Christina Judith Perri (born August 19, 1986) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Philadelphia. Her song "Jar of Hearts" charted in the United States after it was featured on the Fox television show So You Think You Can Dance in 2010. Rolling Stone named her the "Band of the Week" on October 26, 2010. On May 10, 2011, Perri's "Jar of Hearts" was featured in the "Prom Night" episode of Fox musical series Glee; the following month, it was featured in the episode "Dance Amongst Daggers" of ABC Family drama Switched at Birth. Perri recorded the song "A Thousand Years" for the film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (2011) and it appears on the accompanying soundtrack.
Perri grew up in Bensalem, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Philadelphia) with her older brother, Nick Perri, who formerly played guitar with Shinedown, Silvertide, Perry Farrell and Matt Sorum. Her father is from Italy and mother from Poland. She attended Archbishop Ryan High School as a member of the class of 2004. She taught herself how to play guitar as a 16-year-old by watching a videotape of Shannon Hoon from the group Blind Melon performing on VH1.
Perri moved to Los Angeles on her 21st birthday. Later that year she married and began to produce music videos. She divorced 18 months later and moved back to Philadelphia by the end of 2009; during this time she wrote "Jar of Hearts". She moved back to Los Angeles, waitressing at the Melrose Cafe during the day and recording at night.
Perri's song "Jar of Hearts" was featured on So You Think You Can Dance during the June 30, 2010 show. It was featured in performance by Billy Bell and Kathryn McCormick. Perri's friend Keltie Colleen passed the song to show choreographer Stacey Tookey; Perri and Colleen watched the performance in the audience. Following its exposure on the show, "Jar of Hearts" sold 48,000 digital copies, debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 at #63 and reaching #28 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs. Within a month, it sold more than 100,000 copies. Then, her music video for "Jar of Hearts" landed on the VH1 top 20 music video countdown.
Shortly after, Perri made her debut on national day time and prime time television, performing the song live on the July 10, 2010 episode of The Early Show on CBS as well as the July 15, 2010 episode of So You Think You Can Dance Perri signed a deal with Atlantic Records on July 21, 2010.
Perri's debut album is titled lovestrong. and was released on May 10, 2011. It follows the release of "Arms", its lead single, released on March 15.
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