Kina started playing shows at the age of four in front of her stuffed animals. Now she plays in front of people, though it wasn’t the quickest transition for the admittedly shy songstress. While attending college at USC, Kina often retreated to the secluded stairwells around campus where she could write and sing without being heard. Protected by their quiet confines, she found a safe haven and a creative outlet for her music. Armed with a guitar and a cup of tea, Kina wrote in every stairwell she came across. And it was within these stairwells that she developed her confidence as a songwriter and her poise as a performer.
In 2007, Kina joined YouTube, made a music video and entered herself into a contest. A few months later, her video for “Message From Your Heart” aired during the Superbowl and its 97 million viewers (or 194 million eyeballs, depending on how you’re keeping track) and she walked away with a record deal. Since then, Kina has regularly posted her songs on YouTube, amassing many millions of views, and toured throughout North America. Her songs have been heard on television shows such as ABC’s General Hospital and MTV’s College Life.
Message From Your Heart
Kina Grannis Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The source of both your love and misery
I am steady, beating endlessly
While you are dozing, dreaming pretty things
I don't work for free
Please take care of me
This is a message from your heart
Your most devoted body part
Taking blood and making art
This is a message from your heart
Pounding away into the dark
You could thank me for a start
This is a message from your heart
Don't hurt me, I bleed constantly
My efforts leave me but flow back swiftly
My rhythm, soothing, like raindrops steady
On foggy windows when you gaze outwardly
I don't work for free
Please take care of me
This is a message from your heart
Your most devoted body part
Taking blood and making art
This is a message from your heart
Pounding away into the dark
You could thank me for a start
This is a message from your heart
This is a message from your heart
Everytime you sleep (Bam bam bam bam)
Everytime you eat (Bam bam bam bam)
Everytime you laugh (This is a message from your heart)
(Your most devoted body part)
(Taking blood and making art)
Everytime you cry (This is a message from your heart)
(Pounding away into the dark)
(You could thank me for a start)
Everytime you love (This is a message from your heart)
(This is a message from your heart)
This is a message from your heart
The lyrics of Kina Grannis's song, "Message From Your Heart," are a plea from the heart to the mind, to be treated with the respect it deserves. The heart acknowledges that it is both the source of the listener's love and misery and that it is affected by the listener's actions, be they positive or negative.
The heartbeat is compared to a drum, "pounding away into the dark," and the heart requests that the listener takes care of it, as it does not work for free. The heart sends the listener a message with each beat, reminding them of life's precious moments, such as sleeping, eating, laughing, crying, and loving.
The song's chorus reinforces the heart's message, calling it the listener's most devoted body part, which takes blood and makes art. The final repetition of the song's title emphasizes its importance as an indicator of the listener's true emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't break me, I bruise easily
Your heart is fragile and vulnerable to emotional pain.
The source of both your love and misery
Your heart is responsible for both positive and negative emotions.
I am steady, beating endlessly
Your heart pumps blood continuously and tirelessly.
While you are dozing, dreaming pretty things
Even when you're sleeping, your heart keeps beating and working.
I don't work for free
Your heart needs proper care and attention to function properly and stay healthy.
Please take care of me
You must prioritize your heart's well-being and take steps to keep it healthy.
This is a message from your heart
The song is a reminder that your heart is a vital and important part of your body.
Your most devoted body part
Your heart is always working for you, without rest or complaint.
Taking blood and making art
Your heart pumps blood throughout your body, providing oxygen and nutrients to your cells, keeping you alive and healthy.
Pounding away into the dark
Your heart keeps beating even in difficult times or when you feel alone.
You could thank me for a start
You should appreciate and take care of your heart to improve your overall health and well-being.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: KINA KASUYA GRANNIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Kina Grannis
behind the video: message from your heart
happy thanksgiving! i can't tell you how grateful i am to have the opportunity to share my music with all of you lovely people. last week was my 5-year anniversary of sharing my music on youtube, so it only seemed right to choose "message from your heart" this week, the very first video i ever made.
at the time, i was living in austin, tx and pursuing music after graduating from the university of southern california. it was my first taste of getting to really identify as an artist and spend all of my time focusing on music. i was gigging every chance i could, between open mics, coffee shops, cafes and night clubs. i generally stayed up until around 4am and slept in until an embarrassing hour. for the most part i had no idea what i was doing or what my plan was, but the one constant was that i spent a LOT of time alone in my bedroom playing music.
