Gatzke Stienstra
Gatzke Stienstra | |
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 Stienstra performing at the Kustlandic Music Awards in 2014. | |
| Born | December 13, 1989 |
| Citizenship | Kustlân Juznia |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Years active | 2006-present |
| Net worth | $391 million |
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Gatzke Stienstra (born 13 December 1989) is a Kustlandic singer-songwriter. Her music is well-known for it's narrative songwriting which often includes details of her private life, which has been subject to intense scrutiny by the media. She started her career off in country music with the release of her debut album Gatzke in 2006, which went on to become the longest charting album of the 2000s. Her second album, Bold, was released in 2008 and included the breakthrough hits Just Say Yes and All Along. Bold went on to win Album of the Year in the 2010 Academy of Kustlandic Music Awards, making her the youngest person to ever win the award.
The release of her completely self-written album, Make a Stand, saw her become the youngest artist ever to have a self-written album reach number one in the album charts in it's first week with the album reaching number one in Midrasia, Kustlân, Juznia, Mascylla, Navack, Crylante, Glanodel, Crethia and Cuirpthe. The single Someday would go on to win two Academy of Kustlandic Music Awards for Song of the Year and Country Song of the Year. Her Fourth album, Treacherous, was released in 2012 and contained the hit songs Break Up and Trouble. Her fifth album, 1989, marked a shift to pop and saw her win the AKMA Album of the Year award once again, the first woman to do so twice. Gatzke's sixth album, fallen, topped the charts in Kustlân and Juznia with it's lead single, Look What You Made Me Do, topping charts across Asura. Her latest and seventh album, Daylight, has spawned three top ten singles, You'll Never Find Another, Can You Just Stop and Lover.
Stienstra has sold more than 25 million albums and 100 million singles, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time. She has been called "one of the most influential women in the world".
Life and career
1989-2004: Early life
Gatzke Irena Stienstra was born on December 13, 1989 in Doanjum, Kustlân to Reinold Stienstra, an investment banker, and Agnė Stienstra, a housewife of Juznik descent. She grew up with a younger brother, Aalwyn. She grew up on her family's farm in south Kustlân. Stienstra's mother described her as a "quiet, beautiful, polite and so very artistic child" and says she "knew there was something so special about her and she had a big future ahead of her". Stienstra attended public schools near her family's farm growing up.
Stienstra first started playing guitar when she was 11 years old and her mother said "she was instantly obsessed. She would play and play until her tiny little fingers went sore and then she'd bandage them up and play even more". When Stienstra was 14 the family moved to Lekkum to pursue her musical career. Her father said that "we knew it was the right thing to do. We didn't put too much pressure on her we just did all we could to enable her to get where she wanted to. Now look where she is now". She started attending a new school in the area.
2004-2008: Career beginnings and Gatzke
In Lekkum, Stienstra met the founder of Wonderland Records, Sjuk Holstrup. He started the label with an investment from Stienstra's father and signed her as the label's first artist. Holstrup described Stienstra as "this amazingly talented young girl who was ready to take on the world". They soon began work on Stienstra's debut album with songs written by Stienstra and also many collaborating songwriters.
Her debut album, Gatzke, was released in November 2006 and would go on to become the longest charting album of the 2000s across Asura.
2008-2010: Bold
2010-2014: Make a Stand and Treacherous
2014-2017: 1989 and 2009
2017-2019: fallen
In August 2017 Stienstra released the song Look What You Made Me Do after wiping her Chirper account of all previous tweets and releasing short clips teasing new music. The music video was released at that years tobenamed music awards and was the video to gain the largest amount of views in one day. The album was released in November 2017 and sold over 1 million copies in it's first week of release, making Gatzke the only artist to sell more than a million copies of an album that year. In 2018 she embarked on her Fallen Global Stadium Tour which became the highest grossing tour in Asura ever to date.
2019-present: Daylight
Artistry
Public image
Other ventures
Awards and achievements
Discography
- Gatzke (2006)
- Bold (2008)
- Make a Stand (2010)
- Treacherous (2012)
- 1989 (2014)
- 2009 (2015)
- Fallen (2017)
- Daylight (2019)
Tours
- ForeverFest (2020)