'Birdy', an English-born singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

The incredibly talented 21-year-old that burst onto the music scene as a young teen back in 2008.

You probably don’t even know her face, but she is everywhere, from a Lloyds Bank commercial to the soundtracks of The Hunger Games, The Fault in our Stars, Disney’s Brave – a track she wrote with Mumford & Sons – and the RED Valentino campaign.

Birdy, actually named as Jasmine van den Bogaerde, is an English musician, singer, and songwriter. She gained widespread popularity after winning the music competition Open Mic in 2008 in her home country, the United Kingdom, just at the age of 12. She won both the under-18s category and the Grand Prize, against 10,000 other competitors. She performed her own song, called "So Be Free", at the competition in front of 2,000 people. Two years later, her haunting cover of Bon Iver’s "Skinny Love" went viral on YouTube.

Birdy's stage name comes from the nickname her parents gave her as a baby because she opened her mouth like a little bird when being fed. Her family and friends call her Birdy, while only teachers called her Jasmine, her given name. She was born on 15 May 1996, in Lymington, Hampshire, UK. She grew up in a very musical family. Her mother is a concert pianist, which caused her to develop interest in the piano at a young age. So, she was around music all the time. Having that encouragement from the family really gave her confidence in her songs.

At the age of 14, she released her first single, a cover that I just told you. The song became her first hit on the UK Singles Chart. Everybody just fell in love with this young girl, and it is hard not to. With a voice as soft as silk and as clear as crystal, this English singer is destined to be in the spotlight.

From the start, a decision was made by her parents, her manager, Sara Law, and by Birdy herself, that her career would be handled differently. No teen-queen videos, no celebrity parties, no pressure to be anything other than a schoolgirl who happened to have a prodigious music talent. On stage, she was always half-hidden by a grand piano.

Her growth as an artist was marked not by column inches but by a musical progression from performing covers to co-writing songs and then to writing all of her own material.

She subsequently released her debut album, a record full of covers from indie, folk and alternative bands which a lot of people hasn't heard of. At first, you might think it is such a bad career move but fortunately for this clever girl, her careful plan to captivate the audience with her skillful play of covers seemed to work and since then, the public has never let her go.

She may be famous for a cover version, but Birdy is also a talented songwriter in her own right.

She said in the interview that "I didn’t start writing music to be famous. I did it because I love music. I’m not loud, I don’t want to draw attention to myself. But that doesn’t mean I’m not strong in who I am."