Claire Boucher (Grimes) Wiki, Height, Age, Boyfriend, Family, Children, Biography & More

July 09, 2024

Claire Boucher is a Canadian musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, music video director, and visual artist. She is popularly known as Grimes.

Table of Contents

Wiki/Biography

Claire Elise Boucher was born on Thursday, March 17, 1988 (age 34 years; as of 2022), in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her zodiac sign is Pisces.

Childhood Picture of Claire Boucher with her Brothers

She attended a catholic school, and in 2006, she graduated from Lord Byng Secondary School, Vancouver. After completing her schooling, she relocated to Montreal to attend McGill University to do her majors in neuroscience and the Russian language. [1] However, in early 2011, she left school before finishing her degree. She is self-taught in music and arts. She also took professional ballet lessons in her childhood.

Physical Appearance

Height [2]: 5′ 5″

Eye Color: Green (wears lenses of various colors)

Hair Color: Brown (dyed her hair in various colors)

Family & Ethnicity

She is of French, Italian, and Ukrainian descent. [3] She was raised a Roman Catholic, but with time, she got over it and announced herself as an agnostic. [4]

Parents & Siblings

Her mother, Sandy Garossino, is a former Crown prosecutor and arts advocate.

Grimes’ Mother

Her father, Maurice Boucher, is a former banker, who works on the business side of biotech.

Grimes’ Father

Her stepfather, Ravi Sidhoo, is an Indian and runs West Side’s East India Carpets company, which he inherited from his father.

Grimes’ Step-father

She has three brothers; two of them are named Mac Boucher (cinematographer) and Daniel Boucher.

Grimes’ Brother, Mac

Grimes’ Brother, Daniel

She has a step-brother (from her stepfather’s first marriage) named Jay Worthy, who is a musician.

Grime’s Brother with her stepbrother, Jay Worthy

Relationships & Children

While studying at McGill University, she was in a relationship with William Gratz. She was also in a relationship with electronic musician James Brooks.

James Brooks

In 2007-10, she was in an on-and-off relationship with Devon Welsh, a Canadian singer-songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the duo ‘Majical Cloudz.’

Devon Welsh

In 2018, she began dating technology entrepreneur, industrial designer, and engineer Elon Musk, who she met on Twitter.

Grimes with Elon Musk

On January 8, 2020, she announced that she was pregnant with Musk’s child, and on May 4, 2020, she gave birth to their son. They announced that they have named the child “X Æ A-12” (pronounced “Ex Ash A Twelve” or “Ex Ay Eye.” After they could not register the name due to Californian law, which deemed it to be illegal because it consisted of character not used in modern English. The name of the child was then changed to “X Æ A-Xii” and finally, they settled with “X AE A-XII, ” with the letter “X” as the child’s first name, and “AE A-XII” as his middle name.

Elon Musk with his and Grimes’ Son

In September 2021, Grimes and Elon Musk were reported to get separated from each other. During a media interaction, Musk said that they were semi-separated. [5] He said,

We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms.”

Through an Instagram post, she claimed Go Won, a member of the South Korean girl group ‘Loona,’ to be her son’s godmother.

Go Won

In March 2022, Elon Musk and Grimes welcomed their second child, a daughter, via surrogacy. [6]

Career

As a Singer-Songwriter

Claire began writing music under the name ‘Grimes’ in 2007. In 2010, she debuted with her album ‘Geidi Primes,’ a concept album inspired by the Dune series and released by Arbutus Records on cassette.

In 2011, she released her first extended play ‘Darkbloom’ in collaboration with the Canadian musician and singer-songwriter d’Eon.

The same year, her debut album was re-released through ‘No Pain in Pop Records’ in CD and vinyl format for the first time. She signed with the record label 4AD in January 2012, following her extensive touring and positive reception to her first two albums and first EP. She has released the albums: Halfaxa (2010), Visions (2012), Art Angels (2015), and Miss Anthroposene (2020). She has also released the EP ‘Ambrosia’ (2012). She released her first non-album single ‘Go’ featuring Blood Diamonds in 2014. The song was rejected by Rihanna.

Her non-album singles include We Appreciate Power (2018), Pretty Dark (2019), and Phone Sex (2012). She has featured in albums with the artists such as Blood Diamonds, Janelle Monáe, Loona yyxy, Bring Me the Horizon, and Ashnikko.

