Lindsey Stirling

Violinist Lindsey Stirling combined her classical training with hip-hop beats and a love for dance into worldwide stardom, first as a viral sensation on YouTube, and later with two chart-topping albums, including Shatter Me, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Born in Santa Ana, California, Stirling was raised in a middle class Mormon household in Gilbert, Arizona. She developed a fascination for both music and dance at an early age, but her family's financial limitations only allowed her to take violin lessons. Stirling first incorporated her classical training into pop music as a teenager with a band called Stomp on Melvin, and won the Arizona Junior Miss competition by performing a rock song for violin that she composed while with that group. After attending Brigham Young University, Stirling performed missionary work in New York City, and then returned to complete her studies in 2009. The following year, she competed in the fifth season of "America's Got Talent," where her "hip-hop violin" brought her to the quarterfinals, but was panned by the judges when she attempted to incorporate dance into her routine. She retreated to Arizona, where she was contacted by cinematographer Devin Graham about collaborating on a music video for her song "Spontaneous Me." Released on her YouTube channel, Lindseystomp, in 2011, the video quickly gained a massive following, generating over 16 million views and four million subscribers to her channel. Subsequent work with Graham on videos for "Electric Daisy Violin" (2011) and "Shadows" (2012) earned even more views, which led to the release of her self-titled debut album that same year. The independent release reached No. 79 on the Billboard 200 while also topping both the Dance and Classical charts. Its success attracted the attention of Lady Gaga's manager, Troy Carter, who signed Stirling to a representation deal; relentless touring helped to generated a reissue of her debut album in 2013, which skyrocketed to No. 23 on the Billboard 200. A string of high-profile collaborations with artists like the a cappella group Pentatonix and R&B superstar John Legend only further increased Stirling's profile, while her debut album's lead single, "Crystallize," earned gold certification in early 2014. Her second album, Shatter Me, debuted soon after, rising quickly to No. 2 on the Billboard 200, while the video for the title song earned 1.3 million views in its first day. The album soon became the third highest-selling dance/electronic album of the first half of 2014, trailing only Daft Punk and Lady Gaga. In August, she made a triumphant return to "America's Got Talent," this time to perform "Shatter Me" with rocker Lizzy Hale. Between television appearances and recording dates, she also crisscrossed the United States and Europe on a lengthy tour with performances stretching into 2015.