Born on Prince Edward Island to Ken (a vascular surgeon) and Heather Elizabeth Grant, she moved to Halifax with her mother and brother at age ten when their marriage broke up. Jenn"s video for the song "The Fighter" uses 16 mm film footage of this parade and time, as this song and album are a dedication to her mother"s life.
She attended Saint Mary"s University for a time and later graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting.
Jenn"s mother who was an inspiration to her career was named the Queen of Azaleas in 1973 in Norfolk, Virginia. Jenn"s mother died in May 2012. She performed as a musician for a time in her early teens, but stopped due to a bout of stage fright, and did not return to performing until her early 20s when she played some shows with The Heavy Blinkers.
She then released an independent European Parliament, Jenn Grant and Goodbye Twentieth Century, in 2005.
She collaborated on her debut album, Orchestra for the Moon, with such artists as Ron Sexsmith, the Heavy Blinkers, Matt Mays and Jill Barber, and later toured Germany and Canada in support of the album, including as an opening act for The Weakerthans. She later began recording her second album, Echoes, on a farm in rural Ontario in 2008.
Her voice was also featured in the song "We Made a Pact" by Hey Rosetta on their 2008 album Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood). Echoes was released in 2009.
She continues to paint, including designing some of her own album covers.
In 2010 and 2011, she collaborated with Buck 65 on several tracks, including "Paper Airplane", "Cold Steel Drum", "Days Go By" and a cover of Leonard Cohen"s "Who By Fire", on his 20 Odd Years series of EPs. Late in 2010, she also released a four-song European Parliament, Songs for Siigoun, which featured a cover of John Denver"s "Annie"s Song". She released her third full-length album, Honeymoon Punch, in early 2011.
Her fourth album, The Beautiful Wild, followed in 2012, and her fifth album, Compostela, was released on October 21, 2014.
In 2006, Grant won Best New Artist and Best Female Artist at the Nova Scotia Music Honeymoon Punch was a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize, and was shortlisted for a Juno Award in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category at the Juno of 2012. Grant won an East Coast Music Award for the song for song of the year at the 2013 ECMAs of the album "The Beautiful Wild". Grant won an East Coast Music Award for People’s Recording of the Year at the 2012 ECMAs for The Beautiful Wild. At the 2013 ECMAs, she won the award for Song of the Year, for that album"s single "I"ve Got Your Fire". Grant"s song "Dreamer", from Orchestra for the Moon, is featured as the theme song on Canadian Broadcasting Company"s Heartland. Her song "Make it Home Tonight" was played at the end of episode 12 of Flashpoint, "Haunting the Barn". Her album Compostela has been nominated for two Juno.
