Jacob Collier, 26, enters music history by becoming the first UK artist to win a Grammy for each of his first four albums, eclipsing British acts such as The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Amy Winehouse. Still living with his parents in North London, Collier brings home the 2021 Grammy for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for ‘He Won’t Hold You (Feat. Rapsody)’, totaling five Grammys and seven Grammy nominations.
The winning song is featured in the album ‘Djesse Vol. 3’, released in August 2020, which was written, arranged, recorded and mixed in Jacob’s childhood bedroom. This body of work was nominated for Best Album, with the song ‘All I Need’ featuring Ty Dolla Sign and Mahalia also nominated for Best R&B Performance. Eventually, ‘He Won’t Hold You (Feat. Rapsody)’ gets the music virtuoso his fifth Grammy – his third for the Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals category.
Having grown up in a musical family, Collier started playing around the age of seven. He is now well known in the music industry for being a self-taught, DIY music prodigy, playing and looping all the instruments by himself as well as building songs layer after layer. In 2014, the artist was discovered and signed by Quincy Jones, after his rendition of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing’ went viral on YouTube.
In the same year, the musical mastermind started collaborating with Ben Bloomberg, a Ph.D. student in the Media Lab in the Opera of the Future group, to develop a software for live performances, allowing Collier to transform regular concerts into one-man shows. From there on, his talents brought him to collaborate with artists of the calibre of arranger and composer Hans Zimmer, international star Pharrell Williams and Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and was defined as a modern Mozart with Prince’s songwriting style.
More about British acts taking over the 63rd Grammy Awards can be found here.
