Birdy Aka Jasmine van den Bogaerde

Meet Birdy, a 15-year-old singer and pianist from UK.

Birdy aka Jasmine van den Bogaerde

Birdy is the stage name of Jasmine van den Bogaerde, a girl of mixed British, Dutch and Belgian descent.

Born on May 15, 1996, in Lymington, England, Birdy learned to play piano at the age of four, and began writing her own music at the age of 7. Her musical influence came from her mother who is a concert pianist.

Birdy

Birdy currently studies at Priestlands School in Lymington, a small state school which specialises in performing and visual arts. She sings and plays the piano. Birdy’s great uncle was the actor Sir Dirk Bogarde.

At the age of 12, Birdy won the UK talent contest Open Mic UK 2008, a spinoff of the Live and Unsigned competition. She won both the under 18s category and the Grand Prize, against 10,000 other competitors. She performed her own song at the competition called “So Be Free” in front of 2,000 people.

After the competition she was offered a publishing contract with Good Soldier Songs Ltd, run by Christian Tattersfield, chairman of Warner Bros. Music UK and the label 14th Floor Records. Tattersfield previously signed other singer/songwriters such as David Gray.

In 2011, Birdy released a cover version of Bon Iver’s song “Skinny Love”. The song became her first hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at 17. The single was chosen as “Record of The Week” by UK radio DJ Fearne Cotton. The official music video for the song was directed by Sophie Muller. The song was also featured on The Vampire Diaries episode “The Sun Also Rises”, which aired on 5 May 2011. Since then, Birdy has covered the song “The A Team” Ed Sheeran, as well as The XX’s Shelter., which was also featured on The Vampire Diaries episode “The End of The Affair”, which aired on 29 September.

Her debut album was released on 7 November 2011, peaking at 13 in the UK, 40 in Ireland and top 10 in Belgium and The Netherlands.

Birdy is without doubt a gifted singer…her voice is just amazing. Thank you for your music, Birdy!