Ingrid Ellen Michaelson is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her first album, Slow the Rain, was released in 2005, and she has since released six more albums, Girls and Boys, Be OK, Everybody, Human Again, Lights Out, and her most recent, It Doesn\'t Have to Make Sense. Her two highest-charting singles are "The Way I Am" and "Girls Chase Boys," at No. 37 and No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.\n', '

Michaelson is half Swedish, and was born in 1979 in New York City, to artistic parents. Her father, Carl Michaelson, was a manager of copyrights for the publishing company Carl Fischer Music and a composer on the side ("The Praise of Christmas"). Her mother, Elizabeth Egbert, was a sculptor, of Dutch ancestry. Michaelson took up piano at age four, and trained until seven at Manhattan\'s Third Street Music School, continuing for many more years at the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island\'s Dorothy Delson Kuhn Music Institute. While there she met vocal coach Elizabeth McCullough, who worked with her through high school. She is a graduate of Staten Island Technical High School and Binghamton University, where she received a degree in theater. While at Binghamton University she was a member of the Binghamtonics, a co-ed a cappella group, as well as the Pappy Parker Players, an improv comedy group, and the theatre repertory company under Sue Peters. Her time at Binghamton is mentioned in the song "The Hat." She grew up doing[clarification needed] a musical theater group called "Kids On Stage."\n', '

In 2006, Michaelson independently put out her second album, Girls and Boys. The album, like her previous music, was streamed on Myspace. A music producer from the ABC drama Grey\'s Anatomy found her music online. After being contacted by the music producer, Michaelson began to be approached by several record companies. Wanting to retain all of the rights she had as an independent artist, Michaelson developed a deal with Original Signal Recordings, acting as the marketing and distribution arm for Michaelson\'s label. Through Original Signal, Michaelson re-released Girls and Boys into mainstream marketing on September 18, 2007. It peaked at #63 on the Billboard charts and received positive reviews from critics. Additionally, in 2007, "The Way I Am," a song from the album, began being featured in an Old Navy commercial. The 30-second ad played on the major US networks and most prime-time shows for a few days. In less than three weeks, more than 65 appearances in prime-time had been made, including 17 season premieres.\n', '

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