Jacob Collier

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

His music incorporates a combination of jazz and elements from other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reharmonisations and close harmony.

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

Collier demonstrates his harmonic expertise in lectures and master classes, particularly with his detailed analyses of songs like Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" and his own music.

Collier was born on 2 August 1994.

He grew up in North London with two younger sisters.

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

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

Collier has said: "We sing Bach chorales together as family — it's just so much fun."

He is partly of Chinese descent through his maternal grandmother, Lila Wong.

At age 10, Collier portrayed Tiny Tim in the Arthur Allan Seidelman film A Christmas Carol (2004).

At the same time he was performing as a treble singer in classical roles, such as one of the three boys in Mozart's The Magic Flute and Miles in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, which influenced his use and understanding of harmony.

Of Britten's harmonic language, he said, "My mind was shattered outwards."

He received the ABRSM Gold Medal for the highest mark in the country for his grade eight singing result in 2008.

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

He briefly studied jazz piano at the Royal Academy.

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 used split screen, multitrack recordings of Collier singing each of the arrangement's harmonies.

These videos gained attention with the "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" cover receiving millions of views.

His musical activity caught the attention of Quincy Jones, who flew Collier to the Montreux Jazz Festival where he was introduced to Herbie Hancock.

In 2013, his split-screen video covers of popular songs, such as Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing", began to go viral on YouTube.

In 2014, 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 2015, Collier launched a live show and toured Europe and the US.

The performances featured a circle of musical instruments, with six simultaneous looping stations capable of simultaneous playback, backed by synced real-time 3D-captured video loops, projected onto a screen behind the instruments.

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

The show debuted at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, and Collier later opened for Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea at the 2015 Montreux Jazz Festival.

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

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

He 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.

He recorded and mixed the album over three months.

In 2016, 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.

The album was mastered by Bernie Grundman and released on 1 July 2016 through independent record label Membran Entertainment Group.

In 2017, Collier was awarded Grammy Awards for his arrangements of "Flintstones" and "You and I".

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

The first volume, which featured the Metropole Orkest, Djesse Vol. 1, was released in December 2018.

The second, Djesse Vol. 2, used more acoustic instrumentation and was released in July 2019.

In 2020, Collier won Grammy Awards for his arrangements of "All Night Long (All Night)" from Djesse Vol. 1 and "Moon River" from Djesse Vol. 2.

In 2021, he won a Grammy Award for "He Won't Hold You" from the third volume, Djesse Vol. 3.

Collier is the first British artist to receive a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums.