Kerli Kõiv

Kerli Kõiv [ˈkerli ˈkɤ.iv] ( listen) (born February 7, 1987), better known mononymously as Kerli, is an Estonian recording artist.. Kerli was born in Tartu County, Estonia in the town of Elva, with a population of 5,000 during the Soviet occupation of Estonia which ended when she was four years old. Her mother was a social worker and her father was an car mechanic. Her parents separated when she was 16. Kerli stated when she wrote "Supergirl", a song about domestic violence from her upcoming album, she "put [herself] in [her] mother's body and said things that [she] wished that [her mother] would've said to her dad when [she] was little". Her younger sister, Eliisa Kõiv is also a musician and competed in season three of Eesti otsib superstaari. Her great-great-grandmother, nicknamed "Beautiful May" for her beauty, was a maid to a duke in Germany, with whom she had a baby.. As a child, she studied ballroom dancing for eight years, practicing five days a week. She was first introduced to music by her kindergarten teacher when she told her mother that Kerli had "nice pitch" and that she was interested in taking her to various singing competitions. At 8 years old, Kerli gained interest in classical music and as there was an absence of music in her early life, she only possessed one cassette by Bonnie Tyler. She was also a big fan of The Spice Girls. She began writing stories, mini books, and poems at the age of 10 to escape from her "abusive" household to an "imaginary world". Despite being discouraged, Kerli dropped out of school at the age of 16 to pursue her musical career....
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