It's a very common occurrence for people to give me blank stares and shoulder shrugs after asking me who my favorite music artist is. I always say it's Kina Grannis, and they always say, "never heard of her." But people should hear of her, because she deserves to be known way more than she is now; and, you know, I think it would definitely benefit people to have a little Kina in their lives. That's where this article comes in.
First, let's start from where her self-made, self-supported career began: 2008, during the Dortios Crash the Super Bowl contest.
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You may be familiar with the (now discontinued) Crash the Super Bowl contest sponsored by the Doritos brand. It usually offers for a fan-made ad to be played during the Super Bowl. However, in 2008, it was a little different. Instead of submitting fan-made commercials, the contest now called for aspiring musicians to submit a homemade music video of an original song. The winner would have his or her video play during the Super Bowl for millions to hear, and that winner would also receive a record deal with Interscope Geffen A&M Records.
You guessed it—Kina won the contest. Her music video of her original song, "Message From Your Heart", played during Super Bowl XLII for almost 100 million people to see. She did it. After six years of pursuing music, the 22-year-old finally got her big break.
And then she turned it down.
Yep, that's right. She walked away from the label deal with Interscope.
Upon winning the contest, Kina was ready to go. She was ready to record her songs with Interscope and ready to start her career that she had fought for and dreamt of for so long. But then she was told that she wasn't necessarily going to be singing her songs with the label. She instead would be meeting with a team of professional writers to create a new album. This didn't vibe well with Kina. In a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she states:
"I already had my album written. And, for me, music and songwriting is really, really personal. I don't want to go sit with someone I don't know and 'craft a hit'. It was clear it wasn't the right path for me."
So she didn't take that path. That's why I have immeasurable respect and admiration for Kina—even though she had her dreams in the palm of her hand, she had the courage to walk away because she knew it wasn't right. And she ended up so much better off without the label deal.
So how did she revive her music career, and make her dreams possible even without the help of a label? One word (or maybe two, depending): YouTube.
Kina had started a YouTube channel in the months during the Crash the Super Bowl contest; simply being involved in the contest, before a winner was ever announced, put her name out there in the world. She used that opportunity to start making Youtube videos so she could share her music as much as possible, and also so she could connect to the people that would hopefully vote for her.
After walking away from the record deal, Kina turned back to YouTube. Ever since then, her music, her charming and warm personality, and her story won over the hearts of viewers, making them grow in numbers until she had enough support from her subscribers and from YouTube to sustain her career—no record label needed.
To this day, Kina has over 1 million subscribers. Sure, she may not be a household name, but she does well enough to live a more-than-comfortable lifestyle all from the support of her music career. She has traveled across the U.S., Europe, and Asia for two different tours so far, and she gets to sing her songs the way she wants to with know record label companies telling her what to do or how to do it.
There are infinite reasons why Kina Grannis is my musical role model. Her story of building her perfect dream is merely just one. Honestly, I could probably write a whole saga of articles about why Kina inspired me to learn how to play the guitar, learn how to sing, and even make a few YouTube videos of my own, once upon a time. However, I think this story is a great starting place for now. Maybe all the rest can be saved for another time.
In the meantime, go watch all of Kina Grannis's videos on YouTube!
