About Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier 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.
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 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.
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. The third volume, Djesse Vol. 3, was released in 2020. The fourth and final volume for the album, Djesse Vol. 4, was released in March 2024.
In 2017, Collier was awarded Grammy Awards for his arrangements of the "Flintstones" theme and Stevie Wonder's "You and I" on his first album. In 2020, Collier won Grammy Awards for his arrangements of "All Night Long " 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 Djesse Vol. 3., making him the first British artist to receive a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums. Djesse Vol. 4 was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
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, Leila Wong.
At age 10, Collier portrayed Tiny Tim in the Arthur Allan Seidelman film A Christmas Carol . 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.
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