Claire Elise Boucher (born March 17th, 1988), better known by her stage name Grimes, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and producer, often regarded as one of the most innovative voices in pop music today.
Boucher began to record and perform as Grimes while attending McGill University in Montreal, releasing two albums in 2010, Geidi Primes and Halfaxa. In 2011, Boucher left McGill early to focus on her music career and subsequently signed to 4AD Records in early 2012. Via 4AD, she released her breakout third album Visions (2012), which ended up topping many critics’ year-end lists. Boucher followed Visions with 2015’s equally-acclaimed Art Angels. Her fifth and most recent album, Miss Anthropocene, was released in 2020 and is notable for its darker, industrial sound.
Boucher’s early career was especially notable for its extremely DIY nature, challenging dominant notions of who could make music and how one made music. Visions, for example, was written and engineered entirely in Boucher’s apartment, using only Apple’s free software GarageBand. Boucher also made extensive use of her Tumblr account to connect with fans and document her interests, musical or otherwise. As such, Boucher is often cited as an early example of the ways in which advancements in consumer technology and the internet have radically redefined the music industry.
Outside of her music, Boucher is also known for her high-profile relationship with centibillionaire Elon Musk. The couple started dating in 2018 after discovering on Twitter that both had made the same obscure pun independently of one another. In 2020, Grimes gave birth to her first child with Musk. The child’s unconventional given name, a son named X Æ A-12, garnered significant attention and controversy online. Their second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk was born in December 2021.
