Jacob Collier is a multi award-winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and educator.
Recognised by audiences, critics and fellow musicians alike as one of the most gifted young artists of modern times, Jacob Collier already boasts a seemingly endless list of achievements including five Grammy wins – which saw him become the first British act in history to win four Grammys for each of his first four albums – along with 11 Grammy nominations including Album of the Year in 2021.
As a result, his roster of collaborators is astoundingly varied and vibrant; there is Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who he joined for three nights of a sold out run at London’s Wembley Stadium in August 2022, as well as featuring on the group’s 2021 song Human Heart. Collier is a close musical confidante of UK superstar rapper Stormzy, co-writing and performing on no less than seven tracks, as well as appearing as a featured artist on the title track, of his landmark 2022 album This Is What I Mean. He co-wrote and sang on the international 2020 hit Good Days with SZA, featured John Mayer on his 2022 single Never Gonna Be Alone, and helped Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer score the 2017 and 2021 feature films Boss Baby and its sequel Boss Baby: Family Business.
In his own projects, Collier has worked with an unpredictable cast of artistic powerhouses, from Malian singer Oumou Sangaré to T-Pain, Ty Dolla $ign, Daniel Caesar, Tori Kelly and Mahalia (to name a few). He has left such a mark on the artistic landscape already that the BBC profiled him in an hour-long Imagine special - making him one of the youngest participants in its 19 years on the network.
Exploding onto the global stage with the viral success of his multi-frame, multi-instrumental YouTube covers, Collier caught the attention of Quincy Jones and under his mentorship released his debut album, In My Room, in 2016. Recorded, produced and played entirely by Collier, In My Room heralded the arrival of a staggering musical mind, traversing everything from microtonal of the Flintstones theme to folk-influenced ballads. An ensuing one-man-band international tour saw Collier developing an innovative live show where he played and layered 12 instruments to recreate the world of In My Room onstage. That natural pull towards musical collaboration went on to inform Collier’s plans for his ensuing four-part Djesse series of albums. The resulting volumes of Djesse have delivered on Collier’s ambitious promise, featuring an incredible array of collaborators, and musical themes that encompass everything from orchestral composition to folk songwriting, R&B, rap and pop.
Ultimately, although Collier has already achieved more than most artists could hope for in a lifetime, he is still restlessly creative. Alongside the upcoming release of Djesse Vol 4, he has plans for future projects centered on solo piano, orchestras and film scoring, while he has written for a forthcoming West End musical on the life of opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.