Jasmine van den Bogaerde, better known by her stage name Birdy, is an English singer-songwriter. She won the music competition Open Mic UK in 2008, at the age of 12. Her debut single, a version of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love", was her breakthrough, charting all across Europe and earning platinum certification six times in Australia. Her self-titled debut album, Birdy, was released on 7 November 2011 to similar success, peaking at number 1 in Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands. Her second studio album, Fire Within, was released 23 September 2013 in the UK and other surrounding countries. Birdy was born on 15 May 1996, in Lymington, Hampshire, UK. Her mother is a concert pianist, and Birdy learned to play the piano at the age of seven, and began writing her own music at the age of eight. Birdy studied at Brockenhurst College in Brockenhurst, a sixth form college in the New Forest, as of 2013. She sings and plays the piano. Her great-uncle was the actor Sir Dirk Bogarde. Her great-great-great grandfather was Belgian, the rest of her ancestors were English and Scottish. Her stage name comes from the nickname her parents gave her as a baby, because she opened her mouth like a little bird when fed. Her family and friends call her Birdy, while only teachers called her Jasmine, her given name. In 2008, as a 12-year-old, Birdy won the UK talent contest Open Mic UK, a spinoff of the Live and Unsigned competition. She won both the under-18s category and the Grand Prize, against 10,000 other competitors. She performed her own song, called "So Be Free", at the competition in front of 2,000 people. In 2009, Birdy performed live on piano for BBC Radio 3's Pianothon in London. In January 2011, at the age of 14, Birdy released a cover version of Bon Iver's song "Skinny Love". The song became her first hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at 17. The single was chosen as "Record of the Week" by UK radio DJ Fearne Cotton, resulting in it being added to BBC Radio 1's B‑list playlist as soon as it was released in March 2011. The official music video for the song was directed by Sophie Muller. The song was also featured on The Vampire Diaries episode "The Sun Also Rises", which aired on 5 May 2011. "Skinny Love" peaked at number 1 in the Netherlands. It also featured in an episode of Being Human, and was sung by Birdy on The Ellen DeGeneres Show; the episode aired on 20 March 2012. Since then, Birdy has covered a number of songs, including "The A Team" by Ed Sheeran and The xx's "Shelter". On 19 July 2011, Birdy performed in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. In the session, she performed both "Shelter" and "The A Team". Her cover of "Shelter" was also featured on The Vampire Diaries episode "The End of the Affair", which aired on 29 September 2011. Her eponymous debut album of cover versions (plus one original track) was released on 7 November 2011; the album peaked at No. 13 in the UK, No. 40 in Ireland and number 1 in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Australia. On 21 December 2011, Birdy received a Golden Single from 3FM during Serious Request in the Netherlands for selling more than 25,000 copies from her debut album. She promptly donated it to be auctioned online. A day later, Birdy received a Golden Single from Studio Brussel during Music for Life in Belgium for selling more than 15,000 copies from her debut album. She also donated it to be auctioned online, it was sold for €1,980. In August 2012 her debut album peaked at number one in Australia, while the singles "Skinny Love" and "People Help the People" peaked at numbers 2 and 10 respectively. 7 August 2012, Birdy released her "Live in London" EP, which contains 8 songs. This includes her cover of Ed Sheeran's "The A Team" and her song from The Hunger Games soundtrack, "Just a Game". On 29 August 2012 Birdy performed Antony Hegarty's song "Bird Gerhl" (from Antony and the Johnsons' I Am a Bird Now album), in the opening ceremony of the London Paralympic Games. On 16 February 2013 Birdy sang at Sanremo Music Festival 2013, the most popular Italian music festival broadcast by RAI. Birdy announced the release of her second studio album, entitled "Fire Within", via a YouTube video on 10 July 2013. The video included footage of Birdy in the studio along with a preview of two songs, "Wings" and "No Angel", which are both featured on the album. The first official single, "Wings", was released on 22 July 2013 and a second song, "All You Never Say", was sent to subscribers of Birdy's mailing list and posted on YouTube on 15 August 2013. The song Wings was also featured on The Vampire Diaries episode "Home", which aired on 15 May 2014. The album was released in the UK and other surrounding countries on 23 September 2013 and has so far achieved mostly positive reviews. In North America, the album was released on 3 June 2014. A subsequent EP titled Breathe was released on 16 October in its place. Birdy contributed three songs to the soundtrack for the movie The Fault in Our Stars: "Tee Shirt", "Best shot" (with Jaymes Young) and "Not About Angels". Videos for both have been officially released. In March 2012, Birdy was one of the artists who contributed to The Hunger Games film soundtrack with her single "Just a Game". In June 2012, Birdy contributed the song "Learn Me Right" with Mumford & Sons to the Pixar film Brave for which she received her first Grammy Award nomination.