Life and career

1985-2006: Childhood and youth

Caillat was born in Malibu, California, and grew up in Newbury Park, California. Her father, Ken Caillat, co-produced Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979) albums. When she was an infant, her parents gave her the nickname "Coco", which she would later name her debut album. Caillat took piano lessons as a child, but lacked significant inspiration until she turned 11 years old, when she became enthralled with Lauryn Hill's performance in Sister Act 2. She realized that she wanted to be a singer, and began taking vocal lessons, performing onstage for the first time in sixth grade. Since then she has covered the Roberta Flack song "Killing Me Softly", which had previously been covered by Lauryn Hill, and Hill's own "Tell Him".

Caillat soon met producer Mikal Blue, who hired her to sing on techno songs used at fashion shows. Caillat began playing the acoustic guitar at age 19, and Blue helped her record her first song. She auditioned for American Idol but was rejected at the pre-audition stage and was unable to sing for the judges. The second time she auditioned for the show, she sang her own original song, "Bubbly", and was rejected once again. However, Caillat expressed gratitude at the judges' decision, saying "I was shy. I was nervous. I didn't look the greatest. I wasn't ready for it yet. I was glad, when I auditioned, that they said no." The popularity of Caillat's MySpace profile led her to become the number-one unsigned singer in her genre for four consecutive months.

2007-08: Coco

Caillat's debut album, Coco was released in 2007. Her debut single "Bubbly" peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Pop 100. Two other singles followed, "Realize" (number 20, Hot 100) and "The Little Things" (number 94, Pop 100). After touring with The Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse in 2007, she was the supporting act for John Mayer on his 2008 Summer Tour.

In 2008, Caillat recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, called "Lucky", on his album, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things. In August 2008, Caillat released a song and video for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics called "Somethin' Special". Caillat also sings on "You" by Schiller and appears in the music video. She has been involved in the soundtrack of the movie Imagine That; she and Mikal Blue cover the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". She is also featured in Colombian singer Juanes' album La vida... es un ratico (en vivo) in the song "Hoy Me Voy". In October 2008, the song "Midnight Bottle" was included in the soundtrack of Brazilian soap opera Três Irmãs (Three Sisters). She also played herself on this soap opera and performed the song. Caillat provided background vocals for and co-wrote Taylor Swift's song "Breathe", on her album, Fearless.

2009-12: Breakthrough, All of You and Christmas in the Sand

Caillat's second album, Breakthrough, was released in August 2009. Most of the album was co-written by Jason Reeves and features guitarist David Becker on two tracks. Becker has worked with Caillat's father Ken. Caillat had writer's block during the recording sessions, so she enlisted her friends Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves, and they went to Hawaii for three weeks, rented a beach house and wrote songs. The first single from Breakthrough, "Fallin' for You", was released in June. The second single, "I Never Told You", was released in February 2010. Caillat released two Christmas songs for the 2009 holiday season: the standard "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the Beach Boys song "Merry Christmas, Baby".

Caillat was recognized as BMI's songwriter of the year. In July 2010, Caillat performed "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch at the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. In September 2010, Caillat performed the national anthem in the season opener game of the National Football League in New Orleans and a Monday Night Football game in Chicago. In December 2010, Caillat performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. In 2010, Caillat visited the Watkins Glen, New York shelter of Farm Sanctuary, an organization she supports.

Caillat's third album, All of You, was released on July 6, 2011. The first single, "I Do" was released in February. The second single, "Brighter Than the Sun", was released in June. Caillat performed an acoustic version of the National Anthem before the San Diego Chargers v Minnesota Vikings game at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on September 11, 2011, during the day of remembrance for 9/11. Caillat performed "Brighter Than the Sun" on Disney Channel's Original Series So Random.

