CHRISTINA PERRI - YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

CHRISTINA PERRY

SONGWRITER: JIMMIE DAVIS

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: SONG FOR CAMELLA: LULLABIES & SING-A-LONGS

GENRE: CHILDREN’S MUSIC

LABEL: ELEKTRA(NEK)

YEAR: 2019

 

         Christina Judith Perri(born August 19, 1986) is an American singer and songwriter. After her debut single "Jar of Hearts" was featured on the television series So You Think You Can Dance in 2010, Perri signed with Atlantic Records and released her debut extended play, The Ocean Way Sessions. Her debut studio album, Lovestrong(2011), followed soon after and has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA).

       Perri also gained recognition for writing and recording "A Thousand Years", the love theme for the film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2(2012), which appears on the accompanying soundtrack. The song went on to sell over 10 million copies in the United States, being certified Diamond, and the official music video reached two billion views on YouTube in December 2021. She later released her second extended play, A Very Merry Perri Christmas(2012), followed by her second studio album, Head or Heart(2014). After recording the lullaby albums Songs for Carmella(2019) and Songs for Rosie(2021), Perri released her third studio album, A Lighter Shade of Blue(2022).

       Perri was born in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. She is of Italian and Polish descent, and has called her family "very Italian". She has an older brother, Nick Perri, who formerly played guitar with Shinedown, Silvertide, Perry Farrell and Matt Sorum and cousin Dominic Perri.

       She graduated from Archbishop Ryan High School in 2004 and later attended the University of the Arts. She taught herself how to play guitar as a 16-year-old by watching a videotape of Shannon Hoon from the group Blind Melon performing on VH1. In college she majored in communication for a year before dropping out to pursue a music career.

      She frequently sang and acted in musical theater as a child. Perri claims to have learned to play piano and guitar because she missed hearing music being played in the house when she moved away. According to Perri, whenever she played the guitar or piano, she would sing and "all of a sudden these songs would appear."

        Christina Perri has been waiting what feels like a thousand years to dedicate her voice to a daughter.

        While the "Jar of Hearts" singer may have taken a momentary hiatus from putting out new tunes after the release of her 2014 album Head or Heart, it turns out she had signed her voice over to motherhood. Perri and her husband Paul Costabile welcomed their first child, a daughter named Carmella Stanley, on Jan. 17, shortly after they tied the knot on Dec. 12, 2017, in New York City.

         Using her experience with becoming a mother to “tiptoe back into working and putting out new music,” Perri, 32, is announcing her latest and greatest project: a lullaby album.

       “Putting out new songs that I sang to her all year feels so authentic and genuine as to where I’m at in my real life. I am a huge fan of when people are authentic of where people are at,” she tells PEOPLE about her album Songs for Carmella: Lullabies & Sing-a-Longs, which is set to be released on Carmella’s first birthday.

       “I just didn’t want to jump into a new project that wasn’t related to how amazing my life is right now due to my daughter,” she adds. “That’s the biggest and best thing that’s ever happened to me, so I didn’t want to pretend that didn’t happen.”

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

When skies are gray

You'll never know, dear

How much I love you

Please don't take

My sunshine away

 

The other night, dear

As I lay sleeping

I dreamed I held you

In my arms

When I awoke, dear

I was mistaken

So I hung my head and I cried

 

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

When skies are gray

You'll never know, dear

How much I love you

Please don't take

My sunshine away.