Kina Grannis

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2009)

Kina Grannis
Background information
Birth name	Kina Grannis
Born	August 4, 1985 (1985-08-04) (age 24)
Genres	Acoustic Pop
Occupations	Guitarist Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Guitar Vocals Ukulele
Years active	2001 – present
Labels	Interscope Records (2008) Independent (2009-present)
Website	www.kinagrannis.com

Kina Grannis (born August 4, 1985) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. She is of Japanese, English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish descent^[1].

Grannis was the winner of the Doritos Crash The Super Bowl contest.^[2] Her progress in the competition was covered in The Orange County Register^[3] and The Wall Street Journal.^[4]

Grannis' music can also be heard in the feature film Glass City released spring 2008.

Biography

Early life and career beginnings

Kina Grannis grew up in Mission Viejo, California. She was exposed to music at an early age. In elementary school, she composed and submitted simple piano compositions to district art competitions, and also began playing the violin in the school orchestra which she continued throughout high school. At age 16, she taught herself the guitar, which has become her primary instrument.

She attended Viejo Elementary School, Newhart Middle School, then attended Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, CA from 1999 to 2003.

In 2003, Grannis matriculated at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. In 2005, she was selected by the University's Thornton School of Music to have a CD produced, utilizing the school's talents in the music and music industry departments. The CD, entitled Sincerely, me., was released in 2005. In 2007, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Social Science with an emphasis on Psychology. While attending USC, she was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.^{[citation needed]}

Solo career

In early 2007, she recorded a song for Rachael Lawrence and Deborah Ellen that would later be featured in an episode of General Hospital, entitled "Ours to Keep"^[5]. Grannis' recording of "Ours to Keep" has since been featured on General Hospital regularly as well as an episode of the ABC network's Samurai Girl in September 2008.^[6] In June 2009, her songs "Never Never" and "People" were used in episodes of MTV's reality series College Life. Her song "Message from your Heart" was adopted by the philanthropic organization, Sister to Sister, as their 2009 theme song.

Grannis was to work with Interscope Records to produce a new album, but publicly announced in January 2009 that she left the label to be an independent artist.

Personal life

Grannis has two sisters named Misa and Emi, both of whom have occasionally been featured on her videoblog. Her father Gordon is a chiropractor^[7] and her mother Trish is a graphic designer. An avid supporter of cancer research, Grannis has performed at several Southern California Relay For Life functions over the years^[8]. In October 2008, she participated in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco in support of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, raising $6,000 for the organization.

Discography

Albums

• Sincerely, me. (2006)

1. "Blindly"
2. "Highlighted in Green"
3. "Next Time"
4. "Try"
5. "Another Day"
6. "People"

• One More In the Attic (2006)

1. "Living In Dreams"
2. "Why Can't I?"
3. "Never Never"
4. "Some Days"
5. "What Is Said"
6. "In Theory"
7. "Wandering and Wondering"
8. "Running Away"
9. "Missing You"

• In Memory of the Singing Bridge (2006)

1. "Walk On"
2. "Down and Gone (the Blue Song)"
3. "Too Soon"
4. "Breathe Honesty"
5. "Don't Cry"
6. "Night"
7. "!"
8. "Memory"
9. "Untitled"

Singles

• "Message From Your Heart"
• "Gotta Digg"
• "My Time with You"
• "Strong Enough"

Upcoming

A fourth, independently produced album, is due to be released on February 23rd, 2010.

Notable media appearances

• On September 24, 2007, the song "Ours To Keep", written by Deborah Ellen and Rachel Lawrence and sung by Kina, debuted on the ABC soap opera General Hospital as the theme song of characters Elizabeth and Jason, aka "Liason".^[9][10]
• On January 4, 2008, Kina's video Gotta Digg was featured on the popular podcast Diggnation hosted by Digg founder Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht.^[11]
• On January 21, 2008, Kina was featured on Fox News about her involvement in the Doritos contest.^[12]
• On February 3, 2008, Doritos commissioned music video "Message From Your Heart" by Kina received 60 seconds of airtime during Super Bowl XLII, and was officially signed by Interscope Records.
• On February 4, 2008, a front page Yahoo article analyzing commercial advertisements aired during the Super Bowl mentioned Kina Grannis and the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest.^[13]
• On February 5, 2008, Good Day L.A. on Fox 11 featured a story about Kina's Crash the Super Bowl experience.^[14]
• On February 24, 2008, Kina sang the national anthem for the Auto Club 500 NASCAR race in Fontana, California.

References

External links

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2009)

• Official site
• Interscope Records artist page
• Archive of the campaign site
• YouTube
• Kina Grannis at iTunes
• Kina Grannis at MySpace
• Kina Grannis at PureVolume
• Kina Grannis at CD Baby
• Kina Grannis at iLike
• Kina Grannis at eMusic
• Orange County Register article on reaching the top 3 Published December 29, 2007
• "Band Together" Benefit Album
• AArisings A-Profiler Interview Published January 10, 2008
• Wall Street Journal article Published February 2, 2008
• InformationWeek's ratings of Super Bowl Commercials Published February 3, 2008
• Orange County Register article on Kina's Crash The Super Bowl victory Published February 3, 2008
• Orange County Register article on the Gotta Digg video Published January 19, 2008
• Orange County Register front page article about the start of life in the spotlight Published February 7, 2008
• Glass City