Caillat appeared in the third episode of the cancelled NBC television series The Playboy Club as 1960s singer Lesley Gore. In the episode broadcast on October 3, 2011, Caillat sang Gore's 1963 hit, "It's My Party". Cast for the part in August 2011, Caillat taped her portion of the episode in Chicago. Caillat completed a Christmas album titled Christmas in the Sand that was released on October 23, 2012. The album features collaborations with Brad Paisley, Gavin DeGraw, Justin Young and Jason Reeves. She also began working on her fourth album, set to be released after her Christmas album. In mid-2012, it was announced that Universal Republic Records was going defunct; all other artists including Caillat moved from the label to Republic Records, thus reviving that label.

2013-present: Gypsy Heart

Caillat and Gavin DeGraw wrote the song "We Both Know" together for the soundtrack of the 2013 film Safe Haven. The song was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2014 Grammys

Caillat sang the national anthem at the 3rd game of the 2013 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals on October 26, 2013. On November 6, 2013 she posted the single cover for her new song "Hold On" on Instagram. On her official page she announced that her new album would be released in 2014. On November 19, 2013, "Hold On" was released as the first single from the album. On June 9, 2014 she released the EP, Gypsy Heart (Side A) which included the song "Try".

Caillat co-wrote "Chasing the Sun" along with Jason Reeves and Toby Gad for Hilary Duff. The song was released as the first single for Duff's fifth album.

Caillat penned a song for The Walking Dead Soundtrack Vol. 2 - Songs of Survival called "The Way I Was" which was included exclusively for the Walmart version of the soundtrack album.

On June 9, 2014, Republic Records released "Try", written by Caillat, Babyface and Jason Reeves and was produced by Babyface. The song was released as her lead single on her fifth studio album, Gypsy Heart. Caillat says about "Try", "It's this song I've had in my head my entire life about personal insecurities, imperfections, self-confidence issue." The song hit number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August of that year and later went on platinum in USA.

Personal life

Since 2009, Caillat has been in a relationship with singer Justin Young. The two got engaged in May 2015. She is a supporter of animal rights and is vegan.

Discography

Main article: Colbie Caillat discography

• Coco (2007)
• Breakthrough (2009)
• All of You (2011)
• Christmas in the Sand (2012)
• Gypsy Heart (2014)

Tours

Headlining

• Coco Summer Tour (2007)
• Coco World Tour (2008)
• Breakthrough World Tour (2009-2010)
• All of You Summer Tour (2011)
• Gypsy Heart Tour (2014)
• Girls Night Out, Boys Can Come Too (Co-headlining with Christina Perri) (2015)

Supporting

• 2008 Summer Tour (2008; for John Mayer)
• Summer Tour (2012; for Gavin DeGraw)

Filmography

List of television and films credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Três Irmãs	Herself
2009	Saturday Night Live		"Steve Martin/Jason Mraz" (Season 34, Episode 14)
2011	The Playboy Club	Lesley Gore	"An Act of Simple Duplicity" (Season 1, Episode 3)
	So Random!	Herself	"Colbie Caillat" (Season 1, Episode 9)
	Majors & Minors	Herself/Mentor	"One World - Part 1" (Season 1, Episode 1) "Fly Away" (Season 1, Episode 5)

Awards and nominations

Year	Awards	Category	Recipient	Outcome
2008	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Breakthrough Artist	General	Nominated
		Choice Music - Love Song	"Bubbly"	Nominated
	American Music Awards	T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist	General	Nominated
	Billboard Music Awards	Rising Star	General	Won
2009	BMI Pop Awards	Songwriter of the Year	Colbie Caillat	Won
		Song of The Year	"Bubbly"	Won
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Music: Hook Up	"Lucky"	Nominated
2010	Grammy Awards	Album of the Year	"Fearless" (as featured artist of Taylor Swift)	Won
		Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals	"Lucky" (with Jason Mraz)	Won
		Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals	"Breathe" (with Taylor Swift)	Nominated
		Best Pop Vocal Album	"Breakthrough"	Nominated
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Music Collaboration	"Lucky" (with Jason Mraz)	Nominated
2014	Grammy Awards	Best Song Written for Visual Media	"We Both Know"	Nominated
2015	MTV Video Music Awards	Best Video with a Message	"Try"	Nominated

Charities

Colbie Caillat supports the following charitable cause: Animals.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]