Colbie Caillat Biography

Colbie Marie Caillat (born May 28, 1985) is an American pop singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist from Malibu, California. She debuted in 2007 with Coco, which included hit singles "Bubbly" and "Realize". In 2008, she recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, "Lucky", which won a Grammy. Caillat released her second album, Breakthrough, in August 2009. Breakthrough was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards. She was also part of the group that won Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys for her background vocals and writing on Taylor Swift's Fearless album. Caillat has sold over six million albums worldwide and sold over 10 million singles. In 2009, she was named Billboard magazine's 94th-best-selling music artist of the 2000"2009 decade. In 2011, she released her third studio album, All of You. On October 23, 2012 she released her first Christmas album, Christmas in the Sand.

Life and career

Childhood and youth

Caillat was born in Malibu, California, and grew up in Newbury Park, California. Her father, Ken Caillat, co-produced Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979) albums. When she was an infant, her parents gave her the nickname "Coco", which she would later name her debut album. Caillat took piano lessons as a child, but lacked significant inspiration until she turned 11 years old, when she became enthralled with Lauryn Hill's performance in Sister Act 2. She realized that she wanted to be a singer, and began taking vocal lessons, performing onstage for the first time in sixth grade. Since then she has covered the Roberta Flack song, "Killing Me Softly", which had previously been covered by Lauryn Hill, and Hill's own "Tell Him".

Caillat soon met producer Mikal Blue, who hired her to sing on techno songs used at fashion shows. Caillat began playing the acoustic guitar at age 19, and Blue helped her record her first song. She auditioned for American Idol but was rejected at the pre-audition stage and was unable to sing for the judges. The second time she auditioned for the show, she sang her own original song, "Bubbly", and was rejected once again. However, Caillat expressed gratitude at the judges' decision, saying "I was shy. I was nervous. I didn't look the greatest. I wasn't ready for it yet. I was glad, when I auditioned, that they said no." The popularity of Caillat's MySpace profile led her to become the number-one unsigned singer in her genre for four consecutive months.

2007"2008: Coco

Caillat's debut album, Coco was released in 2007. Her debut single "Bubbly" peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Pop 100. Two other singles followed, "Realize" (number 20, Hot 100) and "The Little Things" (number 94, Pop 100). After touring with The Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse in 2007, she was the supporting act for John Mayer on his 2008 Summer Tour.

In 2008, Caillat recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, called "Lucky", on his album, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things. In August 2008, Caillat released a song and video for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics called "Somethin' Special". Caillat also sings on "You" by Schiller and appears in the music video. She has been involved in the soundtrack of the movie Imagine That; she and Mikal Blue cover the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". She is also featured in Colombian singer Juanes' album La vida... es un ratico (en vivo) in the song "Hoy Me Voy". In October 2008, the song "Midnight Bottle" was included in the soundtrack of Brazilian soap opera Três Irmãs (Three Sisters). She also played herself on this soap opera and performed the song. Caillat provided background vocals for and co-wrote Taylor Swift's song "Breathe", on her album, Fearless.

2009"2010: Breakthrough

Caillat's second album, Breakthrough, was released in August 2009. Most of the album was co-written by Jason Reeves and features guitarist David Becker on two tracks. Becker has worked with Caillat's father Ken. Caillat had writer's block during the recording sessions, so she enlisted her friends Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves, and they went to Hawaii for three weeks, rented a beach house and wrote songs. The first single from Breakthrough, "Fallin' for You", was released in June. The second single, "I Never Told You", was released in February 2010. Caillat released two Christmas songs for the 2009 holiday season: the standard "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the Beach Boys song "Merry Christmas, Baby".

Caillat was recognized as BMI's songwriter of the year. In July 2010, Caillat performed "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch at the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. In September 2010, Caillat performed the national anthem in the season opener game of the National Football League in New Orleans and a Monday Night Football game in Chicago. In December 2010, Caillat performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. In 2010, Caillat visited the Watkins Glen, New York shelter of Farm Sanctuary, an organization she supports.

2011"present: All of You, Christmas in the Sand and departure from Universal Republic Records

Caillat's third album, All of You, was released on July 6, 2011. The first single, "I Do" was released in February. The second single, "Brighter Than the Sun", was released in June. Caillat performed an acoustic version of the National Anthem before the San Diego Chargers v Minnesota Vikings game at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on September 11, 2011, during the day of remembrance for 9/11. Caillat performed "Brighter Than the Sun" on Disney Channel's Original Series So Random.

Caillat appeared in the third episode of the cancelled NBC television series The Playboy Club as 1960s singer Lesley Gore. In the episode broadcast on October 3, 2011, Caillat sang Gore's 1963 hit, "It's My Party". Cast for the part in August 2011, Caillat taped her portion of the episode in Chicago. Caillat completed a Christmas album titled Christmas in the Sand that was released on October 23, 2012. The album features collaborations with Brad Paisley, Gavin DeGraw, Justin Young and Jason Reeves. She also began working on her fourth album, set to be released after her Christmas album. In mid-2012, it was announced that Universal Republic Records was going defunct; all other artists including Caillat moved from the label to Republic Records, thus reviving that label. Caillat and Gavin DeGraw together wrote the song "We Both Know" for the soundtrack of the 2013 film Safe Haven.

Discography

• Coco (2007)
• Breakthrough (2009)
• All of You (2011)
• Christmas in the Sand (2012)

Tours

• 2008: John Mayer 2008 Summer Tour
• 2008: Coco Summer Tour
• 2008: Coco World Tour
• 2009/2010: Breakthrough World Tour
• 2011: All of You Summer Tour
• 2012: Co-Headlining Summer Tour with Gavin DeGraw

Filmography

List of television and films credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Três Irmãs	Herself
2009	Saturday Night Live	Herself	"Steve Martin/Jason Mraz" (Season 34, Episode 14)
2011	The Playboy Club	Lesley Gore	"An Act of Simple Duplicity" (Season 1, Episode 3)
2011	So Random!	Herself	"Colbie Caillat" (Season 1, Episode 9)
2011	Majors & Minors	Herself/Mentor	"One World - Part 1" (Season 1, Episode 1) "Fly Away" (Season 1, Episode 5)

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Caillat has won two awards from four nominations, including Album of the Year (as featured artist).

|- |rowspan="4"|2010 |Fearless (as featured artist of Taylor Swift) |Album of the Year | |- |"Lucky" (with Jason Mraz) |rowspan="2"|Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals | |- |"Breathe" (with Taylor Swift) | |- |Breakthrough |Best Pop Vocal Album | |-

Others awards and nominations

Year	Result	Award	Category	Nominated work
2008		American Music Awards	T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist	General
		Teen Choice Awards	Choice Breakthrough Artist	General
			Choice Love Song	"Bubbly"
		Billboard Music Awards	Rising Star	General
2009		BMI Pop Awards	Songwriter of the Year	Colbie Caillat
			Song of The Year	"Bubbly"
		Teen Choice Awards	Choice Music: Hook Up	"Lucky"
2010		People's Choice Awards	Favorite Music Collaboration	"Lucky"