Back in 2009, she was known simply by her YouTube username zeldaxlove64. Two years later, Christina Grimmie has uploaded more than 100 videos and has amassed more than 230 million video views in the process. Oh and she’s only 17.

Basically, girl is BIG. So we were thrilled when we got the chance to talk to this rising star. Christina got candid and told us why she posted her first YouTube video (a Hannah Montana song), what she’s learned from touring with Selena Gomez and how her friends feel about her new found fame. Check out our chat below.

Find all her vids here and pick up her debut EP Find Me on her website.

Want more YouTube awesomeness? Check out our exclusive interview with Megan & Liz!

Christina Grimmie

Could Lovísa be cuter? No. She couldn't.

I love chill, laid-back, songs with dreamy lyrics. And super cool gurls who front rock bands? Don’t even get me started. So when I discovered Lay Low, a cool indie band out of Iceland, I nearly freaked.

The front-gurl, Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir, not only has the coolest name ever, but she’s also wicked talented and definitely going places. Her fourth solo album, “Brostinn Strengur”, is about to come out in the U.S., and we can’t wait to hear it. She was awesome enough to chat with me the other day (I’m such a fan-gurl!) and answer my most burning questions:

gURL: You played piano when you were little but switched to electric bass and guitar when you got a little older. How did that happen, and how did you get started in music so young?

It's hard to resist pretty ivories like these.

Lovísa: My mother was eager to have me take piano lessons, even though my family didn’t have a lot of money. I’m very thankful to her for that. She saved up and bought a piano and got me lessons. She also played a little piano herself. As a teenager, I got bored with piano, so I decided to learn guitar and bass. My mother kept supporting my lessons in whatever I wanted to learn. I wish I didn’t stop taking piano lessons, though; I still love playing the piano when I can!

gURL: What instruments do you play now?

Lovísa: My main instrument these days would be guitar, but I can play the keyboard, bass, and banjo. I’m an awful drummer.

gURL: A lot of your songs are about breaking hearts, or getting yours broken. Do you remember the first time someone broke your heart? How old were you? How did you recover?

Lovísa: I think I was probably eight or nine; the boy dumped me for my stepsister! I got over it the next day.

gURL: You just played a huge music festival—the Iceland Airwaves Music Fest in Iceland’s capitol, Reykjavik, last month. What was that like?

Lovísa: This was my fourth time, and it’s always so fun! Reykjavík turns into a big pot of good music, with bands running around doing a few shows a day. I think I played about seven times over the weekend! It was amazing.

Patsy Cline--an awesome gurl to listen to when you wanna wallow (and uh, who doesn't?!)

gURL: Who are your biggest influences? What records are you listening to now?

Lovísa: For each and every album I’ve recorded, I have been listening to different kinds of things. For “Farewell Good Night’s Sleep” I listened to a lot of old country records like Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline.

gURL: You recently acted in a movie. How is that different from singing? Does your experience on stage make it easier to be in front of a camera?

Lovísa: It was very strange to be asked to play one of the leading roles in a film. I wanted to say no when the director asked me to do it, but I also was very curious about that whole film scene, and curious to see if I could really do it. So for me it was a great experience and a wonderful time, even though I know I’m not the strongest of actors. It felt so weird watching my own face on the big screen!

gURL: You’re working on a new album that’s slated to be released this fall. Tell us about it. What’s it called?

Lovísa: The album has been released in Iceland already and has received great feedback so far. It is called Brostinn Strengur, and is my first native language album. I wrote songs to poems that other women wrote; the oldest one is from 1882 and the newest is from 2009.

gURL: What advice would you give to gurls who want to be musicians?

Lovísa: Just do it. Don’t give up if it starts out rough, and remember to enjoy every step of the way. Also, the awkward and hard moments? They only make you stronger.

Do you like Lay Low’s sound? Tell us about new band’s you’re into in the comments!
lay low

Um, did we mention we love her style?

If the colder weather and cloudy skies have got you down, we’ve got some supernova sunshine for you in the form of Jessie and the Toy Boys—your new must-know band. Full disclosure? The “band” is just Jessie Malakouti and three male mannequins (who um, don’t contribute much but their looks), but we like their looks, so yeah. They count.

If you’re a CW junkie like we are, you might have already heard a bit of Jessie and the Toy Boys super-infectious dance song “We Own The Night” in previews for The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl and all your other favorites—but it’s seriously worth listening to the whole thing. Getting ready for a night with the girls? There’s no better song to get ready and twirl in front of the mirror to.

Jessie and I chatted the other day about the new Jessie and the Toy Boys album (we can’t wait for its January release!) and her tour with Nikki Minaj—she’s awesome and I thought I’d share:

gURL: Obviously you love music—who are your biggest influnces?

Jessie: I love Madonna. She really is the queen of pop, and I love how she’s evolved over the years. Also, Dale Bozzio from Missing Persons. She had wicked cool style and set a ton of trends. Basically, I love girl singers from the ’80s. Blondie, Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper—they’re all so great and such an influence on Jessie and the Toy Boys.

gURL: You just got off tour with Nikki Minaj. What’s she really like?

Jessie: She’s really a genius, she’s very very smart. You might not know that about her. The other thing is that she’s the sweetest most wonderful person. Really, that gushy, super-sweet side of her that everybody saw on Ellen when she met the little girls who sang “Super Bass” on YouTube? That’s the real Nikki.

gURL: Some of your songs, like Nikki’s, are pretty explicit. Where do you stand on being a role model?

Life must be pretty rough when your band mates are a bunch of dummies.

Jessie: I think I do have a responsibility to be a role model to girls in a way, which is why I’ll be releasing clean versions of all of my songs when the album comes out, but I also think part of being a role model is showing girls that you don’t have to censor who you are or be someone else just because the world would prefer it that way. So I’m not going to censor myself or not say something that’s on my mind in my songs. You can’t be afraid of who you are.

gURL: What can we expect to hear when your album comes out in January?

Jessie: The album is called This Is How Rumors Start and it’s going to be amazing. I’m working on it right now, just finishing it up every day. There are lots of great songs with juicy stories behind them. You’re really going to love it. And I’m really excited about the short films I made to go along with the songs. It’s a five part series that you’re going to be able to watch online, and they kind of tell the stories of the songs in a deeper way. I’m really proud of them and can’t wait for you to see them.

Do you already love Jessie and the Toy Boys? Tell us in the comments!
jessie and the toy boys