Before that I'd only been doing it for my family. It wasn't until that I thought I was good enough to do it. In response to whether or not Birdy thought she could make a career out of music after winning Open Mic UK, Birdy explains: 'It was just something I loved doing - I never really thought I could do it. It was my first big thing, and looking out into the crowd. Birdy goes on to reminisce that 'when I performed I had this connection with the audience that I'd never felt before, and I loved it. Regarding her desire to enter the competition, Birdy said it was '.the excitement, really' that drove her to enter. She explained that it showed her what she wanted to do when she was still very young.īirdy described her memories and thoughts on her experience with Open Mic UK in an interview with The Telegraph in September 2012. She performed her own song at the competition called 'So Be Free' in front of 2,000 people.īirdy reminisced in an interview with BBC Radio 1 about the experience of the Open Mic UK Grand Final as 'such a cool experience'. She won both the under-18s category and the Grand Prize, against 10,000 other competitors. In 2008, as a 12-year-old, Birdy won the UK talent contest Open Mic UK, a spin-off of the Live and Unsigned competition. Other members of the public call her O'Doyle. Her whole family calls her Birdy while friends, especially at school, call her Jasmine, her given name. Her stage name comes from her nickname her parents gave her as a baby because she opened her mouth like a little bird when fed. She has English, Belgian (Flemish), and Dutch ancestry. Her great uncle was the actor Sir Dirk Bogarde. Birdy currently studies at Brockenhurst College in Brockenhurst, a sixth form college in the New Forest she sings and plays the piano. Her mother is a concert pianist, and Birdy learned to play piano at the age of seven, and began writing her own music at the age of eight.

Birdy was born on, in Lymington, Hampshire.

Who is birdy singer