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| Birth Name(s) : Jamelia Niela Davis |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Singer, songwriter |
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Full Jamelia Biography
Jamelia Niela Davis (born on 11 January 1981), known professionally as Jamelia, is a four-time MOBO Award-winning and BRIT Award nominated artist who found fame in early 2000 after impressing music executives at Parlophone Records with self-written a capella songs. The English-born R&B singer has gone on to become one of the UK's most successful solo female artists, whose second album 'Thank You' achieved Double Platinum status in late 2004 after sales in excess of 580, 000.
Jamelia's third single "Money" coincided with the release of her debut album "Drama" in 2000. Released in February, the single proved to be Jamelia's breakthrough in the UK, peaking and #5 and spending nine weeks in side the UK Top 75, later winning a MOBO Award for "Best Video" in 2000. It featured guest rapping from Beenie Man and was also co-written by UK "X Factor" finalist Daniel De Bourg.
The third single from the album was "Call Me". It became Jamelia's second UK Top 20 and third top forty single, when upon its release it debuted on the UK Top 40 at #11. The fourth and final single from the album was "Boy Next Door", which despite not making the UK Top 40 managed to help with sales of "Drama", which recently reached Gold status in 2004 after having sold over 100, 000 copies.
Jamelia set about recording her second studio album "Thank You" in 2002 and early 2003 following the birth of her daughter Teja in 2001. The first single to be lifted from "Thank You" was the R&B influenced "Bout", on which she collaborated with American rap star Rah Digga. Despite returning Jamelia to the UK Top 40 when it debuted at #37, "Bout" is largely ignored as the lead single from "Thank You" following the success of "Superstar" in late 2003. This single, which was a much more poppier effort, became one of the most successful in 2003 - launching Jamelia into the UK top three for the first time and becoming the 26th best selling single of that year.
The album "Thank You" was released shortly after "Superstar" and it was widely expected that it would follow the success of the single. However, upon its release Thank You entered the UK charts at a lowly #65 and there were fears that the singer's career was in crisis. However, 2004 saw Jamelia become one of the most successful artists of that year.
Promoting the album, title track "Thank You" was released shortly before. Known to be Jamelia's favourite of all her releases, the inspiring song became her highest charting single to date in the UK where it peaked at #2 and won the 2004 MOBO Award for "Best Single" and a BRIT Award nomination for the same thing.
2004 was one of the most successful years in Jamelia's career, and the success of the project resulted in her having five BRIT Award nominations in 2004 and 2005.
"Thank You" became the 35th best selling album of 2004 and has gone on to sell almost 600,000 copies, eventually being certified as Double Platinum.
Second single "Beware of The Dog" was released on December 4 2006, featuring a same from Depeche Mode's 1989 "Personal Jesus". The single had a very good reception, with Radio 1's "Chart Blog" stating that the song "might just be one of the best pop songs ever made". Like its predecessor, the song scraped the UK Top 40 at #34 based on downloads alone, before rising to #10 the following week. Many feel that it should have had a better chart performance, but some also slated the song for allegedly being a copy of fellow singer Rihanna's recent hit "SOS". The song was also nominated for Popjustice's 2007 £20 Music Prize, coming in at a respectable second place.
Despite the controversy surrounding "Beware of The Dog", the single helped "Walk With Me" back into the UK Top 75 in January 2007, where it climbed to #51 and then rose again to #45 the following week.
Despite getting good reviews, "Walk With Me" did not match the success of its predecessor "Thank You", but did manage to sell enough copies to have been awarded Gold status in mid-2007.
Despite featuring singles from over a seven year period, Superstar - The Hits failed to attract any critical or commercial acclaim when it failed to make the UK Top 40, stalling at #55 in the UK Top 100 Albums. However, it is also understood that as Jamelia left Parlophone earlier in early 2007 that the singles collection was released only so that contract agreements could be met on both Jamelia's and Parlophone's side, and thus the album contained no new material, had limited promotion and did not have the support required to have success in the charts.
In spring, 2004, Jamelia was signed by the prestigious model agency, ICM. Just a week later she was signed as the face and legs of Pretty Polly in a high profile advertising campaign and shortly afterwards was featured in a poster campaign for Reebok. Since pursuing work in modelling, Jamelia has also endorsed Listerine Softmint Sensation, Jaguar Cars and BMW, was the brand ambassador for the maternity wear line Seraphine, has appeared in print advertising for Oxfam and on the front cover of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Company, Elle and Harpers & Queen.
Jamelia will appear on ITV's "Saturday Night Divas" to mark the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She will share the stage with Jennifer Lopez, Girls Aloud, Celine Dion and Alicia Keys, amongst others.
Jamelia has confirmed that she has been in talks to star in the West End production of Rent, taking over from Denise Van Outen in the role of Maureen. |
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