Kina Grannis in London

Kina Grannis is a California-based American singer-songwriter and YouTube sensation. She began performing to her stuffed animals from the age of four, before progressing to her video camera, and finally to people. This month, she is on the European leg of her world tour. She also plans on touring Southeast Asia and Australia later in the year.

In 2008, she won the ‘Doritos Crash the Super Bowl’ contest, and signed onto Interscope Records. A year later, she left the record label in order to pursue her musical vision as an independent artist. Her new album, Stairwells, was released in April of this year. The album name is a reference to her college days, when she often sat in secluded stairwells to make music. Kina describes her style as a happy medium between pop, folk and indie. Her elegant vocals and the unique charm she brings to her music set her apart from other guitar-playing singer-songwriters.

She recently played her first London show to a sold-out audience at the Monto Water Rats. The venue was small and intimate – perfect for her solo acoustic guitar set. The opening act was fellow YouTuber Imaginary Friend, whose haunting vocals and simple guitar accompaniment were well-received.

Kina’s performance began with her walking barefoot onstage to cheers and applause from her fans (or, as she affectionately calls them, her ‘kinerds’). She opened with ‘World in Front of Me’, the first track on Stairwells, and a fitting first song to play on her London debut. In between jokes, anecdotes and guitar-tuning, she played fan favourites, such as ‘Valentine’, ‘The One You Say Goodnight To’ and ‘Cambridge’. The audience was also treated to interesting renditions of ‘Oops I Did it Again’ and Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’, the latter of which involved certain amounts of rapping (a slightly surreal experience).

Kina finished the show with her audience singing along to the excellent ‘Message From Your Heart’, the song that won her the Super Bowl contest. She ended the evening with a meet and greet for her kinerds, many of them walking away clutching several signed copies of Stairwells.

Kina Grannis returns to London later this month to play the last show on her European tour before flying back to America.