Christina Grimmie

**Christina Grimmie** (March 12, 1994 – June 10, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and YouTuber.

## Early Life

Christina Victoria Grimmie was born to Tina and Albert Grimmie in the Marlton section of Evesham Township, New Jersey, on March 12, 1994. Her mother worked as a receptionist until she was diagnosed with breast cancer; her father worked at Verizon Communications as of 2014. She had an older brother, Marcus (who served as Christina's road manager during her performances). Grimmie was of Italian and Romanian descent and grew up in Marlton, New Jersey, where she attended Bethel Baptist Christian School, Marlton Middle School, and Cherokee High School. Her father noticed Grimmie's talent for singing when she was six years old, and she started playing the piano at age 10. Despite having received piano lessons, Grimmie said she played by ear.

## Career

### 2009–2010: YouTube recognition and discovery

Grimmie began posting videos to her YouTube channel in 2009 at age 15, under the username of *zeldaxlove64*. Grimmie stated that she began a musical YouTube channel so that people could connect with her music, and because her friend persuaded her to post her videos on the popular video sharing website. The first video she uploaded was a cover of Hannah Montana's "Don't Wanna Be Torn". She first earned recognition for her cover of Miley Cyrus's "Party in the U.S.A." in August 2009. Grimmie's covers first gained attention and stood out due to her voice, personality, and interpretations of well-known songs.

Grimmie was homeschooled for her junior year of high school in 2010. That same year, she covered Nelly's "Just a Dream" with fellow YouTubers Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider in a video which received more than 190 million views over the course of ten years. Later, it also became available on iTunes and Spotify. In 2011, she placed No. 2 in the MyYouTube competition, behind Selena Gomez. As her popularity grew on YouTube, Grimmie was discovered in 2011 by Gomez's mother, Mandy Teefey; Teefey and her husband Brian soon became Grimmie's managers.

## Death

On June 10, 2016, Grimmie performed with Before You Exit at The Plaza Live in Orlando, Florida. Earlier that day, she posted a shout-out on social media asking people to attend the concert. After their performance ended at 10:00 p.m. local time, Grimmie signed autographs inside the venue. At 10:24 p.m., Grimmie was shot by 27-year-old Kevin James Loibl after initially opening her arms to give him a hug. As witnesses fled the scene, Loibl was tackled by Grimmie's brother, and the men scuffled. Loibl broke free, backed against a wall, and shot himself dead. Grimmie was on the floor and bleeding from the head; after CPR was performed on her, 911 was called and she was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center in critical condition with four gunshot wounds; she was pronounced dead just before 11:00 p.m. local time. An autopsy revealed that Grimmie was shot once in the head and twice in the chest. Her death was declared a homicide.

Police did not offer a motive, but said that Loibl had shown an "unhealthy and unrealistic infatuation" with the singer and tried to make himself more physically attractive for her through weight loss, hair plugs, and eye surgery.