Olivia Somerlyn Hollins Christensen known professionally as LIVVIA, is an American pop singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Parachute", "Catch a Body" featuring Quavo, "Damn" and "Dizzy".
Early life and education
Somerlyn was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She started writing songs when she was 13. While attending high school in San Francisco, she spent weekends in Los Angeles in an effort to work with writers and producers in the music industry. She resides in Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2018, with a degree in economics.
Career
As Olivia Somerlyn (2010–17)
Somerlyn writes or co-writes all her own music and lyrics, and plays piano, keyboards and guitar. Her songs range from straightforward pop to danceable pop to piano ballads. Her self-titled debut EP was released in 2010. The music video for the single "I'm Just Fine" was featured on the homepages of MySpace and MySpace Music, AOL Music and JSYK. In 2013, she released her third single, "Better With You". That year, the music video for "Before It Began" was voted the No. 1 video on Musiqtone's music video countdown, receiving over 2 million votes. In 2014, she released the single "Parachute", which she co-wrote with Nick Jonas, who also produced the song. After debuting at number 45 in August 2014, the song reached number 1 on the BillboardDance Club Songs chart in October 2014, with remixes from Jose Nunez, Steve Smart and Reid Stefan. The music video for the song premiered on Billboard's website on October 20, 2014. Somerlyn wanted to do some of her own stunts. Olivia may have designed her own costume for the video, which was shot in the desert outside Los Angeles. Also in 2014, Somerlyn was selected as one of 25 participants in Macy's third annual iHeartRadio Rising Star Program, where singers compete for the opportunity to perform at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas in September 2015. She was voted into the top five, finishing as a finalist. Also in 2015, Somerlyn released "OXO", which was her second number one on the US dance chart. Somerlyn is managed by Kevin Jonas, Sr., and she is signed with Creative Artists Agency. In August 2016, Paul Gore, who directed the music video for the Katy Perry song "Rise", was accused of stealing the concept from the video for Somerlyn's song "Parachute", an allegation he denied.
Name change to LIVVIA (2018–present)
In 2018, Somerlyn adopted LIVVIA as her new stage name. Her first single under the new name was "Catch a Body" featuring Quavo from the rap group Migos, produced by Rock Mafia. It reached number 37 on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40, number 10 on Spotify's US Viral 50, and number 15 on the Global Viral 50. On June 8, 2018, her single "Gratitude" was released. On October 5, 2018, she released her third single as LIVVIA, "Damn". It went to number 31 on the Mainstream Top 40. Her single "Dizzy" was released on May 10, 2019.