As a Visual Artist & Other Works

For all of her albums, Grimes created the album art, and also made art lithos for each track on her studio album ‘Art Angels’ (2015), which were sold with the vinyl release.

Grimes illustrations show an influence of Japanese anime, manga, and comic artists such as Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes. Apart from that, she also creates illustrations for her merchandise, including T-shirts, album art, and show posters. In 2013, she created an alternate cover for Image Comics’ “The Wicked + The Divine.”

Cover of The Wicked + The Divine by Grimes

She also designed a capsule collection of T-shirts for Saint Laurent the same year; The five-piece collection of t-shirts features original artwork by the musician, which was inspired by Yves Saint Laurent’s “Love Poster” series from the ’70s.

Grime’s Capsule Collection of T-shirts for Saint Laurent

The same year, she also organized a silent auction at the Audio Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery in NYC to benefit the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s campaign to raise awareness of violence against Aboriginal women in Canada.

Awards & Achievements

Webby Award for Artist of the Year in 2013
Grimes with her Webby Award

A2IM Libera Awards for Video of the Year for the song “Kill V. Maim” in 2016

Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards – Musician of the Year 2016
Grimes Receiving Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Award

iHeartRadio Much Music Video Award for Best EDM/Dance Video for “Venus Fly” (featuring Janelle Monáe) in 2017
Grimes with her iHeartRadio Much Music Video Award

Juno Awards

Electronic Album of the Year for Visions in 2013
Grimes with her Juno Award

Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2013

Video of the Year for the song “Kill V. Maim” in 2017

Video of the Year for the song “Venus Fly” (featuring Janelle Monáe) in 2018

Controversies

In 2009, Grimes and her boyfriend, William Gratz,’ crafted a boat from scratch and loaded chicken and potatoes in it to sail from Mississippi River to New Orleans. After their engine started to splutter and gurgle, they parked their houseboat at a riverbank and tied it to a tree. However, they were given a warning by the Minneapolis park police officer, since it was not allowed to tie a boat to the trees. Following several mishaps and encounters with law enforcement, the houseboat was impounded by the city of Minneapolis. [7] However, according to Claire, the incident was exaggerated by the local media. She said,
We did actually have chickens, but we gave them away because it’s not nice to bring chickens on a boat,” she says. “And then we had some ducks, but they escaped. Ach! I shouldn’t say this. We didn’t have a typewriter, and we weren’t trying to do Huck Finn. The main thing that’s true is the potatoes. We had lots of sacks of potatoes, but that’s not that weird.”
The adventure has been documented in an animated video narrated by musician and singer T Bone Burnett.
Grimes and William Gratz on their Houseboat

In 2018, Claire was accused by Azealia Banks of allegedly inviting her (Azealia Banks) to Elon Musk’s house for collaboration and failing to show up. She alleged that she had to witness Elon being comforted by Claire for tweeting that ‘he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.’ Later, Musk filed a lawsuit against Azealia, according to which, plaintiffs sought subpoenas for Grimes, Banks, and three media outlets (the New York Times, Gizmodo, and Business Insider) that interviewed either Banks or Musk about their dispute. [8]

Her relationship with Elon Musk has always been a subject of controversy. Be it, her removing ‘anti-imperialist’ from her Twitter bio or renaming herself as ‘c’ as in ‘constant for speed of light.’ [9]

In early 2019, she was accused of glorifying fascism while promoting her new single ‘We Appreciate Power,’ inspired by North Korea’s all-female military band Moranbong. [10] She had said,
I thought people understood that I ultimately probably believe in an AI dictatorship.” (Maybe it’s understandable that someone who always says the wrong thing might find comfort in absolutism.)”

In an interview, she once spoke about her drug use during the creation of ‘Visions’ in 2012. She had said,
I blacked out the windows and did tons of amphetamines and stayed up for three weeks and didn’t eat anything”
However, she later put a Tumblr post, addressing that there have been edits made to her Wikipedia page that discuss her use of amphetamines during the recording of ‘Visions,’ which are untrue and not supported by her. She added that despite removing it, the sentences are added back on her Wikipedia page multiple times [11] She said,
losing people to drugs and alcohol is the worst because they destroy any good memories you have of them before forcing you to deal with the empty space they leave behind. also whoever keeps putting the few quotes i said early in my career about drugs back into my wikipedia page is an asshole. I don’t want that to be part of my narrative, and if it has to be I want people to know that i hate hard drugs. All they’ve ever done is kill my friends and cause me to be unproductive. Editing a website that people take seriously and reference all the time so that it looks like i think amphetamines are cool is incredibly irresponsible, people might read that and think its a cool thing to emulate. I hope you know you are doing the world a disservice. I just watched another person I care deeply about basically turn into gollum and my heart is broken.”

