Karen Jacobsen

Karen Elisabeth Jacobsen is an Australian born and New York based entertainer, singer, motivational speaker, voiceover 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.

International career
On 4 July 2000, she relocated to New York City,  writing and recording songs, and has since released ten albums 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, Emmy Award nominee Amy Powers and Grammy Award nominee Nicole Zuraitis.

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. Jacobsen 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 (2015) and performed on the main stage of the national conference singing The Star Spangled Banner and for the NSA Youth Convention in San Diego (2014). She served on the board of directors of the National Speakers Association, as Secretary (2017 to 2019)

She has appeared as Keynote Speaker and Concert Performer at the Global Speakers Summit in Vancouver in 2013, the World Meetings Forum in Cancun (2014), the World Contact Forum in Mexico City (2014), the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association conference (2015) Gold Coast, Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing conference (2015) 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 (2018)

Jacobsen has performed her one woman show at the piano at off Broadway theatres Stage 72 at The Triad, The Laurie Beechman Theatre and Joe's Pub at The Public Theatre, The Duplex and The Bitter End.

Jacobsen has published two books, Recalculate – Directions for Driving Performance Success (2015) and The GPS Girl's Road Map for Your Future (2011).

Her music and original songs have been recorded and released through Kurly Queen Records including By Request (1993), Strong Woman (1996), As I Am (2000), Being Brave (2002), Here In My Heart (2004), Kissing Someone Else (2007), Melting Moments, (Australia only 2009), Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun with Supa K with Supa K with Emmy Award-winning composer Michael Whalen (2011), Take a Little Drive (2013), Destination Christmas (2015) Ready For What I Came Here For (2021) and the forthcoming album The Slipstream.

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.

She performed Advance Australia Fair at the State of Origin Rugby League game on 22 June 2016 for a capacity crowd of 52,000 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

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 served as High Point University's Global Artist in Residence, working with and mentoring students.

Return to Australia
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacobsen left her New York home of 20 years for Queensland, Australia, subsequently arriving in Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays, Queensland. As official Destination Ambassador she has been promoting the region through media appearances, advertising campaigns and her original music, videos and performances.

2020 saw the premiere of Jacobsen's original musical memoir Mackay to Manhattan at the MECC in Mackay, Queensland.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's iconic misogyny speech, Jacobsen set the speech to music word for word. The 'Misogyny Opus' is a one hour pop orchestral work, with the first section released in October 2022 with a music video including 70 equality advocates from around the world. As composer for the piece, Jacobsen recorded a full album and tour to spark conversation and empower a 'wave of equality.' "Now Karen Jacobsen, the original voice of the GPS has written this classical music masterpiece." "One Australian artist has gone a step further, giving the speech a glow-up into a Disney musical worthy tune by Queensland recording artist, Karen Jacobsen"

As co-founder of the Whitsundays Songwriter Festival, the inaugural event took place in September 2022 with a professional songwriter residency including Graeme Connors Tia Gostelow Leanne Tennant (LT) Bryce Sainty and co-founder Francesca de Valence at Yangaro in Funnel Bay near Airlie Beach in Queensland, Australia. Designed to create opportunities for regionally based Songwriters and to establish a world class songwriter presence in the area, the whitsongfest is part of the Whitsundays Arts Festival.

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 2014 and 2015, she was the keynote speaker for EYO, an AAUW event for young women.

In 2015, she partnered with Careflight (now LifeFlight) 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, she 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, and she is the International Patron of Broken to Brilliant.

Awards

 * Outstanding Alumnus of the Year, Queensland Conservatorium of Music Griffith University 2016
 * President's Award for Distinguished Service, National Speakers Association 2016
 * Dottie Burman Award, National Speakers Association NYC Chapter 2012
 * Kauai Music Festival Song Contest, Runner Up 2004
 * Abe Olman Scholarship, Songwriters Hall of Fame 2003
 * U.K. Songwriting Contest, Pop Category Runner Up 2003
 * Dallas Songwriting Contest, Singer Songwriter Category 1st Place 2002

Family
Jacobsen has a son who, she says, recognised her voice as that of Siri, saying "I wonder if he thinks everyone's mummy is in their iPhone.".