Karen Elisabeth Jacobsen is an Australia-born and New York-based entertainer, singer, motivational speaker, voice-over artist and songwriter.
Early life and career
Born in Mackay, Queensland, Australia and writing songs from the age of seven, Jacobsen was inspired to be a professional singer by her idol Olivia Newton-John. She graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University majoring in voice and piano, winning the Jazz Prize and completing her A.Mus.A. on piano. Singing with the Queensland Youth Choir and being awarded the Warana Young Performer of the Year, she moved to Sydney making her musical theatre debut in the original Australian cast of Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story. She performed regularly on Australian television including Good Morning Australia and I Do I Do and her speaking and singing voices have been used on thousands of commercials for television, radio and online. On 4 July 2000, she relocated to New York City, writing and recording songs, and releasing nine CDs on her independent label Kurly Queen. Her songs have been on soundtracks for Dawson's Creek and the NBC show Passions and she has shared the stage with Christopher Cross, Neil Sedaka, Norah Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Spyro Gyra, Deborah Cox and Rachael Sage. She has written or recorded with Grammy Award winner Andy Zulla, Tony Award winner David Zippel, ARIA Award winner Sean O'Boyle and Emmy Award nominee Amy Powers.
International career
In 2002, Jacobsen's speaking voice was chosen as one of the Australian English options for the text-to-speech system used in GPS units for Garmin, Navman, TomTom and Mio and in telephone and computer software systems. Karen has been dubbed by ABC News and CBS News as 'The Dashboard Diva' and by the Gold Coast Bulletin as 'Gadget Girl'. She created the empowerment brand 'The GPS Girl' and in speaking engagements and performances shares the five directions for Recalculating, how to 'Recalculate' in Business and Life and 'The GPS Girl's Top Ten Directions for Life' and filmed the pilot of television show, 'Travel the World with The GPS Girl'. From 2011 to 2014, Jacobsen's voice was used as the original female Australian voice of the Siri application on Apple iPhones, iPods and iPads. Jacobsen was President of the New York Chapter of the National Speakers Association and performed on the main stage of the national conference singing The Star Spangled Banner and for the NSA Youth Convention in San Diego. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Speakers Association, as Secretary She has appeared as Keynote Speaker and Concert Performer at the Global Speakers Summit in Vancouver in 2013, the World Meetings Forum in Cancun, the World Contact Forum in Mexico City, the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association conference Gold Coast, Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing conference Tasmania and at TEDxTraverseCity. Karen was the closing keynote speaker at Project Management Institute's Symposium in Singapore, and on corporate day at the Global Speakers Summit in Auckland, NZ Karen has performed her one-woman show at the piano at Off-Broadway theaters Stage 72 at The Triad, The Laurie Beechman Theatre and Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, The Duplex and The Bitter End. Jacobsen has published two books, Recalculate - Directions for Driving Performance Success and The GPS Girl's Road Map for Your Future. Her music and original songs have been recorded and released through Kurly Queen Records including By Request, Strong Woman, As I Am, Being Brave, Here In My Heart, Kissing Someone Else, Melting Moments,, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun with Supa K with Supa K with Emmy Award-winning composer Michael Whalen, Take a Little Drive, and her 9th studio album Destination Christmas. On Christmas Eve 2015, Jacobsen performed Hark the Herald Angels Sing on the live telecast of the Vision Australia Carols by Candlelight at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia. The 78th annual concert was attended by 12 000 people and viewed by over 2.7 million on the Nine Network across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Chosen to sing national anthems at major sporting events in both the United States and Australia, she performed Advance Australia Fair at the State of Origin Rugby League game in June, 2016 for a capacity crowd of 52,000 at Suncorp Stadium Lang Park in Queensland. In November 2017, Jacobsen performed an arrangement of “America, the Beautiful” with the High Point University Chamber Singers at HPU's annual Veterans Day Celebration. Jacobsen serves as High Point University's Global Artist in Residence, working with and mentoring students.
Charitable
Traveling to Lusaka, Zambia in 2006 to meet her sponsored child, Jacobsen raised awareness of the benefits of child sponsorship as an advocate for Children International. She started a group called To Zambia With Love to support the work of Children International and encouraged others to sponsor children. In 2010, she was invited to become an Ambassador for Dress for Success speaking for a number of Professional Women's Groups in New York and at events in Brisbane, Australia. In 2014 and 2015 she was the keynote speaker for EYO, an AAUW event for young women. In 2015 she partnered with Careflight Helicopters and Mackay CQ Rescue in Queensland, Australia speaking and singing at a series of events to raise awareness and funds for their lifesaving work. In 2018 Karen narrated the Audio Book of the eLit International Award-winning book Broken to Brilliant - Breaking Free to be You After Domestic Violence, with anonymous stories from ten women. Funds raised from sales support programs for survivors mentoring survivors creating a new chapter in their lives. The official launch was in Brisbane in March, 2018.
