started to pick up.

Richardson stayed on as her manager, though he closed his label Forum 5 around this time. Kimbra expected little from her involvement — after all, Gotye had just turned up with a microphone to record her part at her house. Instead it was a mind-blowing success and would change her life forever. In the meantime, the song began to make waves across the world, hitting No.

By January, it had blown away expectations by topping the UK charts, but more was yet to come. The song had started out the new year at the tail end of the US charts — No. Kimbra was in the middle of the Big Day Out festival tour, so as soon as she left the stage in Melbourne she headed straight to the airport and flew to Los Angeles to do the live taping.

Then she immediately headed back to Australia, arriving in Adelaide just an hour before she was due onstage at the Big Day Out there. This was one example among many of the hard work Kimbra was willing to put in to make the most of new opportunities she was being offered. It hit No. She already had an album ready to go, with tracks she had lovingly crafted over the past four years.

This burst of interest in Kimbra helped her album reach No. Fortunately, Vows was packed with great songs, even more so once it was repackaged with an extra six tracks for the US market while a few older ones were dropped. She had tonsillitis when Foster gave her the track to sing, but struggled through with a grating voice to put down a vocal using her laptop.

She also won this category in New Zealand, along with the international achievement award and breakthrough artist of the year. She also leveraged her new found fame toward the public good by becoming an ambassador for So They Can, a grassroots charity creating education opportunities in Kenya and Tanzania. When it came time to start pre-production on her next album, she spent a few months recording basic tracks in her own bedroom on Pro Tools, before moving the sessions to Eldorado Studios in Burbank with sound engineer Rich Costley, who had worked with Muse and Foster the People.

At the start of the year, she played a concert doing songs by Van Dyke Parks alongside Australian singer Daniel Johns Silverchair and co-writer of many pop hits. Kimbra got along with Johns well enough that she decided to try writing a few songs with him. He introduced Kimbra to the exceptional keyboards player Taylor Graves, who not only added synth parts but became a regular touring member of her band.

These various influences made The Golden Echo an eclectic album and ensured that Kimbra would be seen as a pop artist with a strong experimental edge to her music. Kimbra now found she needed a change of scene and moved to New York in Just prior to the move, Kimbra visited Ethiopia as part of her work with Tirzah — an organisation that focuses on helping women in poor communities across the world, with a particular focus on women with HIV and their children.

The trip made her want to make music that was a lot more direct, which also influenced her move away from the glitz of Los Angeles. It was her first song to chart on Billboard , peaking at No. The song has received mainly positive reviews from critics, with many complimenting the song's disco-influenced feel. Olivia Forman of Spin stated that the song has a "flawlessly fluctuating [ The music video for "Miracle" was released onto YouTube on 19 August , the official music video for the song was directed by Thom Kerr.

The Golden Echo received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic , the album obtained a normalised score of 70 out of , based on reviews from 16 selected mainstream critics. The release of the album was followed by a show US tour with Empress of in November In April , Kimbra toured the US with a total of five shows. On 15 July, Kimbra released the video for her third single from The Golden Echo called "Goldmine" , which surpassed , views in a matter of a day.

On 30 September , Kimbra released a non-album single called "Sweet Relief". He has also frequently contributed guitar to Kimbra's music. On 29 September , she released the album's lead single, entitled "Everybody Knows", which was co-produced by Nelly Furtado and Goldfrapp affiliate John Congleton. The third album Primal Heart was initially planned to be released on 19 January , [ 37 ] but was then pushed back to 20 April Kimbra explained the reasons for the push back and gave a song out for free to fans subscribed to her mailing list to make it up to them.

The song is called "Hi Def Distance Romance". Kimbra made her acting debut in a big screen adaption of the musical-drama production Daffodils released on 21 March Kimbra embarked on a Sofar Sounds secret location venue tour of the United States in October and November , previewing her upcoming fourth studio album. Kimbra has stated that she has vitiligo.

In , Kimbra won one award as a solo artist and two awards as a featured artist. It commenced in Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. New Zealand singer and songwriter born Musical artist. Early life [ edit ].

Kimbra lee johnson biography

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Discography [ edit ]. Main article: Kimbra discography. Filmography [ edit ]. Television [ edit ]. Films [ edit ]. Tours [ edit ].