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Stirling ended up in a quarter-finalist position on America's Got Talent season five in 2010. Learn 50 facts you didn't know about Lindsey Stirling.
1. Lindsey Stirling is violinist, dancer, performance artist, singer and composer.
2. She presents choreographed violin performances, both live and in music videos found on her YouTube channel, Lindsey Stirling, which she introduced in 2007.
3. Stirling performs a variety of music styles, from classical to pop and rock to electronic dance music.
4. Aside from original work, her discography contains covers of songs by other musicians and various soundtracks.
5. Her music video, "Crystallize" finished as the eighth-most watched video of 2012.
6. Her cover version of Radioactive with Pentatonix won Response of the Year in the first YouTube Music Awards in 2013.
7. Stirling achieved one million singles sold worldwide by August 2014.
8. As of April 2015, her Lindseystomp YouTube channel exceeded 7 million subscribers and over a billion total views.
9. Stirling has been named in Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 In Music: The Class Of 2015.
10. She ended up in a quarter-finalist position on America's Got Talent season five in 2010.
11. She held a No. 2 position on the Billboard 200 for her second album Shatter Me in 2014.
12. Stirling's eponymous debut album was a commercial success in Europe, selling 200,000 copies in Germany, winning a platinum certification; three additional certifications were given by Austria, Switzerland and Poland.
13. The debut album was nominated for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards for Top Dance/Electronic Albums.
14. Stirling's second album Shatter Me won the 2015 Billboard Music Awards for Top Dance/Electronic Album.
15. Stirling was born in Santa Ana, California.
16. She describes her childhood as being raised in a modest household and stated "I would not trade my humble childhood years for anything else".
17. Due to her family's financial limitations, her parents could only afford to find a violin teacher who would give her half lessons.
18. Told by instructors that "a child isn't going to learn how to play in 15 minutes a week", her parents persisted, and at the age of five, she began taking violin lessons.
19. Living in Gilbert, Arizona, at age sixteen, Stirling attended Mesquite High School and joined four friends in a rock band called Stomp on Melvin.
20. As part of her experience with the group Stomp on Melvin, Stirling wrote a solo violin rock song, and her performance helped her to win the state title of Arizona's Junior Miss and claim the Spirit Award in the America's Junior Miss Finals competition.
21. Stirling was also a member of Charley Jenkins Band for about a year.
22. From a young age, Stirling had a fascination for dance, and wanted to take both dancing and violin lessons.
23. In an interview with NewMediaRockstars, she said, "...ever since I was a kid, I've always wished that I could dance, but my parents said, 'You [can] choose violin or you [can] choose dance, but we can't afford both', and I chose violin. So this is kind of a fulfillment - it's funny to say, but this is something I've always wanted to do."
24. She impressed the judges on America's Got Talent, not only by mixing hip-hop and classical music on the violin, but by incorporating dancing with playing the violin, which she also does on her tours and official music videos.
25. On a live-chat, Stirling explained: "It is very unnatural to dance while playing the violin. I had to practice so hard to learn how to do it, but now it is part of my expression and it comes naturally. I have to know a song perfectly before I can even begin to move. Once I know a song really well, I can then have fun dancing."
26. Not only in her performances, but also with her music, dancing made a huge impact: "I loved dance music so I started with that and wrote Transcendence, Electric Daisy and Spontaneous Me."
27. In October 2013, Stirling announced she would take part in season three of Dance Showdown, a dance competition web series created by DanceOn where the winner is awarded US$50,000. Stirling was the second of three finalists, but didn't win the fifty thousand dollars despite receiving critical acclaim on her three performances with her partner Anze Skrube. One of the three judges, Laurieann Gibson, classified her second performance as "one of the best" in Dance Showdown and the last one as the best she had ever seen.
28. In 2010, at the age of 23, Stirling was a quarter-finalist on season five of America's Got Talent, where she was described as a "hip hop violinist".
