Marié Digby

Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Marié Christina Digby (Template:PronEng Ma-ree-AY Dig-Bee) (born April 16, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist. She is best known for her acoustic cover version of Rihanna's No. 1 hit "Umbrella", which attracted attention on YouTube in 2007. The song was subsequently played on the radio station STAR 98.7, was featured on the third season opening episode of the MTV show The Hills, and peaked at #10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. Digby performed the song on the late night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly on August 2 2007.

Digby's first official single, "Say It Again", was released to radio stations on January 18, 2008. Her debut album, Unfold, was released on April 8, 2008.

Biography

Digby, whose mother is Japanese and father is Irish-American, is the eldest of three siblings including her sisters; Naomi (born December 12, 1985) and Erina (born August 8, 1987). She began writing songs in high school in LA and after graduating, spent one year at the University of California, Berkeley before leaving college to concentrate on music full-time. She came into the public light in 2004 after winning the Pantene Pro-Voice Music Competition with her autobiographical song "Miss Invisible".

Digby at The Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles

After performing at numerous night clubs, Digby signed a publishing deal with Rondor Music, a subsidiary of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group in early 2005. By the end of 2005, Digby had signed with Disney's Hollywood Records and her first album of original songs was completed by the end of 2006. Also in 2006, her song "Fool" was included on the Disney compilation album Girl Next. In early 2007, she began to post simple videos of herself singing cover songs of other artists on YouTube in order to gain visibility for herself. Hollywood Records then released a high-quality studio recording of her rendition of "Umbrella" to iTunes and radio stations.

Controversy

There has been controversy over Digby's YouTube popularity. As of September 2007, her homemade music videos have been viewed over 2.3 million times on the video sharing website. It has been suggested by The Wall Street Journal that she feigned a grassroots effort and amateur status in order to generate buzz as part of an online marketing campaign created by Hollywood Records, a strategy sometimes labeled "astroturfing". She has responded, writing on her blog that she never lied about being signed to Hollywood Records and has stated that her videos were her own "desperate" response to a lack of promotion.

Discography

• 2008: Unfold

EPs

• 2007: Start Here EP

Singles

Year	Title	Album	Chart positions
			WW	U.S.	EU	CAN	NZ	AUS	CHI	BRA	SPA	UK	IRE	AUT	GER	SWI
2007	"Be Good to Me"	Headstrong	—	80	—	—	—	—	1	12	—	—	—	—	—	—

Popular Culture

• Digby's songs "Spell" and "Say It Again" were recently featured in episodes of Smallville, the closing for season 7 episode 7, "Wrath", and for episode 12, "Fracture", respectively (The last one being favorite song of one character).

• Her song "Bring Me Love" served as the music bed for ABC Family's movie Holiday in Handcuffs.

• Her unreleased song "Where Do I Go?" was the main song for the Lifetime movie The Dive From Clausen's Pier.

• As one of the musicians chosen by Gap for their new "The Sound of Color" campaign, Digby wrote and recorded "Paint Me In Your Sunshine", inspired by the color yellow.

• Her song "Beauty In Walking Away" was recently heard during an episode of The Hills.

External links

• Template:Myspace
• Marié Digby's YouTube channel
• Marié Digby's Official Facebook Music Page
• AArisings A-Profiler Interview Published March 25, 2008