An Executive Judge here at The Webby Awards, on the red carpet for the 17th Webbys—where she was being honored as Artist of the Year—Grimes told us “The Internet allowed me to have a career…from a really young age, I was listening to a lot of diverse music.”
Grimes, neé Claire Boucher, has performed aboard an aircraft carrier and in the atrium of the Guggenheim Museum. She captures the high-low stratum of celebrity and geekdom with her ethereal singing voice with songs that are rife with thumping and danceable grooves. Grimes projects verve hinting towards the rhythms of dancehall revels, bringing a new tone to the pop song paradigm.
Art Angel, Urban Fairy, Warrior Poet, Herbivore
Grimes is flipping the script on what it means to be a pop star in the Internet era, and changing how artists interact and share music online.
Fred Armisen, who awarded Grimes the Special Achievement award, said:
She is beyond brilliant. Whenever I listen to her music it is immediately great…it makes me feel very lucky to be in this time in music. She is a visionary and everything she does visually too, is just visionary.
Grimes produces and engineers all of her own tracks. “I spend so much time editing videos and music, so I’m always crashing and destroying computers,” she told TeenVogue. She’s also written a song for her fellow label-mate Rihanna and recorded an exclusive track for the HBO series Girls.
Even more impressive, she’s largely self-taught: She learned both how to play analog instruments and record on Ableton all on her own.
Grimes’s Twitter handle was once Grimes of Tarth. Above, she and boyfriend (and fellow musician) James Brooks, recline on the Iron Throne.
She “really want[s]” to play a wedding or ceremony in the upcoming seasons of the show, she told The New Yorker after trying out the GoT Oculus Rift experience.
That’s not all. She’s an unabashed fan of anime, comics and video games too. (She has a tattoo of the triforce from The Legend of Zelda on her arm.)
Karl Lagerfeld described her as “fresh” and dressed her in Chanel for the Met Gala in 2013. She has since walked the red carpet and become a standout presence at subsequent Met Galas and other high-profile events where, once, she and the rapper 2 Chainz wore the same pants to an event.
Grimes has likewise made appearances in numerous fashion magazines including as the cover model for The Fader, Oyster, Pop, Dazed, Ion, Nylon & AnOther
Grimes regularly uses social media as a platform for activism, and she also shares personal reflections with her fans—she’s a master of using the Internet to amplify her message.
Stay up to date with Grimes on Instagram, Twitter & Tumblr and be sure to check out her Website as well!
