Kina Grannis

Kina Grannis (born August 4, 1985) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. She is of Japanese, English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish descent[1].

Grannis was the winner of the Doritos Crash The Super Bowl contest.[2] Her progress in the competition was covered in The Orange County Register[3] and The Wall Street Journal.[4]

Grannis' music can also be heard in the feature film Glass City released spring 2008.

Early life and career beginnings

Kina Grannis grew up in Mission Viejo, California. She was exposed to music at an early age. In elementary school, she composed and submitted simple piano compositions to district art competitions, and also began playing the violin in the school orchestra which she continued throughout high school. At age 16, she taught herself the guitar, which has become her primary instrument.

She attended Viejo Elementary School, Newhart Middle School, then attended Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, CA from 1999 to 2003.

In 2003, Grannis matriculated at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 2005, she was selected by the University's Thornton School of Music to have a CD produced, utilizing the school's talents in the music and music industry departments. The CD, entitled Sincerely, me., was released in 2005. In 2007, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Social Science with an emphasis on Psychology. While attending USC, she was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.[citation needed]

[edit] Solo career

In early 2007, she recorded a song for Rachael Lawrence and Deborah Ellen that would later be featured in an episode of General Hospital, entitled "Ours to Keep"[5]. Grannis' recording of "Ours to Keep" has since been featured on General Hospital regularly as well as an episode of the ABC network's Samurai Girl in September 2008.[6] In June 2009, her songs "Never Never" and "People" were used in episodes of MTV's reality series "College Life". Her song "Message from your Heart" was adopted by the philanthropic organization, Sister to Sister, as their 2009 theme song.

Grannis was to work with Interscope Records to produce a new album, but publicly announced in January 2009 that she left the label to be an independent artist.

[edit] Personal life

Grannis has two sisters named Misa and Emi, both of whom have occasionally been featured on her videoblog. Her father Gordon is a chiropractor[7] and her mother Trish is a graphic designer. An avid supporter of cancer research, Grannis has performed at several Southern California Relay For Life functions over the years[8]. In October 2008, she participated in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco in support of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, raising $6,000 for the organization.

(From Wikipedia)