Fun & Famous

An ode to CHRISTINA GRIMMIE

I believe it was about five years back when I heard her voice for the first time. I was busy with one of my guiltiest of pleasures (discovering YouTube stars) and there she was. Christina. A young, American girl with a voice that has such an insane amount of power that I ended up listening to all her covers the entire afternoon. In her bedroom with her piano, with black panda eyes and wretched equipment. But that didn’t matter. Her voice entranced me.

I started following her on YouTube. I watched her develop her talent. Buy expensive microphones. Three years later she released a cover of David Guetta’s Titanium which I’ve listened to probably around 450 times and it still gives me goosebumps. There was no way that this girl would go unnoticed. And luckily that didn’t happen. I was relieved to hear she was a contender on The Voice in 2014. She came in third and suddenly everyone in the States knew her name. Exactly like she had hoped. She then went on to obtain a record deal with Adam Levine’s label, the singer from Maroon 5. Even Lil Wayne tried to sign her at Young Money Entertainment. I saw the same thing happen to Jessie J. To Justin Bieber. Carley Rae Jepson. Artists you followed on YouTube for years who suddenly make it in the business so you’re finally able to say: ‘I told you so.’

‘Saturday my boyfriend Sander came to me holding his phone. His face looked shocked. ‘Kieks, you, uh, need to see this.’’’

The last few years I tried to introduce Christina’s music to as many people as I could. My mother, my sister, friends, in-laws. All along the lines of: you have to see how much talent this girl has, it’s out of this world. I’m pretty sure I listened to her voice at least once a week.

Saturday my boyfriend Sander came to me holding his phone. His face looked shocked. ‘Kieks, you, uh, need to see this.’ I read the words: The Voice’s Christina Grimmie Dead at 22 After Being Shot. I can feel my eyes start to tear up. Is this real? Is this REAL real? It’s real. Some psychotic fan names Kevin James Loibl from Florida decided that Christina was no longer allowed to live. Then he killed himself. I was distraught the rest of the weekend. I turned on her Titanium cover with the following lyrics ‘I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose. Fire away, fire away’, followed by: ‘You shoot me down but I won’t fall, I am titanium’ which suddenly gets a very ambiguous meaning. I saw a couple of idiots making jokes about the text on her YouTube account but thank god they shut down the comment section.

‘I’m at a loss for words’

This morning it was announced that Christina had welcome the shooter with open arms during the meet & greet, because she wanted to give him a hug. I’m at a loss for words. Ready things like this enrages me to put it mildly. But honoring and remembering someone with hate isn’t the way to do it. Christina’s body might no longer be on this world, but her powerful voice is eternal, Kevin. That’s something that’s impossible to take away from us.

I’m sure there are still some people out there reading this and thinking: who is Christina Grimmie? Listen and be in awe, guys. Listen and be in awe.