it started out like any other night, alone and delirious and bored and... hey. my computer has a camera on it? maybe i should sing it a song? oh, maybe i should animate a little dancing heart? maybe i should become a crazy person and stay up until 8am editing a video for no reason whatsoever?
that's basically how it went. purely for my own entertainment. but once 8am rolled around i had this incredible urge to share it, so i started a youtube channel, uploaded it to a private setting, sent a link to my family, and fell asleep. the responses didn't come right away, so i started getting really uncomfortable and embarrassed and kind of wanted to go hide forever, but eventually they came in, and i guess they were positive (or neutral) enough for me to feel ok with it living there. i still had zero intention of ever sharing it with the public.
soon after, i caught wind of a contest called "doritos crash the super bowl." all you needed to enter was an original song and video. i entered "message" and promptly forgot about it. a couple weeks later i got a call from the lovely people of doritos notifying me that i'd made it into the top 10 finalists. i was shocked! and so it began, the beginning of what would spark everything i'd accomplish in the next 5 years. i had to get people to vote everyday, so i started a campaign called "two weeks for kina" where i posted a video every day in exchange for people's votes. i made it into the final round, and "two weeks" turned into two months of daily videos and sleeplessness and insanity. i never expected more than friends and family and a few nice strangers to get behind it... but then things started changing. the most incredible community of amazing and wonderful humans from around the world began to form around my videos and blogs (or "bla(h)gs, as i liked to call them). they became my family. the family grew and grew and eventually they named themselves "kinerds," created "kination," and all the while helped spread the word about my music and in general make my life a much happier place. then, one fine super bowl afternoon, my music video aired on tv in front of 97 million people and i was signed to interscope records. i was too sleep-deprived and adrenaline-filled at this point to register any of this, but i knew that something was changing, and from that point forward my life was going to be about music.
to make a long story short, i ended up leaving the label to make my music on my own. we had different plans for my music, and thanks to the new found support from all of you lovely people of the internet, i had the confidence to move forward with my vision on my own (though i wasn't really "on my own" after all. kinerds ftw!)
i will never understand how i got so lucky, how this little video changed my whole life and brought so many incredible people into my world, how i stumbled upon such an amazing way to connect with people through youtube, how so many people have chosen to support me and my music and have allowed me share my music and my words and tour around the world. it's madness.
this thanksgiving, i'm giving a special thanks to the little video that started it all AND most importantly to all of you who've made every step possible.
i am thankful for you <3
kina
some tid bits about the video:
- the heart: i cut the heart out of card stock, glued a tube of card stock to the back of it, inserted the tube through a background piece of card stock and then twisted it from the back to make it beat. go heart!
- the tree painting: one of my best friends from high school, tina toosky (an awesome artist and now doctor!!), painted this for me years and years ago. it's actually based off of my song "next time" from my first album "sincerely, me." i love it very much. (the painting, not the song. not that i don't care about the song. err)
- the guitar in the corner of the room: a little classical guitar i bought while traveling in costa rica. i wrote my song "cambridge" on it while i was there.
- the keyboard in the corner of the room: i was borrowing this from a friend and wrote "stars falling down" on it with a crazy choir sample setting.
- hippety heart: this is a shirt my mom designed for a dentist back in the day (she's a graphic designer), but growing up my sisters and i pretty much lived in this shirt. my mom also made up a song called "hippety heart," sung to the tune of "winnie the pooh". you can see video of my sisters and i singing it here: Hippety Heart- 6 yr old Kina + sisters
Message From Your Heart - Kina Grannis Original
Kina Grannis
last week's "behind the video" on the 1st video i ever made--"message from your heart". if you missed it, here it is!
behind the video: message from your heart
happy thanksgiving! i can't tell you how grateful i am to have the opportunity to share my music with all of you lovely people. last week was my 5-year anniversary of sharing my music on youtube, so it only seemed right to choose "message from your heart" this week, the very first video i ever made.
at the time, i was living in austin, tx and pursuing music after graduating from the university of southern california. it was my first taste of getting to really identify as an artist and spend all of my time focusing on music. i was gigging every chance i could, between open mics, coffee shops, cafes and night clubs. i generally stayed up until around 4am and slept in until an embarrassing hour. for the most part i had no idea what i was doing or what my plan was, but the one constant was that i spent a LOT of time alone in my bedroom playing music.
it started out like any other night, alone and delirious and bored and... hey. my computer has a camera on it? maybe i should sing it a song? oh, maybe i should animate a little dancing heart? maybe i should become a crazy person and stay up until 8am editing a video for no reason whatsoever?
that's basically how it went. purely for my own entertainment. but once 8am rolled around i had this incredible urge to share it, so i started a youtube channel, uploaded it to a private setting, sent a link to my family, and fell asleep. the responses didn't come right away, so i started getting really uncomfortable and embarrassed and kind of wanted to go hide forever, but eventually they came in, and i guess they were positive (or neutral) enough for me to feel ok with it living there. i still had zero intention of ever sharing it with the public.
soon after, i caught wind of a contest called "doritos crash the super bowl." all you needed to enter was an original song and video. i entered "message" and promptly forgot about it. a couple weeks later i got a call from the lovely people of doritos notifying me that i'd made it into the top 10 finalists. i was shocked! and so it began, the beginning of what would spark everything i'd accomplish in the next 5 years. i had to get people to vote everyday, so i started a campaign called "two weeks for kina" where i posted a video every day in exchange for people's votes. i made it into the final round, and "two weeks" turned into two months of daily videos and sleeplessness and insanity. i never expected more than friends and family and a few nice strangers to get behind it... but then things started changing. the most incredible community of amazing and wonderful humans from around the world began to form around my videos and blogs (or "bla(h)gs, as i liked to call them). they became my family. the family grew and grew and eventually they named themselves "kinerds," created "kination," and all the while helped spread the word about my music and in general make my life a much happier place. then, one fine super bowl afternoon, my music video aired on tv in front of 97 million people and i was signed to interscope records. i was too sleep-deprived and adrenaline-filled at this point to register any of this, but i knew that something was changing, and from that point forward my life was going to be about music.
to make a long story short, i ended up leaving the label to make my music on my own. we had different plans for my music, and thanks to the new found support from all of you lovely people of the internet, i had the confidence to move forward with my vision on my own (though i wasn't really "on my own" after all. kinerds ftw!)
i will never understand how i got so lucky, how this little video changed my whole life and brought so many incredible people into my world, how i stumbled upon such an amazing way to connect with people through youtube, how so many people have chosen to support me and my music and have allowed me share my music and my words and tour around the world. it's madness.
this thanksgiving, i'm giving a special thanks to the little video that started it all AND most importantly to all of you who've made every step possible.
i am thankful for you <3
kina
some tid bits about the video:
- the heart: i cut the heart out of card stock, glued a tube of card stock to the back of it, inserted the tube through a background piece of card stock and then twisted it from the back to make it beat. go heart!
- the tree painting: one of my best friends from high school, tina toosky (an awesome artist and now doctor!!), painted this for me years and years ago. it's actually based off of my song "next time" from my first album "sincerely, me." i love it very much. (the painting, not the song. not that i don't care about the song. err)
- the guitar in the corner of the room: a little classical guitar i bought while traveling in costa rica. i wrote my song "cambridge" on it while i was there.
- the keyboard in the corner of the room: i was borrowing this from a friend and wrote "stars falling down" on it with a crazy choir sample setting.
- hippety heart: this is a shirt my mom designed for a dentist back in the day (she's a graphic designer), but growing up my sisters and i pretty much lived in this shirt. my mom also made up a song called "hippety heart," sung to the tune of "winnie the pooh". you can see video of my sisters and i singing it here: Hippety Heart- 6 yr old Kina + sisters
Kina Grannis
happy 9 years, little song. we've had quite the journey! <3
Jennifer Zheng
omg ily ur so greatttttt
Mick Funny
Kina Grannis do you still use the same guitar
Matthew James Hemmer
awesome :)
Gabriela Centurion Neumann
OMG! It is about to be a decade in YouTube <3
Aaron J Sirb
Wow, I just watched that video for the first time in my life and I feel ashamed. Keep up the beautiful music and the beautiful you 👍
Kina Grannis
behind the video: message from your heart
happy thanksgiving! i can't tell you how grateful i am to have the opportunity to share my music with all of you lovely people. last week was my 5-year anniversary of sharing my music on youtube, so it only seemed right to choose "message from your heart" this week, the very first video i ever made.
