When Lindsey Stirling first uploaded a video of herself dancing around her living room and playing a violin cover of the Black Eyed Peas’s Pump It in 2007, she didn’t even know what YouTube was.
“This was way back in the day,” she told tabloid! on Thursday afternoon. She was about to soundcheck for her set that night at the Emirates Airlines Dubai Jazz Festival in Dubai Media City, where she was opening for the legendary Sting.
“I wanted to send a video to somebody, and they were like, ‘Oh! Upload it on YouTube.’ So, I did. It got posted on the Yahoo homepage back when Yahoo was big. I didn’t know what to do with that. It got hundreds and thousands of hits. And then I didn’t put up another video for several years, because I didn’t know what YouTube was,” she said.
Now, at 28 years old, the Californian has made a name for herself by melding high-energy choreography — both live and online — with violin-based classical, pop, electronic and hip-hop music. She has more than 6 million subscribers on her channel, Lindseystomp, a third studio album coming out next year, and a tour that’s taking her around the world.
She was named one of Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” this year, something she hadn’t anticipated.
“I found out when [the article] came out! I got a bunch of texts from a bunch of people and I woke up and was like, ‘What’s everyone talking about?’ I went and found the article and was like, ‘That’s a great way to wake up in the morning! It’s going to be a good day. It’s going to be a good year,’” she said.
Her plans for 2015 thus far include striking off shows at “bucket list venues”, writing new material, and coming out with her first book in the fall. (“It’s kind of this flux between fun, deep and informative,” Stirling said of the autobiography. She said it will touch upon her successes as well as things she’s had to overcome, presumably alluding to her battle with anorexia.)
“It’s just been an amazing transitional rise for me, and I don’t know where it’s going to go, but it’s been really exciting,” she said.
