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BIOGRAPHY

Marie Digby
	BIOGRAPHY | GALLERY | GOSSIP | BLOG

Marié Christina Digby, born on April 16, 1983, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.

Digby is best known for her acoustic cover version of Rihanna's No. 1 hit "Umbrella", which attracted attention on YouTube in 2007. The song was subsequently played on the radio station STAR 98.7, was featured on the third season opening episode of the MTV show The Hills, and peaked at #10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. Digby performed the song on the late night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly on August 2, 2007. Digby's first official single, Say It Again, was released to radio stations on January 18, 2008. Her debut album, "Unfold", is set to be released on April 8, 2008.

Digby, whose mother is Japanese and father is Irish-American, is the eldest of three siblings including her sisters; Naomi (born December 12, 1985) and Erina (born August 8, 1987). She began writing songs in high school in LA and after graduating, spent one year at the University of California, Berkeley before leaving college to concentrate on music full-time. She came into the public light in 2004 after winning the Pantene Pro-Voice Music Competition with her autobiographical song "Miss Invisible". 

After performing at numerous night clubs, Digby signed a publishing deal with Rondor Music, a subsidiary of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group in early 2005. By the end of 2005, Digby had signed with Disney's Hollywood Records and her first album of original songs was completed by the end of 2006. Also in 2006, her song "Fool" was included on the Disney compilation album Girl Next. In early 2007, she began to post simple videos of herself singing cover songs of other artists on YouTube in order to gain visibility for herself. Hollywood Records then released a high-quality studio recording of her rendition of "Umbrella" to iTunes and radio stations.

There has been controversy over Digby's YouTube popularity. As of September 2007, her homemade music videos have been viewed over 2.3 million times on the video sharing website. It has been suggested by The Wall Street Journal that she feigned a grassroots effort and amateur status in order to generate buzz as part of an online marketing campaign created by Hollywood Records, a strategy sometimes labeled "astroturfing". She has responded, writing on her blog that she never lied about being signed to Hollywood Records and has stated that her videos were her own "desperate" response to a lack of promotion.