Artist Biographies

After duetting with Jason Mraz, touring with John Mayer, and collaborating with Taylor Swift, Californian vocalist Colbie Caillat is releasing her second album Breakthrough. With her subtle style and mesmerizing vocals, she was able to capture a global following via the social networking site MySpace long before her debut album COCO hit in 2007.

Colbie Caillat posted several of her finished songs on MySpace. Little response was generated until Caillat uploaded a track named "Bubbly," which instantly grabbed massive attention. As word of mouth spread, her page pulled in a few thousand hits a day. After accumulating more than 6,000 friends, Rolling Stone highlighted her as one of the top female artists on MySpace. Collecting over 14 million plays, she became the number one unsigned artist. With such an appealing statistic on her resume, record labels began courting the singer. She signed to Universal Republic as her number of online friends exceeded the 100,000 mark leading, to overnight success.

Colbie Caillat spent her childhood in Malibu and Ventura County with her father, Ken Caillat, who produced most of her second album. She grew up learning from great role models such as Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and her own father, who co-produced Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" and "Tusk." At the age of 11 she began singing with serious intent after hearing Lauryn Hill's version of "Killing Me Softly." "I needed to play an instrument to write songs and although I had piano lessons as a kid, it never went anywhere because I was never in the right state of mind to practice," she recalls. It wasn't until she was 19 years old that she decided to follow her dad's advice that it was important to not just have a great voice but know how to play an instrument and write songs to accompany a great voice. She eventually picked up the acoustic guitar and started to write songs.

Along the way, she found a key collaborator in Mikal Blue, who hired her when she was 15 to sing some songs he'd written for a fashion show. As the collaboration grew, singer/songwriter Jason Reeves entered the picture. Together, they helped to craft the songs on her first major-label debut album Coco released in July 2007, which Blue also produced. "Bubbly," her debut single, topped the singles charts in several formats, immediately transforming the singer from an internet sensation to a mainstream success. "Coco" spun off two additional singles while climbing the charts to platinum status.

Only on A&E's PRIVATE SESSIONS - Don't miss a one-hour episode with pop singer-song writer Colbie Caillat. She sits down for an in-depth interview to reveal her secrets to a fast- growing musical career and what it was like to work with her dad as one of the producers of her debut album. She will also perform "Bubbly," "Realize" and from her new album Breakthrough, "Fallin' For You," "Fearless," and "Begin Again." And don't miss special surprise appearances by Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Kara DioGuardi!