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Marié Digby

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Marié Christina Digby (Template:PronEng Ma-ree-AY Dig-Bee) (born April 16, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist. She is best known for her acoustic cover version of Rihanna's No. 1 hit "Umbrella", which attracted attention on YouTube in 2007. The song was subsequently played on the radio station STAR 98.7, was featured on the third season opening episode of the MTV show The Hills,[1] and peaked at #10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. Marie performed the song on the late night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly on August 2 2007.

Marie's first official single, "Say It Again", was released to radio stations on January 18, 2008. Her debut album, Unfold, was released on April 8, 2008.

Biography

Marié Digby at The Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles

Marié Digby grew up in the Brentwood, California. Her father is an Irish while her mother is a Japanese [2]. She is the eldest of three siblings. Her two sisters are Naomi (born December 12, 1985) and Erina (born August 8, 1987).

Marie Digby had a normal childhood, but was always shy. She used to hide under the bleachers on the football field of her junior high and high school during lunch time so no one could see her. She often felt isolated and was out of sync with the other kids at her school.

She started playing the piano in High School and began writing songs secretly. She sneaks down to the piano room at night after her family had gone to sleep.

During her senior year in high school, the timid and nervous Marie Digby signed up for a talent show. Although she was nervous to perform, she went on and the audience loved it. That was her first ever performance in public.

She attended University of California, Berkeley in 2002 as a Philosophy Major. She crammed her course into a three-day schedule so she would have more time to play with the new band she had formed. She was performing all over the Los Angeles area, including places such as the infamous Whiskey-a-Go-Go and The Troubadour.

In 2004, the quiet Marie Digby came out of obscurity into the public eye when she won the 2004 Pantene Pro-Voice competition with her song “Miss Invisible”.[3] The grand prize for the concert included working with a professional producer on an album, $5,000 and performing on stage with other top performers.[4]

Career

Marié Digby performing at GAP, Wisma Atria in Singapore

After performing at numerous night clubs, Marie signed a publishing deal with Rondor Music, a subsidiary of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group in early 2005. By the end of 2005, Digby had signed with Disney's Hollywood Records and her first album of original songs was completed by the end of 2006. Also in 2006, her song "Fool" was included on the Disney compilation album Girl Next. In early 2007, she began to post simple videos of herself singing cover songs of other artists on YouTube in order to gain visibility for herself. Hollywood Records then released a high-quality studio recording of her rendition of "Umbrella" to iTunes and radio stations.[5] She is often seen performing using a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar.[6]

Controversy

There has been controversy over Digby's YouTube popularity. As of July 2008, her homemade music videos have been viewed over 8.2 million times on the video sharing website.[5] It has been suggested by The Wall Street Journal that she feigned a grassroots effort and amateur status in order to generate buzz as part of an online marketing campaign created by Hollywood Records,[5] a strategy sometimes labeled "astroturfing". She has responded, writing on her blog that she never lied about being signed to Hollywood Records and has stated that her videos were her own "desperate" response to a lack of promotion.[7][8] Digby is the second most subscribed singer/songwriter on YouTube behind YouTube singer/songwriter Mia Rose, with approximately 35 million video views as of July 2008.

YouTube Fame

Marie is recognized on YouTube for her cover and original performances. She has over 85,000 subscribers and her channel has been viewed over 2.3 million times. She also held a competition on YouTube, contestants were asked to create an original video including her hit single "Say it Again" in any way. There were 10 finalists and the overall winner was an artist named Peter Park who goes by the user name "bidebak" on youtube. She usually records her videos in the bathroom because "The bathroom has the best acoustics in the house"

Discography

Studio albums

EPs and other releases

Singles

Year Single Album Peak Chart Positions
US
2008 "Say It Again" Unfold 21
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Music Videos

Year Title
2008 "Say It Again"

Popular Culture

  • Marié Digby's song "Better Off Alone" was featured on ABC Family's Greek Season 1 Episode 21.
  • Marié Digby's songs "Spell" and "Say It Again" were recently featured in episodes of Smallville, the closing for season 7 episode 7, "Wrath", and for episode 12, "Fracture", respectively (The last one being favorite song of one character).
  • As one of the musicians chosen by Gap for their new "The Sound of Color" campaign, Digby wrote and recorded "Paint Me In Your Sunshine", inspired by the color yellow.
  • Her song "Beauty In Walking Away" was recently heard during an episode of The Hills.
  • The design of the cover of her album Unfold was mostly based on the doodles she drew during her downtime in the recording of the album [2]
  • She appears playing her song, "Better Off Alone" in Dobler's in ABC Family drama Greek. Episode 21 "Barely Legal"
  • "Say It Again" plays briefly on the final episode of ER's fourteenth season, "The Chicago Way"

References

  1. ^ "The Hills (Season 3) - Episode 1: You Know What You Did". MTV. Retrieved 2007-08-21. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ "The Official Marie Digby Fansite". November, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Marie Digby From Los Angeles Has Been Chosen by America as the Winner of the National Pantene Pro-Voice Music Competition". Highbeam Research. July 26, 2004. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) (Press release)
  4. ^ Grant, Lindsey (2004-07-15). "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 2007-08-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ a b c Smith, Ethan & Lattman, Peter (September 6 2007). "Download This: YouTube Phenom Has a Big Secret". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on September 10 2007.
  6. ^ Marié Digby Live in Concert | DeepRockDrive™ [1]
  7. ^ Digby, Marié (September 9 2007). "Just a few things and that's it for this topic!". Myspace. Retrieved on September 10 2007.
  8. ^ Tien, Ellen (September 9 2007). "Pulse | What I'm Wearing Now". The New York Times. Retrieved on September 10 2007.

External Links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marié Digby.
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