Christina Perri

A singer/songwriter who’s never been afraid to bare her innermost thoughts and emotions, Christina Perri established that rare degree of fearlessness with her first song to widely connect with listeners. Born in a suburb of Philadelphia, in 1986, Perri was a music-biz hopeful getting by working at the Melrose Place Café in Beverly Hills when a friend helped get her song “Jar of Hearts” into an episode of So You Think You Can Dance in 2010, a highly unusual break for an unsigned artist. With her emphatic delivery of lyrics that conveyed the pain of a crumbling romance, Perri laid herself bare in a way that evoked both the rawness of Fiona Apple and the swoony sensitivity of Sarah McLachlan. Reaching No. 17 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and earning Perri a deal with Atlantic, “Jar of Hearts” was the first demonstration of the same blend of emotional power and pop polish that was equally evident on “A Thousand Years”, her hit on the soundtrack of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. Released in 2014, her second album, Head or Heart, showed her growing confidence. In 2019, she ended a five-year hiatus from recording with songs for carmella: lullabies & sing-a-longs, a set of songs for her baby daughter that showed a softer and more hopeful side to Perri than fans may have discerned in her younger self’s stormier expressions.