Starting in the late 2000’s and ending in the early 2010’s, Colbie Caillat was one of the more popular singer-songwriters out there. Her albums were very popular among a wide variety of audiences, and she saw massive hits in songs like “Bubbly”, “Lucky”, and “Realize”. (If you listened to popular music during that time period, I don’t think you could have possibly gone without hearing at least one of those songs on a regular basis.) However, Colbie is significantly less popular now than she was back then. What has she been up to? Is Colbie Caillat still making music? In this article, I plan on answering this question among others. I’ll be giving a rundown on how she was able to become so successful in the industry while also making sure to write about what she has been doing more recently. Without further ado, let’s see what we can see.
Colbie Caillat’s Early Life and Career
Colbie Caillat was born in May of 1985 in Malibu, California. Her father was involved in the music business, with her dad Ken Caillat being a record producer. During his career, Ken worked to engineer tracks on Fleetwood Mac albums like Tusk, Mirage, The Chain Box Set, and others. It’s funny, because although a lot of future musicians become interested in music at a very early age, Colbie wasn’t too taken by music at first. When she was very young she began taking piano lessons, but she didn’t fall in love with music until she was around eleven years old. Colbie saw the film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and was blown away by Lauryn Hill’s performance in the movie. From that point forward, she decided that she wanted to become a singer. Early on in her career, she worked alongside Mikal Blue, a music producer. She provided the vocals to techno tracks that were meant for use during fashion shows.
A lot of aspiring musicians are able to get their start by appearing on competitive reality programs. Caillat auditioned for the hit show American Idol, but she wasn’t even able to get through the pre-audition stages of the show. This meant that she wasn’t able to even sing for the judges. Caillat auditioned for American Idol a second time, and this time she sang an original song: “Bubbly”. Although these failures would crush some people, Colbie has said today that she wasn’t too deterred by them. If anything, she has said, she was given additional time to develop her career. Instead of working through American Idol, she opted to develop a fan base through her Myspace page, where she was able to attract quite the impressive following. This following would allow her to see a great deal of success in the years to come.
In 2007, Colbie released her debut album Coco through Universal Republic. (The album title came from a nickname that her parents gave her when she was an infant.) The album’s lead single, “Bubbly”, the very same song that kept her from getting on American Idol, was a massive hit internationally. To date, it is Colbie’s most successful single. It became popular in the United States, but also in countries like Australia, Japan, Ireland, Switzerland, and Canada. Needless to say, she had really struck gold with this one. Coco also produced successful singles in the songs “Realize”, “The Little Things”, and “Somethin’ Special”. Caillat supported and promoted the album through the Coco World Tour, and by this point, she had been able to break through and become a highly successful, highly serious musical artist.
Colbie Caillat After Coco
Following the release of Coco, Colbie wasn’t content with being a one-hit wonder. In 2009, she released a duet with Jason Mraz called “Lucky”, which would go on to become seriously successful songs for both of them. “Lucky” would eventually win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for the song. Shortly after the release of that track, Caillat released her second studio album Breakthrough. This album only produced two singles, in “Fallin’ for You” and “I Never Told You”. The former was the biggest hit to come from Breakthrough, becoming a platinum certified in the United States. As Colbie’s cultural impact grew, she was brought on to do all different kinds of public performances. In mid-2010, she performed the national anthem during the National Football League’s season opener. She also performed “God Bless America” during the seventh inning stretch at the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Outside of these engagements, Colbie was also working on her third album. This album, All of You, was released in July of 2011. The lead single, “I Do”, was released in February to positive reviews. The second single to come from the album was “Brighter Than the Sun”, which was also relatively successful. All of You and both of these singles charted pretty well, but Colbie’s relevance was definitely beginning to slip as she came further and further away from some of her earliest hits. In 2012, she released a Christmas album entitled Christmas in the Sand. This album featured vocals from a few other popular artists, including Brad Paisley, Gavin DeGraw, and Justin Young. It seemed like Colbie was on the right track, until around this time it was announced that Universal Republic Records was going to be shutting down. With that, Caillat ended up moving to Republic Records.
One of the biggest things that Colbie did during this time period was a collaboration with Gavin DeGraw, writing the song “We Both Know”. This song was used in the movie Safe Haven, and the song itself would go on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. In the months to come, she released the singles “Hold On” and “Try” to tease her new album, which would eventually be released in September of 2014. Gypsy Heart was a fairly successful album, selling a little over 15,000 copies during its first week. This album took on a slightly different sound compared to some of her previous work, but it still did well for itself on a commercial and critical level. However, the success and popularity of this album was honestly dwarfed by the success and popularity of some of her earliest work. What has Colbie Caillat been doing since then?
What’s Colbie Caillat Doing Now in 2018 – Recent Updates
Fans of Colbie Caillat can rest assured in knowing that this singer-songwriter isn’t looking to walk away from the music business just yet. In 2016, she announced an acoustic tour and a new album, The Malibu Sessions. The acoustic tour was obviously intended to support and promote that new album. The lead single off of that album, “Goldmine” was released in July of 2016. The Malibu Sessions itself was released in October of 2016 as an independent release, under her label PlummyLou Records. The album features 11 tracks, and it debuted in the Billboard 200 at 35. Again, this album obviously was not as successful as some of her earliest work, but it still did very well for itself. I think that it’s safe to say that Colbie Caillat isn’t going to be retiring from music any time soon, as long as she is able to produce modestly successful albums like this one.