'So You Think You Can Dance' Changes Unsigned Singer Christina Perri's Life
Posted Fri Jul 16, 2010 1:28pm PDT by Lyndsey Parker in
Reality Rocks"So You Think You Can Dance" is renowned for featuring some of the coolest music on reality TV--helping popularize artists like OneRepublic, Adele, Sam Sparro, Roisin Murphy, Goldfrapp, and even Lady Gaga (whose first televised U.S. performance was on "SYTYCD" Season 4). And the latest "SYTYCD" success story is songstress Christina Perri, whose breakup ballad "Jar Of Hearts" catapulted into the Billboard charts after it was stunningly featured on the show.
Two weeks ago, Christina, the sister of ex-Shinedown/Silvertide guitarist Nick Perri, was just another struggling L.A. artist waiting tables at the Melrose Place Café. But then, right in the middle of one of her worst days at work, a mutual friend (Keltie Colleen, a Radio City Rockette) got the Philly-bred troubadour's demo into the hands of "SYTYCD" choreographer Stacey Tookey--who loved "Jars Of Hearts" so much, she asked Christina to rush-record a professional version to be used for the above Billy Bell/Kathryn McCormick "SYTYCD" routine on June 30.
The song then exploded overnight, hitting number 13 on iTunes, number 23 on the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart, number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 54 on Canada's single chart, number 10 on Amazon's digital singles chart, and number 2 on Billboard's Heatseekers countdown. And it quickly sold more than 100,000 copies. All this without a record deal!
This all culminated on this week's "SYTYCD" results show, when Christina was invited to perform the song live while allstars Neil Haskell and Allison Holkerdanced around her piano. "It doesn't really feel real yet. It's been a whirlwind," an amazed Christina later told OnTheRedCarpet.com. "For like 17 days, I keep pinching myself. I don't want to sleep because I'm afraid I'm going to wake up or something. But it is real, and 'So You Think You Can Dance' has just changed my whole life."
As of this writing, Christina has not yet signed a record deal, but she has quit her day job. ("Yeah, that was a great day," she smilingly told Entertainment Weekly.) And now that she's performed on one of summer's top-rated network TV programs (as well as on CBS's "The Early Show"), it's probably only a matter of time before some A&R honcho asks her to sign on the dotted line. In the meantime, Christina's plan is just to finish her independent debut EP for a late summer release: "I'm going to put more music out, because now all of a sudden I've got these listeners!"
Until Christina's EP arrives, scroll down and enjoy another lovely interpretive dance to "Jar Of Hearts" by Keltie Colleen, the aforementioned Rockette that made all of this possible. It seems like regardless of who makes it to the "So You Think You Can Dance" finale next month, the real winner this season is Christina Perri.