Lindsey Stirling

Lindsey Stirling (born September 21, 1986) is an American violinist, songwriter, and dancer.

She presents choreographed violin performances, in live and music videos found on her official YouTube channel, which she created in 2007.

Stirling performs a variety of music styles, from classical to pop and rock to electronic dance music.

Aside from original work, her discography contains covers of songs by other musicians such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Antonio Vivaldi and various soundtracks.

Stirling's channel, Lindseystomp, which she created in 2007 and named after her first band Stomp on Melvin, is the main repository for her music videos.

Forbes notes her quarter-finalist position on America's Got Talent season five in 2010, a No. 2 position on the Billboard 200 for her second album Shatter Me in 2014, and her 11 million subscribers on YouTube.

Stirling's eponymous debut album was a commercial success in Europe, selling 200,000 copies in Germany, winning a platinum certification; three additional certifications were given by Austria, Switzerland, and Poland.

In 2010, at the age of 23, Stirling was a quarter-finalist on season five of America's Got Talent, where she was described as a "hip hop violinist".

She impressed the judges not only by mixing hip-hop, pop, and classical music on the violin, but by incorporating dancing with playing the violin, which she also does on her tours and official music videos.

On a live-chat, Stirling explained, "It is very unnatural to dance while playing the violin. I had to practice so hard to learn how to do it, but now it is part of my expression and it comes naturally. I have to know a song perfectly before I can even begin to move. Once I know a song really well, I can then have fun dancing."

Dancing made a huge impact not only in her performances, but also with her music: "I loved dance music so I started with that and wrote 'Transcendence', 'Electric Daisy', and 'Spontaneous Me'."

Stirling's performances were dubbed "electrifying" by the judges, and won the acclaim of the audience, but after she attempted to step up the dance level in her quarter-final performance, judge Piers Morgan buzzed her.

He told her: "You're not untalented, but you're not good enough, I don't think, to get away with flying through the air and trying to play the violin at the same time."

Sharon Osbourne commented: "You need to be in a group. ... What you're doing is not enough to fill a theater in Vegas."

In her blog, Stirling confided: "I was devastated at the results ... It was painful, and a bit humiliating; however, I had to relearn where it was that I drew my strength."

Stirling decided to continue to embrace her unique style of performance, promoting herself on the Internet.

They agreed to shoot a music video for her song, "Spontaneous Me", that was filmed the week of May 9, 2011.

The video boosted Stirling's popularity, and she began making music videos regularly for her YouTube channel.

Throughout 2011, the channel rapidly gained popularity and has since reached over 3 billion total views and over 12 million subscribers,.

Her music is featured on Pandora and Spotify.

Her music video "Crystallize" finished as the eighth-most watched video of 2012 on YouTube, and her cover version of "Radioactive" with Pentatonix won Response of the Year in the first YouTube Music Awards in 2013.

In a 2012 interview she remarked: "A lot of people have told me along the way that my style and the music I do ... is unmarketable. But the only reason I'm successful is because I have stayed true to myself."

Shortly after her performance on America's Got Talent, cinematographer Devin Graham contacted her in hopes of collaborating on a YouTube video.

Stirling created a second YouTube channel, LindseyTime, in September 2012, in which she posts videos related to her life, vlogs, and behind-the-scenes content.

Stirling has experimented in combining violin playing with hip hop and dubstep.

Stirling's collaborations with other musicians and singers have included Amy Lee (Evanescence) (Love Goes On And On), Shaun Barrowes ("Don't Carry It All" – The Decemberists), Jake Bruene and Frank Sacramone ("Party Rock Anthem" – LMFAO), Tay Zonday ("Mama Economy"), Peter Hollens ("Skyrim", "A Thousand Years", "Game of Thrones" and "Star Wars"), Lzzy Hale ("Shatter Me"), Alisha Popat ("We Found Love"), John Allred ("Tomb"), Amiee Proal ("A Thousand Years"), Megan Nicole ("Starships"), The Piano Guys ("Mission Impossible"), Debi Richards (née Johanson) ("River Flows in You", "Phantom of the Opera"), Sam Tsui ("Heads Up"), Tyler Ward ("I Knew You Were Trouble", Thrift Shop"), Kurt Hugo Schneider ("Pokémon Dubstep Remix" and "A Thousand Years"), John Legend ("All of Me"), Chester See ("I Knew You Were Trouble"), and Pentatonix ("Radioactive", "Papaoutai", “Over the River”).

Stirling achieved one million singles sold worldwide by August 2014.

As of May 10, 2023, her Lindseystomp YouTube channel exceeded 13 million subscribers and over 3 billion total views.

The album was nominated for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards for Top Dance/Electronic Albums.

Stirling has been named in Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 in Music: The Class of 2015.

Stirling's second album Shatter Me won Top Dance/Electronic Album at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.

Stirling is the middle child of three daughters of Stephen and Diane Stirling.

Stirling describes her childhood as being raised in a modest household and stated "I would not trade my humble childhood years for anything else."

Due to her family's financial limitations, her parents could only afford to find a violin teacher who would give her half lessons.

Although they were told by instructors that "a child isn't going to learn how to play in 15 minutes a week", her parents persisted, and at the age of five, she began taking violin lessons.

Living in Gilbert, Arizona, Stirling attended Greenfield Junior High, and at age sixteen, Stirling attended Mesquite High School and joined four friends in a rock band called Stomp on Melvin.

As part of her experience with the group, Stirling wrote a solo violin rock song, and her performance helped her to win the state title of Arizona's Junior Miss and claim the Spirit Award in the America's Junior Miss Finals competition.

Stirling was also a member of Charley Jenkins Band for about a year.

From a young age, Stirling had a fascination for dance and desired to take both dancing and violin lessons.

In an interview with NewMediaRockstars, she said, "...ever since I was a kid, I've always wished that I could dance, but my parents said, 'You [can] choose violin or you [can] choose dance, but we can't afford both', and I chose violin. So this is kind of a fulfillment – it's funny to say, but this is something I've always wanted to do."