Jamie Lee Kriewitz

1998–2015: Early life and career

Jamie-Lee Kriewitz was born in Bennigsen, Hanover on 18 March 1998 to Michael Kriewitz, a former drummer for the German punk rock band 3Zylinder, and Nicole Kriewitz. She has an older brother named Joey. At the age of 12, Kriewitz became a member of the German children choir Joyful Noise. At the age of 14, she became a vegan. Kriewitz originally intended to pursue a degree in Korean studies before deciding to pursue a career as a musician.

In 2015, Kriewitz successfully auditioned for the fifth season of The Voice of Germany, singing "The Hanging Tree" by James Newton Howard and Jennifer Lawrence. She persuaded all four coaches to turn their chairs and chose to compete as one of the 17 composing members of Team Michi & Smudo. Kriewitz progressed to the battle rounds and was paired against Meike Rosendahl, singing "Royals" by Lorde and was saved by her coach. She made it to the knockout rounds, where she sang "Berlin" by RY X and was saved by her coach once again. During the live rounds, Kriewitz sang "Lights Will Guide Me" by Fahrenhaidt and was saved by her coach for the third consecutive time. On 2 December, the music video for her winner's single, "Ghost", premiered on the Digster On Stage's official YouTube channel. For the semi-final, Kriewitz sang "Warriors" by Imagine Dragons and was saved by the public vote. During the grand final, she was required to perform three songs – a duet with her coaches ("Name drauf"), a duet with a singer ("Take Me Home") and the winner's single ("Ghost"). Kriewitz was later announced as the winner after garnering 38% of the public vote. She then embarked on The Voice of Germany: Live in Concert concert tour with 8 other finalists, which ran from 27 December 2015 in Hof, Bavaria to 13 January 2016 in Hamburg, Germany.

Performances on The Voice of Germany

     denotes a performance that entered the charts
     denotes winner

2016–present: Eurovision Song Contest and Berlin

After emerging as the winner of the fifth season of The Voice of Germany, Kriewitz's debut and winner's single, "Ghost", peaked at number 11 on the GfK Entertainment Charts, number 65 in the Ö3 Austria Top 40 and number 26 on the Swiss Hitparade. She subsequently signed a recording contract with Universal Music Group. On 12 January 2016, Kriewitz was announced as one of the ten finalists for Unser Lied für Stockholm, Germany's preliminary decision for their representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. She competed with her debut and winner's single, "Ghost", and performed ninth in the running order of the first round. She qualified for the second round after garnering 28.78% of the public vote. Kriewitz performed third in the running order for the second round and later emerged as the winner after garnering 44.5% of the public vote. She performed "Ghost" for the first time since emerging as the winner of Unser Lied für Stockholm on 7 April 2016 at the 25th Echo Awards. On 15 April 2016, the Eurovision Song Contest 2016's self-titled official soundtrack was digitally released and featured "Ghost" in the first disk.

Kriewitz's debut studio album, Berlin, was released on 29 April 2016 and debuted at number 18 on the GfK Entertainment Charts. The studio album's track list featured songs based on her experiences on the fifth season of The Voice of Germany. Despite being commercially successful, Berlin received mixed reviews from music critics. Johanna Bruckner, reporting for the Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine, gave the studio album a positive review and described Berlin as a "clever marketing strategy" and the track list as "encouraging songs". However, Alex Klug, reporting for the laut.de magazine, criticized the studio album by saying: "Admittedly, the purgatory-like ESC-media machine had a much worse work as Berlin." She will embark on her second headlining tour to promote Berlin on 19 October 2016 to 27 October 2016 with eight dates overall.

In the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, Kriewitz was one of the five automatic qualifiers due to the "Big Five" rule. She performed tenth in the running order of the final and later achieved the lowest score of 1 point from the national jury. Kriewitz then received 10 points from the televoting and ultimately placed twenty-sixth after totaling up to only 11 points. During an interview with the Unser Lied für Stockholm presenter Barbara Schöneberger, Kriewitz expressed her sadness on her placement by commenting: "Well, of course I'm a little sad that it actually happened and I finished last. But I personally don't think it's my fault and I was really satisfied with my performance." Despite performing poorly in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, "Ghost" debuted at number 10 on the Sweden Heatseekers.

She posed for the June 2016 issue of the Welt Vegan magazine, which held a raffle for five copies of her debut studio album Berlin. On 25 June 2016, Kriewitz was a jury member for 2016 KWF Audition In Berlin, Germany's preliminary decision for their representative at the K-Pop World Festival 2016.

Activism

Kriewitz is an animal rights activist. She collaborated with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for their "Vegan life is the best life" project, where her Japanese decora kei-inspired outfit and an autographed poster was auctioned. During an interview with PETA, Kriewitz explained her perspective on equality of all living things by saying: "The difference between the dog and pork is simply not for me - it is inhumane, animals that cannot defend themselves to abuse. I take my responsibility for all animals too seriously and would also say 'no' to leather, wool and animal experiments."

Concert tours

Headlining