Marié Digby

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Marié Digby

Background information
Birth name Marié Christina Digby
Born April 16, 1983 (1983-04-16) (age 25)
New York City, New York
Genre(s) Pop, Rock alternative
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist
Instrument(s) Vocals, Guitar, Piano
Years active 2004-present
Label(s) Hollywood/Disney (2005-present)
Website MySpace official

Marié Christina Digby (pronounced /mæɹi'eɪ 'dɪgbi/ 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. Digby performed the song on the late night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly on August 2, 2007.

Digby'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.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Digby, whose mother is Japanese and father is Irish-American, is the eldest of three siblings including her sisters; Naomi (born December 12, 1985) and Erina (born August 8, 1987). She began writing songs in high school in LA and after graduating, spent one year studying philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley before leaving college to concentrate on music full-time. She came into the public light in 2004 after winning the Pantene Pro-Voice Music Competition with her autobiographical song "Miss Invisible".[2][3]

Digby at The Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles
Digby at The Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles

After performing at numerous night clubs, Digby 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.[4]

[edit] Controversy

There has been controversy over Digby's YouTube popularity. As of May 2008, her homemade music videos have been viewed over 6.6 million times on the video sharing website.[4] 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,[4] 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.[5][6] Digby is the second most subscribed singer/songwriter on YouTube behind YouTube singer/songwriter Mia Rose

[edit] Discography

Marié Digby discography
Releases
↙Studio albums 1
↙Singles 3
↙Music videos 2
↙EPs 1

The following article is a complete discography of every album and single released by American pop and adult contemporary music artist Marié Digby.

[edit] EPs

Statistics Singles
Start Here[7]
  • "Umbrella"

[edit] Albums

Statistics Singles
Unfold[8]
  • "Say It Again"

[edit] Popular Culture

  • 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 (album) was mostly based on the doodles she drew during her downtime in the recording of the album [1]
  • 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"

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Hills (Season 3) - Episode 1: You Know What You Did. MTV. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
  2. ^ 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). (Press release)
  3. ^ Grant, Lindsey (2004-07-15). The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The Daily Californian. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Digby, Marié (September 9, 2007). "Just a few things and that's it for this topic!". Myspace. Retrieved on September 10, 2007.
  6. ^ Tien, Ellen (September 9, 2007). "Pulse | What I'm Wearing Now". The New York Times. Retrieved on September 10, 2007.
  7. ^ Jordin Sparks
  8. ^ Jordin Sparks
  9. ^ HipHopDX - Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 6/1/08

[edit] External links

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