Lindsey Stirling

Lindsey Stirling is an American violinist, songwriter, and dancer born on September 21, 1986. She is known for her choreographed violin performances in live shows and music videos, which she posts on her official YouTube channel. She started her YouTube channel in 2007.

Stirling’s music style ranges from classical to pop, rock, and electronic dance music. In addition to her original work, she has covered songs by famous musicians like Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Antonio Vivaldi, as well as various soundtracks.

Her music video “Crystallize” was the eighth-most watched video of 2012 on YouTube, and her cover version of “Radioactive” with Pentatonix won Response of the Year in the first YouTube Music Awards in 2013. By August 2014, Stirling had sold one million singles worldwide. As of May 10, 2023, her Lindseystomp YouTube channel has over 13 million subscribers and more than 3 billion total views.

Stirling was named in Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Music: The Class of 2015. Forbes recognized her quarter-finalist position on America’s Got Talent season five in 2010, her No. 2 position on the Billboard 200 for her second album Shatter Me in 2014, and her 11 million subscribers on YouTube.

Stirling’s eponymous debut album was a commercial success in Europe, selling 200,000 copies in Germany and earning a platinum certification. Additionally, the album received three other certifications from Austria, Switzerland, and Poland. The album was nominated for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards for Top Dance/Electronic Albums. Stirling’s second album Shatter Me won Top Dance/Electronic Album at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.

Stirling grew up in a modest household as the middle child of three daughters of Stephen and Diane Stirling. Her parents could only afford to find a violin teacher who would give her half lessons. Despite being told that “a child isn’t going to learn how to play in 15 minutes a week,” her parents persisted, and at the age of five, she began taking violin lessons.

Stirling attended Greenfield Junior High and later Mesquite High School in Gilbert, Arizona. At age sixteen, she joined four friends in a rock band called Stomp on Melvin. Her performance in the band helped her to win the state title of Arizona’s Junior Miss and claim the Spirit Award in the America’s Junior Miss Finals competition. Stirling was also a member of Charley Jenkins Band for about a year.

From a young age, Stirling had a fascination for dance and wanted to take both dancing and violin lessons. However, due to her family’s financial limitations, her parents told her to choose between the two. She chose violin, but she always wished she could dance.

In an interview with NewMediaRockstars, she said, “…ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wished that I could dance, but my parents said, ‘You [can] choose violin or you [can] choose dance, but we can’t afford both’, and I chose violin. So this is kind of a fulfillment – it’s funny to say, but this is something I’ve always wanted to do.”