A pop singer and songwriter whose music combines the cool but insistent surfaces of indie rock with a deeply personal lyrical voice, Girl Blue is the stage name of Arielle O'Keefe. O'Keefe was born and raised in Bay Shore, Long Island, and she developed an interest in music at an early age. O'Keefe wrote her first song -- about the annoyances of sharing her room with her brother -- when she was just five years old, and she started playing piano when she was six. When O'Keefe was 12, she took up the guitar, and began taking songwriting seriously. At 15, O'Keefe moved to Allen, Texas with her family, and she became involved with her school's choir program, earning a spot in the Texas All-State Choir in her senior year of high school. During her high-school days, O'Keefe began playing her original songs at local coffeehouses, and a few years later she was posting videos of herself singing both original tunes and covers of pop favorites online. In 2011, O'Keefe appeared on the musical reality show Opening Act, in which she was chosen to open a concert for Rod Stewart, while a camera crew followed her preparations for the event. When she was 22, O'Keefe pulled up stakes and moved to New York City, where she worked as a contract songwriter while also serving as a nanny to make ends meet. After a couple of years, O'Keefe became disenchanted with big-city life, and moved to Albany, New York, where she focused on more personal songwriting and fell in with a handful of like-minded musicians. She adopted the stage name Girl Blue, which came from a Nina Simone album that had captivated her as a child, Little Girl Blue. In May 2017, O'Keefe released her first EP as Girl Blue, I Am Not a Star, and the song "Fire Under Water" became a success, racking up over 2.2 million plays on streaming services. A follow-up single, "Dreams," appeared in October 2017. ~ Mark Deming