You might not think you’ve ever heard any music by 30-year-old Londoner Jacob Collier, but the artist – who has been dubbed ‘the Mozart of Gen Z’ – will likely have appeared in some of your favourite tunes from A-listers like Coldplay, Alicia Keys and SZA.
The Grammy nominee, who is facing the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Sabrina Carpenter for the Album of the Year title has been making music for 12 years, starting off with viral music videos on YouTube.
Before long, he found fans in musical legends including the late Quincy Jones, composer Hans Zimmer and Chris Martin – with the latter even featuring Jacob’s backing vocals in his songs.
He has also worked with British powerhouses Stormzy, and last December performed a version of Last Christmas at the Princess of Wales’s Carol concert.
His latest album, Djesse Vol 4, came out in February, and is now competing among the ranks of Cowboy Carter, The Tortured Poets Department and Short ‘n’ Sweet.
It’s far from Jacob’s first brush with the Grammies – last year he won the Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals award for In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.
He also performed at the event, wowing audiences with a rendition of Both Sides Now, alongside Joni Mitchell, Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, SistaStrings, Blake Mills, and Lucius.
Jacob, who grew up in Finchley, North London, has said that he found music as a ‘second language’ and was experimenting with instruments from a very young age, thanks to his mother’s work as a violinist, conductor and teacher at the Royal Academy of Music.
You might not think you’ve ever heard any music by 30-year-old Londoner Jacob Collier, but the artist – who has been dubbed ‘the Mozart of Gen Z’ – will likely have appeared in some of your favourite tunes from A-listers like Coldplay, Alicia Keys and SZA. Pictured earlier this month
Speaking to Red Bull earlier this year, he expressed: ‘When I was coming into the world, it just made a lot of sense to express shapes, forms and sensations through sound.’
The self-taught artist has tried his hand at everything from the piano the mandolin.
In 2011, he began posting vocal arrangements of covers online. One of his first hits – a take on Isn’t She Lovely – has racked up 4.6 million views on YouTube, featuring a baby-faced Jacob singing different parts on a split screen.
Just a few months later, his version of Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing got 6.7 million views.
‘I’ve always believed that you don’t need a lot to be creative, just a space where it’s safe for the ideas to come to the surface, and time to mess about,’ he told British Vogue last year.
‘Having Logic [a music software] and a piano and a microphone was just unbelievable. How I started my YouTube career was just by extending my musical limbs in a visual way.
‘My life really changed because those videos started to get picked up by people I thought of as the greatest musicians in the world, like Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones, who has been this amazing godfather figure to me.’
Jacob – who in 2014 signed to Quincy’s company – recently penned a heartfelt post to his late mentor, promising the musician will be ‘in every note he plays’.
His latest album, Djesse Vol 4, came out in February, and is now competing among the ranks of Cowboy Carter, The Tortured Poets Department and Short ‘n’ Sweet
Jacob – who in 2014 signed to Quincy’s company – recently penned a heartfelt post to his late mentor, promising the musician will be ‘in every note he plays’
Just a few months later, his take on Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing got 6.7 million views on YouTube
‘Quincy. More than a legend. A real-life superhero. A master maverick magician. A fierce lover of life.
‘A human being of the highest order. My friend, soul brother, and North Star,’ Jacob wrote on Instagram.
‘Back in my humblest beginnings, pre-Djesse and In My Room, and before I’d ever set foot on a stage, Quincy saw a spark in me and took me under his wing.
‘He lifted me up, giving me the courage to believe in my essence and follow wherever it would lead, in a way that would fundamentally change the course of my life forever.
‘I’ll greatly miss my homie, the ultra coolest ‘grandpa’ figure on the planet – the wry twinkling eye, the crooked pointing finger, the unmatched stories of Picasso, Stravinsky, Sinatra, Bird, Nadia Boulanger, ad infinatum – and the boundless kindness, unconditional support and love, besides the staggering wealth of music we all get to enjoy forever.’
He released his debut jazz album In My Room in 2016, which featured a collection of original pieces and covers.
Two songs from the album, his cover of You and I by Stevie Wonder and the Flintstones theme song both won Grammy awards in 2017.
He won another two Grammys in 2020 and was the winner of the Best Arrangement Instrumental and Vocals award for 2021 with his song ‘He Won’t Hold You’.
In 2022, he was Nominated for Best R&B Song with ‘Good Days’ (with Solána Rowe, Carlos Núñez Muñoz, Carter Lang, and Christopher Ruelas), as well as, once again Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)’.
In 2023, Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres – which Jacob features on – was up for Album of the Year. That same year, he was nominated for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals with ‘In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning’ (with Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor).
He has also worked with British powerhouses Stormzy, and last December performed a version of Last Christmas at the Princess of Wales’s Carol concert
However, Jacob has spoken about being raised by largely feminine influences in his life. In 2023, he told British Vogue that while his father was around for ‘the first part of his childhood’, they have largely not been in touch for the last 15 years
‘Quincy. More than a legend. A real-life superhero. A master maverick magician. A fierce lover of life. A human being of the highest order. My friend, soul brother, and North Star,’ Jacob wrote on Instagram
He won another two Grammys in 2020 and was the winner of the Best Arrangement Instrumental and Vocals award for 2021 with his song ‘He Won’t Hold You’. Pictured in 2021
The musician started experimenting with software when he was around seven years old and taught himself several instruments, including keyboard, drums and double bass.
Music runs in Jacob’s family, including his mother, Susan, is a violinist, conductor and professor at the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Academy.
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His grandfather, Derek, was also a violinist who taught at the academy and performed in orchestras around the world.
However, Jacob has spoken about being raised by largely feminine influences in his life.
In 2023, he told British Vogue that while his father was around for ‘the first part of his childhood’, they have largely not been in touch for the last 15 years.
‘To be honest, the family unit within this house – me and my two sisters and my mum – it’s kind of everything I’ve needed,’ he said.
‘Not having a [father-son] relationship there has meant I’ve had to ask questions of myself, about what it means to grow up and be a man, be powerful, a leader, or strong.’
Expressing his delight at the Grammy nomination, Jacob wrote on Instagram: ‘ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!!!! Mind exploded. Heart full. Soul overflowing. A hundred thousand voices strong!!!! Deeply grateful for this unimaginable honour.’
At the awards ceremony on February 2, the Beyonce and Taylor Swift records – Cowboy Carter and The Tortured Poets Department – will compete with Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Short n’ Sweet,’ ‘Brat’ from Charli XCX, Billie Eilish’s ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft,’ and Chappell Roan’s ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.’
The two male artists nominated in the album field were rapper Andre 3000 with ‘New Blue Sun’ and jazz artist Jacob Collier for ‘Djesse Vol. 4.’
Winners will be chosen by the roughly 13,000 singers, songwriters, producers, engineers and others who make up the Recording Academy.