29. Shortly after her performance on America's Got Talent, cinematographer Devin Graham contacted her in hopes of making a YouTube video together. They agreed to shoot a music video for her song, "Spontaneous Me". It was filmed the week of May 9, 2011. The video boosted Stirling's popularity, and she began making music videos for her YouTube channel regularly.
30. Graham has filmed almost all of her videos, while Stirling often does backup camera work and assists with his music videos.
31. Stirling's YouTube channel, Lindseystomp, which she created in 2007 and which is named after her first band Stomp on Melvin, is the main repository for her music videos.
32. Her music is featured on Pandora, Spotify, and Last.FM.
33. Stirling also created a second YouTube channel, LindseyTime, in September 2012, in which she posts videos related to her life, vlogs, behind-the-scenes content, etc.
34. Stirling has experimented in combining violin playing with hip hop and dubstep.
35. Stirling's collaborations with other musicians and singers have included Shaun Barrowes ("Don't Carry It All" - The Decemberists), Jake Bruene and Frank Sacramone ("Party Rock Anthem" - LMFAO), Tay Zonday ("Mama Economy"), Peter Hollens ("Skyrim", "A Thousand Years", "Game of Thrones" and "Star Wars"), Alisha Popat ("We Found Love"), John Allred ("Tomb"), Amiee Proal ("A Thousand Years"), Megan Nicole ("Starships"), The Piano Guys ("Mission Impossible"), Debi Johanson ("River Flows in You", "Phantom of the Opera"), Sam Tsui ("Heads Up"), Tyler Ward ("I Knew You Were Trouble", Thrift Shop"), Kurt Hugo Schneider ("Pokemón Dubstep Remix" and "A Thousand Years"), John Legend ("All of Me"), Chester See ("I Knew You Were Trouble"), and Pentatonix ("Radioactive", "Papaoutai").
36. She has also collaborated with the Salt Lake Pops orchestra and Alex Boye.
37. Stirling's eponymous debut album was released on September 18, 2012 in conjunction with a North American tour that same month.
38. Stirling completed her first U.S. tour on November 26, 2012.
39. In December 2012, YouTube announced that Stirling's song, "Crystallize", was the No. 8 top-viewed video of 2012 with over 42 million views.
40. On June 21, Stirling received her first golden certification for her album, Lindsey Stirling, in Germany and in the next month, she earned golden certifications from Switzerland and Austria.
41. On August 2, 2013, Billboard announced that Stirling's studio album had sold more than 158,000 copies in the United States and that she was the second best-selling artist on the Classical Crossover charts in 2013, behind Andrea Bocelli's album Passione.
42. On October 1, 2013, Stirling teamed with the non-profit Atlanta Music Project to help spread appreciation of music to children who might not otherwise have the chance. The Atlanta Music Project's mission was "to inspire social change by providing Atlanta's under-served youth the opportunity to learn and perform music in orchestras and choirs." For this, Stirling made available two limited edition Lindsey Stirling/The Power of Music shirts. The money collected from the sale of those shirts went directly to the Atlanta Music Project with the combined goal of raising enough to provide music training for 50 children.
43. On March 22, 2014, Stirling joined Cirque du Soleil for the second annual One Night for One Drop in Las Vegas. The non-profit organization presented the show in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in celebration of World Water Day, a day which encourages people to conserve water resources in an effort to make clean water accessible to all.
44. Stirling originally attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah to study film making.
45. She later served as a missionary in New York City for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
46. A story she wrote about her mission was later published in the compilation Do Not Attempt in Heels: Mission Stories and Advice from Sisters Who've Been There.
47. Stirling returned to Provo in 2009 to continue studying at BYU. She then moved back to Arizona, in December 2012, to be with her family. In August 2015, she graduated from the BYU Marriott School of Management with a Bachelor of Science degree in recreation management.
48. She resides in Los Angeles.
49. For a short time she dated film maker Devin Graham who had attended the same university and church. The two began dating shortly after the filming of Crystallize and Graham moved to Utah. The two have since ended their relationship.
50. Stirling has publicly spoken about her battle with anorexia. She discovered her disorder while working for a treatment center for troubled girls.
