June 02, 2026
Megan Lee/Christina Grimmie Foundation
Christina Grimmie grew up in Marlton, New Jersey and rose to fame on 'The Voice' in 2014, catapulting her promising music career. She was fatally shot after a concert in Orlando, Florida on June 10, 2016. Grimmie's family now runs a foundation that provides grants to people impacted by gun violence.
Christina Grimmie was 15 years old at her home in Marlton when she uploaded the YouTube video that sent her on an improbable path to music stardom and inconceivable tragedy.
Miley Cyrus had just dropped her 2009 summer smash, "Party in the U.S.A.," and Grimmie recorded a grainy video covering the song in her bedroom, flanked by a "Sonic the Hedgehog" poster. She wore her hair in what the internet would dub the "Grimmie poof" emo cut. It was only her third YouTube video, and the caption sought tips from viewers on how to keep her voice from cracking.
The talent was still raw — Grimmie was completely self-taught — but her poise, focus and drive to be great were undeniable.
"She was a natural. She picked things up pretty easily," said Christina's older brother, Marcus Grimmie. "She'd never stop working, so that's why she was so good at things. She still worked on it, despite being naturally good at something."
Grimmie's breakout Miley Cyrus cover still lives on YouTube with more than 13 million views. She became a TV sensation on NBC's "The Voice," coached by Maroon 5's Adam Levine. She toured with Selena Gomez, won an iHeartRadio Rising Star competition and appeared in the musical film "The Matchbreaker." She put out two albums of original songs and a handful of EPs that still garner more than 386,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
But Grimmie's full potential, the belief she had from fans who clamored for her to be seen and heard, remains a mournful what-if 10 years after an obsessed gunman shot and killed her during a meet-and-greet after a concert at Orlando's Plaza Live venue in 2016. Grimmie was 22.
New Jersey lawmakers passed a bipartisan resolution last month recognizing June 10, the anniversary of the Orlando shooting, as Christina Grimmie Day. State Sens. Troy Singleton (D) and Latham Tiver (R) said the measure seeks to honor Grimmie's life and highlight the importance of supporting families who have lost loved ones to gun violence.
Grimmie's family has spent the last nine years running a foundation that gives grants to families impacted by tragedies similar to their own. They've donated nearly $600,000 to more than 300 families, including people affected by mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York.
Grimmie went to Marlton Middle School and got her high school diploma from Cherokee High School, finishing her degree as a home school student to pursue her burgeoning music career. The family now lives in California, but they often return to New Jersey to visit extended family.
Christina Grimmie (left) is pictured above at the beach with her dad Bud, mom Tina and older brother Marcus.
Christina's music is still treasured by her fans, new and old, and the shocking circumstances of her death have played a role in keeping her story in the public eye. But Grimmie's family wants people to know that her legacy reaches into homes and communities devastated by violence and loss.
"There's a big gap between the people that know about our foundation and those who knew about Christina's music," said Bud Grimmie, Christina's father. "When it comes to 10 years, I think this is a good time to reach outside of this 'Christina bubble' that we always talk about."
By working with victim services departments at DA's offices around the country, the Christina Grimmie Foundation matches grants with families who need help with housing and other expenses. Loved ones are often susceptible to financial hardships and difficulties carrying on with life's responsibilities in the wake of their trauma.
Bud remembers meeting the detective — now a close friend — who investigated his daughter's shooting.
"He said, 'I just want to tell you, you're going to be OK,'" Grimmie said. "He told me, 'I've been listening to you, the things you've said about your faith. I deal with this all the time, and I see people's lives fall apart because statistics show depression, divorce, substance abuse, and even suicide skyrockets, but you're going to be OK."
Christina's death drew overwhelming publicity. Marcus witnessed the shooting and bravely tackled the gunman, who then took his own life. Levine paid for Grimmie's funeral, and the family launched the foundation on an episode of "The Voice." Then Christina's mother, Tina, died of breast cancer in 2018. Many who were in the singer's close circle gave interviews for an episode of the Investigation Discovery series "Death by Fame," which details Christina's career and the fallout of her murder.
Christina Grimmie performed at more than 100 concerts during her career, both as a featured artist on 'The Voice' and independently on tours supporting her releases. She also played a number of festivals and performed in the United Kingdom and Europe.
"I love that she's remembered for being the singer," Marcus said. "I think that's important, but now it's important to us that she's remembered for what she has enabled her family to do by helping other families affected by this."
Bud and Marcus said they were inspired to create the foundation in the aftermath of another tragedy in Orlando, when a gunman killed 49 people and injured dozens more at the Pulse nightclub only two days after Christina was killed.
