Bonnie McKee

Bonnie Leigh McKee is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was born on January 20, 1984. Her debut album Trouble was released in 2004. Two songs from her second studio album were released in 2013. Her second album is scheduled to drop sometime in 2014.



Childhood and youth:
McKee was born in Vacaville, California and was raised in Seattle, Washington. She studied classical piano and became a member of the Seattle Girls Choir Prime Voci at age 12, and toured with the choir throughout North American and Europe. She recorded two albums with the choir, Jackson Berkey Meets the Seattle Girls' Choir, and Cantate 2000. She briefly attended The Bush School, where she recorded a demo as part of a class project, before being kicked out soon after. At age 12, McKee's mother gave a demo cd featuring her singing Bette Midler, Fiona Apple, and Carole King songs to a friend of hers, the co-founder of the Sub Pop label, Jonathan Poneman, who was intrigued by her talent. “Jonathan said, ‘That’s great that you can sing, but anyone can sing. Can you write?’” McKee says of Poneman. That moment McKee realized she had to be "more than just a singer", but a songwriter as well.

2004-05 Trouble:

By age 15, McKee was writing songs and performing in the Seattle area. McKee’s raw demo tape got to Colin Filkow, an ex-Priority Records label executive. Filkow recognized that she was a rare talent and signed her to his management company, Platinum Partners Artist Management in Beverly Hills. He flew her to LA, and welcomed her into his family, she was only 17 at the time. He inspired her to sing and write songs and to trust her instincts. Filkow took Bonnie's demo to dozens of labels, publishers, agents and entertainment lawyers. After more than a year Filkow signed Bonnie to Warner Bros Records in one of the most lucrative signings ever for a new artist. Her debut album Trouble was produced by Rob Cavallo and commercially released on September 28, 2004. McKee performed her single Somebody on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and the song was featured in the motion picture Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, MTV's Buzzworthy, and VH1's You Oughta Know. Trouble received positive reviews in Blender, Nylon, The Los Angeles Times, and Teen People, but was commercially unsuccessful. McKee began work on a second studio album, which never came to fruition. McKee then began to downward-spiral and began to abuse crystal meth, an addiction she struggled with for several years. She was dropped from the label after defacing the CEO's car with lipstick during the middle of the night.

2006-11 Songwriting and acting roles:

Following her release from Reprise Records, McKee spent many hours in the recording studio, learning how to use Pro Tools and crafting new songs. She also focused on acting, landing a role in the motion picture August Rush and appearing on the television series CSI: NY and American Dreams. In 2011, she appeared as a guest judge on Bravo's Platinum Hit with Kara Dioguardi and Jewel. In 2009, McKee was introduced to music producer Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, by her manager Josh Abraham. Gottwald had collaborated with McKee's longtime friend Katy Perry on her debut album One of the Boys. Together, they (along with Max Martin and Benny Blanco) began writing songs, ultimately producing the hits that would appear on Perry's second album, Teenage Dream which went on to become multi-platinum worldwide. McKee co-wrote three singles from the album, "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream" and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)" each of which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold millions of copies around the world also earning McKee several BMI Pop Awards in 2011 and 2012 for her role as a songwriter. McKee also co-wrote three other #1 hits during this period, Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me," Taio Cruz's "Dynamite," Rita Ora's "How We Do (Party)," as well as Perry's singles from Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, "Wide Awake" and "Part of Me."

2012-present Songwriting, "American Girl", and second studio album:

In 2012, McKee co-wrote two songs that appeared on Adam Lambert's album Trespassing, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. She also appeared as a featured performer on "Thunder" from Rusko's album Songs. She also co-wrote songs that were later recorded by Christina Aguilera, Ke$ha, Carly Rae Jepsen, Cody Simpson and Rita Ora, as well as others. McKee recently signed a recording contract as a solo artist with Epic Records and is currently at work on her second studio album. She has garnered recent attention for her fashion sense, appearing on E! Entertainment Television's Fashion Police and appearing on the pages of the New York Times, New York Post, and Schön! Magazine. In 2013, McKee was awarded with three more BMI Pop awards for her songwriting work on Katy Perry's "Wide Awake" and "Part of Me" as well as Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me." McKee's second album is scheduled for release in Spring 2014. The lead single is American Girl. The song was released on July 23, 2013. She posted a promotional video for American Girl on YouTube in June 2013 which featured several cameo appearances by Katy Perry, Nicole Scherzinger, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kesha, Jenny McCarthy, Kelly Osbourne, Adam Lambert, Jason Derulo, Becky G, Joan Rivers, Macklemore, Karmin, Taio Cruz, Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe, Kiss, Jane Lynch, George Takei, Kathy Griffin, Lance Bass, Jewel and other artists. The official music video for the song was released on July 22, 2013. In October, McKee released a new song titled Sleepwalker McKee confirmed that the song was not her forthcoming album's official second single, but rather an "inbetweengle," a portmanteau meaning "in between single," meant to tide fans over until her next official release. The music video premiered on October 17, 2013 and starred McKee and Kelsey Chow.McKee announced on a live Ustream that should would be releasing a visual EP this spring, which will lead up to the release of her album.