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 and in a billion+ devices. 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. 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. 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