"It turns out that almost half of the GoFundMes that were set up were fraudulent," Bud said. "People weren't getting any money, and it's like heartbreak on heartbreak."
In the coming week, to celebrate Christina's life, Bud and Marcus are holding a pair of events that will support the Grimmie foundation's mission. On Friday, June 5, they'll be in New Jersey for Grimmie Fest at the Double Tree Hotel in Mount Laurel from 6-11 p.m.
"We're going to have a buffet, we're going to have Christina's music playing, we're going to do trivia about Christina's life," Bud said. "We have a museum organized to set up her keyboard and her awards, the American Music Award, different things that people can see and talk about."
Marcus, who plays guitar in the electronic rock band the Living Tombstone, will then have a benefit concert at Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia the next night. Marcus often toured with Christina and struggled for years to find peace with his own music career. For a while, he couldn't face going on the road.
"I've had such a new love for it, like a joy that I thought I'd never have again," he said.
As much as the family remembers Christina for her celebrity, they also hold on to the person she was as a kid. She was introverted, yet a natural performer. A friend suggested Christina post her music on YouTube, which quickly opened up a new world for her to connect with people online. Bud said she had made home movies from a young age, and YouTube gave teenage Christina the audience she dreamed of as a kid.
Christina Grimmie amassed 3.86 million subscribers on her YouTube channel zeldaxlove64, named after her love of the Zelda video game franchise.
"She would set up a video camera, the big VHS one you had to hold on your shoulder," Bud said. "She would sit it on a little night table next to a small black-and-white TV, and she would just talk to the camera while she could see herself, and she would just pretend and make up stories. She was as goofy as you could be."
Marcus feels grateful for the way he and Christina were raised to be friends. They were both avid gamers. Christina also loved anime and would watch it to soothe her nerves before getting on stage. Her magnetism online — she was an influencer, before it was called that — came from a genuine spirit that still makes Marcus wonder about the pressure-cooker social media has become since his sister's death.
Christina Grimmie is shown above in front of an 8-track recorder. She was known for covering a wide array of artists on her YouTube channel and released two albums of original songs, plus several EPs.
"There's always this innate longing to feel important or to be seen, respected, loved, and it's so easy now just to get immediate feedback from things," Marcus said. "What she was so good at — which I think transcends the medium of social media — is her authenticity. I think she had that because of our background and family, but she was also really rooted in going, 'Hey, I like this. I'm just gonna post about it.' That was her whole thing, at the end of her videos, 'I hope you like it.'"
Along with the praise, Grimmie dealt with her share of bullying and cruelty on the internet. In her original material, some of the lyrics wrestled with her sense of identity and emerging fame.
"Surrounded by faces, laughter and voices, alone here with everyone else," Grimmie sings on "Crowded Room," her dad's favorite song of hers, which was released posthumously. "Here in this crowded room, I found everyone but myself."
Bud said he and Tina tried to strike a balance between encouraging Christina's career and keeping her safe. Authorities learned that the gunman, a 27-year-old man from Florida, had become infatuated with Grimmie and believed he was her true soulmate. Christina often took time to meet her fans after shows. She was in a relationship at the time of her death.
"Tina would say, I don't want our kids to be 35 years old, and think, 'I wish I had tried,'" Bud said. "So there was that drive in us. We don't want to thwart this — and look at it, look what's going on. But then the other part is the overprotective parents, which we were. It was just overwhelming, the success that she was having. We couldn't hold that back."
When Bud and Marcus meet other families who have faced the pain they have, they now feel gratitude and a sense of community that few can truly understand.
"The thing that I often hear is, 'I don't have to explain to you about how we feel — you know,'" Bud said. "They'll say to me, 'You're helping us and so many other people.' That inspires them to think, 'I can make it through this.'"
Marcus said families often make the choice to focus on remembering the happiness they had with the people they lost. That has worked well for him, but he also finds power in helping those who need an outlet.
"Sometimes you can pick up on what people really need to talk about," he said.
Bud has spent time journaling over the past decade to find joy in Christina's memory.
Christina Grimmie stands beside her dad, Bud, as a kid.
"One of the things that they teach is to write about your loved one, just for yourself, so that you don't start forgetting years later, and you get depressed and angry at yourself for forgetting," Bud said. "I had hundreds of these little vignettes of just memories, and I still find it therapeutic reading through some of those."
The Grimmies are proud that their foundation has thrived entirely from individual donations and that Christina's life is a force for charity and healing. In years past, Bud said he grappled with the immediacy of his daughter's death fading and thoughts about what it means to let go.
"I've come to terms with, I don't want it to disappear," he said. "I don't want to wake up one day and say, you know, it doesn't matter that that happened. No, it's part of who we are now. I'm leaning into it, and we're going to move forward."
