[lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Christina Perri[/lastfm] has been writing songs she was 15.  She originally took piano lessons, but her piano teacher “fired” her for changing the ends to songs that she didn’t like.  So, she took up the guitar.  She served as an assistant to her brother’s rock band, studied at a prestigious music school in her hometown of Philadelphia, and worked in Beverly Hills.

But her big break came when “So You Think You Can Dance” asked if they could use her song “Jar of Hearts” on the show; and if she would perform it live.  Her latest hit, “A Thousand Years,” is on the soundtrack to “Breaking Dawn: Part 1,” and it just went Gold.