In 2020, Elon Musk tweeted ‘Pronouns Suck’ without any additional context. To which, Grimes publicly tweeted that while she loved him, she cannot support hate. Some speculated that Elon was referring to gender-neutral pronouns. Her tweet was deleted soon after it was posted. [12]

Favorite Things

Singer(s): Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Marilyn Manson, Brandy Norwood, Enya, Björk

Rapper: G-Dragon (of Big Bang)

Musician(s): Yoko Kanno, Aphex Twin, Hildegard von Bingen, Burial

Food: Burrito

Band(s): Tool, OutKast

Dessert: Butterscotch Icecream

K-pop Band(s): Bing Bang, 2NE1, Girls’ Generation

Film: The Handmaiden (2016)

TV Show: Game of Thrones series

Video Game: Legend of Zelda

Autograph

Grimes’ Autograph

Net Worth

Her net worth, as of 2020, is $3 million. [13]

Facts/Trivia

In 2018, she announced that she had changed her name legally from Claire to ‘c‘ (the symbol for the speed of light). [14]

When she was in elementary school, her French-Canadian grandfather taught her how to shoot a rifle.

After she moved to Montreal, she discovered her love for music. While pursuing her graduation, she met David Peet, a fellow Vancouver transplant, who opened DIY venue Lab Synthèse with Sebastian Cowan (another friend of Claire’s), and some other friends. Along with them, she started doing underground music. In March 2008, Peet committed suicide, which deeply impacted her. Before that, they had been planning to start a band together.

According to critics, her music draws on an eclectic mix of styles, including electronic music, synth-pop, R&B, dream pop, and hip hop, and has been described as synth-pop and art-pop. She is a Soprano, a type of classical female singing voice having the highest vocal range of all voice types.

Grimes is known for having a lisp. According to her, she likes it and has no desire to undergo speech therapy.

Grimes and her brother, Jay Worthy have collaborated on the single ‘Christmas Song,’ which was released on the Rough Trade bonus disc of her album ‘Visions.’

She has also worked with her brother, Mac Boucher, in the making of some of her music videos such as Violence, Go, Realiti, Flesh Without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream, Kill V. Maim, Venus Fly, and We Appreciate Power.

Grimes was a vegan for ethical reasons. According to her,
My stepdad is Hindu and never had meat, so it was very easy for me growing up; there would always be vegan food around. It is political for me, but also, to be honest, I have no idea how to cook meat. Touring is difficult, but if we’re somewhere and I can only have something with dairy in it, then I will eat it because I won’t starve myself”
However, she quit being a vegan due to her pregnancy. [15]

Once, she tweeted that Japan was like her ‘spiritual homeland.’ According to her,
I’m just very obsessed with Japanese stuff in general. I think there’s this archetype that exists in Japan that I really identify with, that I don’t think really exists anywhere else – which is the kind of [Hayao] Miyazaki, Nausicaa or Mononoke character. She’s like a young girl who’s very powerful, but is also kind of cute – but it’s not like belittling at all. It’s just not really an archetype that exists in the West, and I love that. You know what I mean, like Chiaki Kuriyama in Kill Bill or something? That kind of character is like my kind of character in reality. I mean, obviously I’m not, like, an assassin, but… I like that, I think that’s really cool.”

She has many tattoos on her body. She has her right leg covered in tattoos; she has a heart tattooed on her left arm; there are some words inked on the right side of her abdomen; she has a big cross sign on her wrist; she has both her hands, from front and back, covered in tattoos.
Grimes Tattoos

On July 16, 2019, she claimed to have removed a part of her eyeball in experimental surgery to cure seasonal depression. [16]According to her,
I underwent experimental surgery that removes the top film of my eyeball and replaces it with an orange ultra-flex polymer that my friend and I made in the lab this past winter as a means to cure seasonal depression.”
According to experts, there is no legitimate eye surgery available to eliminate blue light, nor a reason to eliminate all blue light.

On 31 March 2021, in an Instagram post, she revealed that she wanted to die on Mars.
The Instagram post of Grimes in which she revealed that she wanted to die on Mars