Early years and education Jacob Collier (
né Moriarty) was born on 2 August 1994. He grew up in
North London with two younger sisters. His maternal grandfather,
Derek Collier, was a violinist who also taught at the Royal Academy and performed with orchestras around the world. Collier has said: "We sing
Bach chorales together as family—it's just so much fun." He is of Chinese descent through his maternal grandmother, Leila Wong. At age 10, Collier portrayed
Tiny Tim in the
Arthur Allan Seidelman film
A Christmas Carol (2004). At the same time he was performing as a treble singer in classical roles, such as one of the three boys in Mozart's
The Magic Flute and Miles in
Benjamin Britten's
The Turn of the Screw, which influenced his use and understanding of harmony. and the
Purcell School for Young Musicians in
Bushey, Hertfordshire. He briefly studied
jazz piano at the Royal Academy.
2011–2015: Early videos Collier began uploading homemade, multi-instrumental content to YouTube in 2011 with a vocal arrangement of "
Pure Imagination" from the 1971 film
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and in 2013 a multi-instrumental rendition of
Stevie Wonder's "
Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing". The videos presented split-screen multitrack recordings of Collier singing each part of the arrangements' harmonies. These videos gained attention with the "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" cover receiving millions of views. His musical activity caught the attention of
Quincy Jones, In 2015, Collier launched a live show and toured Europe and the US. The performances featured a circle of musical instruments, with six simultaneous
looping stations capable of simultaneous playback, backed by synced real-time 3D-captured video loops, projected onto a screen behind the instruments. Central to the show was a custom-built vocal "Harmonizer" instrument that enabled Collier to sing multi-voice harmonies in real-time. and Collier later opened for
Herbie Hancock and
Chick Corea at the 2015
Montreux Jazz Festival. Collier recorded an
a cappella version of the hymn "
Jerusalem" for the commercial, which was shown on national television before each England match. In late 2015, Collier began preparing his debut album
In My Room after performing with WDR Big Band in a concert in Cologne, Germany. He wrote eight of the eleven songs and arranged, recorded and produced the album in the music room of his family home, playing every instrument himself. He recorded and mixed the album over three months. The album was mastered by
Bernie Grundman and released on 1 July 2016 through independent record label Membran Entertainment Group. Collier embarked on a one-man world tour which included the 2016 Montreux Jazz Festival. In anticipation of the album's release, Collier launched the "#IHarmU" campaign through
Patreon. 100 patrons sent him 15-second video clips of melodies, which he harmonised with vocal parts on his multi-screen layout and uploaded to social media. Collier received more than 130 melodies and donations, including from British jazz artist
Jamie Cullum,
Ben Folds,
Herbie Hancock, and
Kevin Olusola of the
a cappella group
Pentatonix. He arranged "White Christmas" for them; it appeared on
A Pentatonix Christmas and won a
Contemporary A Cappella Society award for Best Professional Arrangement by a Non-Scholastic Group. In February 2016, Collier was featured on
Snarky Puppy's album
Family Dinner – Volume 2, playing "Don't You Know." On 22 August, he took part in a Quincy Jones tribute concert at the
BBC Proms in the
Royal Albert Hall in London, in which he performed, among others, his orchestral arrangement of his original song "In The Real Early Morning" with the
Metropole Orkest, conducted by
Jules Buckley. In December 2016, Collier collaborated with 150 students at MIT to produce a live concert in
Kresge Auditorium, titled "Imagination Off the Charts", playing alongside orchestral arrangements of his repertoire. This residency was the subject of a documentary film,
Imagination Off The Charts, which won a regional
Emmy in June 2018. In February 2017, Collier won two
Grammy Awards for
Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for the Stevie Wonder song "
You and I", and
Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for a cover of "
Flintstones". In March he made his US television debut on
The Tavis Smiley Show, performing "You and I" with jazz-gospel
a cappella group
Take 6. Collier re-composed
Samsung's signature
ringtone, "Over The Horizon", for the
Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, and was co-producer on two songs from
Becca Stevens' album
Regina. He helped to score the
DreamWorks' film
The Boss Baby with composer
Hans Zimmer. He performed with Zimmer and
Pharrell Williams at
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Collier toured internationally for two and a half years between 1 July 2015 and 18 December 2017, while hosting masterclasses and performances with orchestras and big bands around the world, including the
Metropole Orkest. On 9 July, he and
Cory Henry performed with the Metropole Orkest and Jules Buckley at the
North Sea Jazz Festival. In July 2018, he was one of the guests at Quincy Jones's 85th birthday party celebrations at the Montreux Jazz Club. On 19 July, "Jacob Collier and Friends" performed as part of the
BBC Proms at the
Royal Albert Hall in London.
