Kina Grannis

This article went eight whole words without mentioning jellybeans.

Kina Grannis recently elevated her media attention with the release of a music video that took nearly two years to make – a stop-action film epic, made with 288,000 jellybeans, that quickly went viral and landed her an interview on “Ellen” within days. So, not only has Grannis had to endure nearly 1,300 hours of filming the video, she followed it up with lots of talking about it.

Photo: Darren J. Sabino / Esvy Photography

So we were happy to tell her we wanted to talk about touring instead.

“That is all right by me!” Grannis told Pollstar.

The 26-year-old first made a splash during the 2008 Super Bowl, when she was voted a “Doritos Crash The Super Bowl” finalist and a video for her “Message From Your Heart” was played on a commercial. She also was signed to Interscope and got her song on iTunes. Unfortunately, the Interscope deal didn’t work out but nobody seems to mind.

For one thing, through touring and fan interaction – and not jellybeans – she’s gained nearly 500,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel. And Grannis agreed with others in her camp that she maintains a genuine relationship with those followers.

“For me, touring has been really special because, for my entire career, it’s all been oriented around people who’ve been supporting me online,” she said. “They’ve gotten me through every single step of the way, so when I’m finally touring, it’s like this connection we’ve had for years and I finally get to thank them face-to-face.” 

Photo: Nick Gordon

So far, only the U.K. is on the books for 2012, but it’s clear next year will be about the road. It’s just a matter of when the dates are announced.

“We’re doing Europe in February, then Asia and Australia after that,” Grannis said. “Then we’re definitely coming back to the States at some point. So, we’re planning on a lot but not sure what that is at the moment.”

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