Jasmine van den Bogaerde, Dutch-Belgian, was born in 1996 in Lymington, Hampshire as the daughter of the author Rupert and the concert pianist Sophie van den Bogaerde. She is the great-granddaughter of the comedian Dirk Bogarde. At the age of seven, she learned piano playing from her mother and started writing her own songs at the age of eight. She got her nickname Birdy from her parents, as she already opened her mouth as far as a hungry bird in the nest who wanted to be fed. At the age of 12, she participated in the Open Mic UK 2008, a talent contest that started locally with thousands of participants and ended with the final of the 22 qualifiers on 29 November 2008 in Portsmouth. There she won the category "under 18" as well as the overall Grand Prize prize titled Be Free, which she herself had written. As a prize for her victory she received six-day studio recordings. Two years later followed the first release under her nickname Birdy. In March 2011, Skinny Love, a cover version of a song by Bon Iver, came to the top 20 of the British singles. Also their second single Shelter, in the original by The xx, came on the charts in June. Their first album Birdy released in November 2011 reached the top position of the charts in the Netherlands, the Flemish part of Belgium and in Australia for a week each. In June 2012, Birdy, together with the British band Mumford & Sons, recorded the title Learn Me Right, which can be heard on the soundtrack of the Pixar film Merida - Legend of the Highlands. Previously, she sang the song Just a Game for the movie The Tribute of Panem. In Germany she made a commercial breakthrough in December 2012. She appeared in the final of the casting show The Voice of Germany and sang with the finalist Isabell Schmidt People Help the People (a cover version of the band Cherry Ghost). After that the single reached three of the media control charts and second place in Switzerland. On 16 February 2013, she performed at the Sanremo Festival, the most famous Italian music festival. On September 27, 2013 their album Fire Within was released, from Birdy, the songs Wings and No Angel released on iTunes for sale. The third studio album of the singer entitled Beautiful Lies was released on March 25, 2016 by Warner Music. The first single release is titled Keeping Your Head Up. The album was produced by Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Adele) and Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Florence and the Machine).