2018–2024: Djesse series in 2025 On 29 October 2018, Collier announced a new four-volume, 50-song musical project, entitled
Djesse.
Djesse Vol. 1 was released in full on 7 December, and featured the singles "With The Love in My Heart", "Ocean Wide, Canyon Deep" and "All Night Long". The volume features collaborations with various artists and includes The Metropole Orkest on every track. Collier produced, arranged, and orchestrated the music, in addition to singing and playing various instruments. In January 2019, Collier embarked on a world tour in support of the
Djesse series.
Djesse Vol. 2 was released on 19 July 2019, featuring musical collaborations with various artists as well as an a cappella arrangement of "
Moon River" with over a hundred vocal contributions from family members, mentors, friends, and other collaborators. At the
62nd Annual Grammy Awards,
Djesse Vol. 1 and
Vol. 2 each won a Grammy award for "All Night Long" and "Moon River", respectively.
Djesse Vol. 3, released on 14 August 2020, features collaborations with various artists and received several Grammy nominations in 2021. It was nominated for the
Album of the Year, and the single "All I Need" was nominated for
Best R&B Performance. "He Won't Hold You" won
Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals, making Collier the first British artist to win a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums. He also contributed background vocals to Coldplay and
BTS's "
My Universe", which topped the
Billboard Hot 100 in October 2021. This track is part of Coldplay's ninth album
Music of the Spheres, which also features Collier on the track "Human Heart." In 2022, he collaborated with British rapper
Stormzy on the album
This Is What I Mean. Collier received two nominations at the
65th Grammy Awards: Best Arrangement, Instruments And Vocals for his single "Never Gonna Be Alone" and Album Of The Year for his contributions to
Music of The Spheres. Additionally, he appeared in
Olivia Rodrigo's documentary film
Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U as one of the special guests. On 2 May 2022, Collier was the subject of
Alan Yentob's
BBC One television documentary series
Imagine..., in the episode
Jacob Collier: In the Room Where It Happens. On 29 September 2022, Collier released his first
live album,
Piano Ballads (Live From The Djesse World Tour 2022), which includes 11 covers largely improvised by Collier on stage, many of which involve a spontaneous audience choir. On 8 December 2023, Collier performed "
Last Christmas" at the Royal Christmas Concert at
Westminster Abbey. At the
2024 Grammy Awards, Collier won the Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals award for "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning". He also performed at the Grammy Awards ceremony, playing "
Both Sides Now" with
Joni Mitchell,
Brandi Carlile,
Allison Russell, SistaStrings,
Blake Mills, and
Lucius.
Djesse Vol. 4 was released on 29 February 2024. The singles include "Little Blue", featuring
Brandi Carlile; "Wherever I Go", "Witness Me", "Mi Corazón", and a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "
Bridge Over Troubled Water". That same year, he collaborated with
Aurora on a mashup of his song "A Rock Somewhere" and her "
The Seed", performed in the
Arctic to raise awareness for ocean and climate protection. On 9 October 2024, Collier released Djesse Vol. 4 (Deluxe), which contains all tracks from the original release along with four additional tracks "to conclude the journey of Djesse".
2025: The Light For Days On 10 September 2025, Jacob Collier announced a new album
The Light for Days, which released on 10 October 2025. Collier stated that "since completing the Djesse album series, one of the things I've most wanted to focus on, and explore deeply, is the limitation of a single instrument." To this end,
The Light for Days is the result of a self-imposed challenge to write a full-length album in just four days, using only his voice and his unique 5-string guitar, an instrument that he conceptualized and helped to create. Because of the extremely short timeline, Collier mentioned, "I had to work so fast that I couldn't second-guess anything – I just had to roll with and trust the process." == Musical style and influences ==