Christina Perri

An American singer/songwriter who rose to prominence in 2010 with the soulful Top 20 hit “Jar of Hearts,” Christina Perri’s keen pop ear, as well as her ability to wrap radio-ready choruses inside folksy verse, bridges the gap between the laid-back folk-pop of Jewel and Norah Jones and the slicker, primetime pageantry of Katy Perry and Sara Bareilles. Her first two albums, 2011′s Lovestrong and 2014′s Head or Heart, landed her in the Top Five of the Billboard 200. Her third full-length, 2019′s songs for carmella: lullabies & sing-a-longs, arrived on her daughter’s first birthday. A second children’s album, songs for rosie, was dedicated to her stillborn daughter in 2021. Perri released her third studio effort, A Lighter Shade of Blue, the following year.
Hailing from suburban Philadelphia, Christina Judith Perri participated in musical theater as a child and learned to play guitar and piano in her teens. Her older brother, Nick Perri, at one time played guitar with acts including Shinedown, Silvertide, and Perry Farrell. Christina attended college for a year before dropping out to pursue music full-time. Relocating to Los Angeles, she found work producing music videos and was briefly married before returning to Philadelphia in 2009. It was around that time that she wrote “Jar of Hearts.”
Back in Los Angeles, she was working as a waitress when she managed to pass “Jar of Hearts” to choreographer Stacey Tookey through a friend, resulting in the song’s appearance on a June 2010 episode of So You Think You Can Dance. The piano ballad debuted at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 before eventually peaking at number 17. Perri signed with Atlantic Records within a month and issued the EP The Ocean Way Sessions that November. It spent a week at number 144 on the Billboard 200. Her full-length debut, Lovestrong, followed in May of 2011 and went all the way to number four while reaching the Top Ten in countries including the U.K. Australia, and Germany. In the meantime, Perri toured with James Blunt. A song for the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 1, “A Thousand Years,” followed that October and hit the Top 40.
A year later, Perri released the holiday EP A Very Merry Perri Christmas, which peaked at number 98 on the U.S. album chart. She then headed to the studio with a quartet of producers — Martin Johnson, Jake Gosling, John Hill, and Butch Walker — to record her second full-length. Lead single “Human” landed in the Top 40 before Head or Heart arrived in April 2014. She opened North American tour dates for Demi Lovato as the album climbed to number four on the Billboard 200 and number eight in the U.K.
In 2015, Perri co-headlined a tour with Colbie Caillat and Rachel Platten, and in 2016, she was featured on the title track of Lindsey Stirling’s album Brave Enough. Perri married Paul Costabile in December 2017. A collection of children’s music, songs for carmella: lullabies & sing-a-longs, followed in January 2019 and was dedicated to her then-one-year-old daughter. Following multiple pregnancy complications, an album named for her stillborn child, songs for rosie, appeared in late 2021. The following year saw the release of Perri’s third studio long-player, A Lighter Shade of Blue. ~ Marcy Donelson & Andrew Leahey