at the time, i was living in austin, tx and pursuing music after graduating from the university of southern california. it was my first taste of getting to really identify as an artist and spend all of my time focusing on music. i was gigging every chance i could, between open mics, coffee shops, cafes and night clubs. i generally stayed up until around 4am and slept in until an embarrassing hour. for the most part i had no idea what i was doing or what my plan was, but the one constant was that i spent a LOT of time alone in my bedroom playing music.
it started out like any other night, alone and delirious and bored and... hey. my computer has a camera on it? maybe i should sing it a song? oh, maybe i should animate a little dancing heart? maybe i should become a crazy person and stay up until 8am editing a video for no reason whatsoever?
that's basically how it went. purely for my own entertainment. but once 8am rolled around i had this incredible urge to share it, so i started a youtube channel, uploaded it to a private setting, sent a link to my family, and fell asleep. the responses didn't come right away, so i started getting really uncomfortable and embarrassed and kind of wanted to go hide forever, but eventually they came in, and i guess they were positive (or neutral) enough for me to feel ok with it living there. i still had zero intention of ever sharing it with the public.
soon after, i caught wind of a contest called "doritos crash the super bowl." all you needed to enter was an original song and video. i entered "message" and promptly forgot about it. a couple weeks later i got a call from the lovely people of doritos notifying me that i'd made it into the top 10 finalists. i was shocked! and so it began, the beginning of what would spark everything i'd accomplish in the next 5 years. i had to get people to vote everyday, so i started a campaign called "two weeks for kina" where i posted a video every day in exchange for people's votes. i made it into the final round, and "two weeks" turned into two months of daily videos and sleeplessness and insanity. i never expected more than friends and family and a few nice strangers to get behind it... but then things started changing. the most incredible community of amazing and wonderful humans from around the world began to form around my videos and blogs (or "bla(h)gs, as i liked to call them). they became my family. the family grew and grew and eventually they named themselves "kinerds," created "kination," and all the while helped spread the word about my music and in general make my life a much happier place. then, one fine super bowl afternoon, my music video aired on tv in front of 97 million people and i was signed to interscope records. i was too sleep-deprived and adrenaline-filled at this point to register any of this, but i knew that something was changing, and from that point forward my life was going to be about music.
to make a long story short, i ended up leaving the label to make my music on my own. we had different plans for my music, and thanks to the new found support from all of you lovely people of the internet, i had the confidence to move forward with my vision on my own (though i wasn't really "on my own" after all. kinerds ftw!)
i will never understand how i got so lucky, how this little video changed my whole life and brought so many incredible people into my world, how i stumbled upon such an amazing way to connect with people through youtube, how so many people have chosen to support me and my music and have allowed me share my music and my words and tour around the world. it's madness.
this thanksgiving, i'm giving a special thanks to the little video that started it all AND most importantly to all of you who've made every step possible.
i am thankful for you <3
kina
some tid bits about the video:
- the heart: i cut the heart out of card stock, glued a tube of card stock to the back of it, inserted the tube through a background piece of card stock and then twisted it from the back to make it beat. go heart!
- the tree painting: one of my best friends from high school, tina toosky (an awesome artist and now doctor!!), painted this for me years and years ago. it's actually based off of my song "next time" from my first album "sincerely, me." i love it very much. (the painting, not the song. not that i don't care about the song. err)
- the guitar in the corner of the room: a little classical guitar i bought while traveling in costa rica. i wrote my song "cambridge" on it while i was there.
- the keyboard in the corner of the room: i was borrowing this from a friend and wrote "stars falling down" on it with a crazy choir sample setting.
- hippety heart: this is a shirt my mom designed for a dentist back in the day (she's a graphic designer), but growing up my sisters and i pretty much lived in this shirt. my mom also made up a song called "hippety heart," sung to the tune of "winnie the pooh". you can see video of my sisters and i singing it here: Hippety Heart- 6 yr old Kina + sisters
Message From Your Heart - Kina Grannis Original
Scott Moore
Awesome stuff, Kina Grannis . Thank you for sharing! :)
Jeanclaude Pros
Awesome voice, Beautiful woman too..
D McCray
Thank you for your gift. I am touch by all the great friends on G+. This old man from Texas truly look forwards to all the love you give in your songs. Then to have one on this day of Thanks Giving leaves me speechless.