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BIOGRAPHY

Joss Stone
	BIOGRAPHY | GALLERY | GOSSIP | BLOG

Joscelyn Eve Stoker, born 11 April 1987, best known by her stage name Joss Stone, is a Brit Award- and Grammy Award-winning English soul, R&B, and blues singer, songwriter, and occasional actress who has sold over nine million albums worldwide.

Stone was born in Dover, Kent, England, and spent her teenage years in Ashill, Devon. She is the third of four children born to Richard and Wendy Stoker: Daniel, Lucy, and Harry. She grew up listening to a wide variety of music including R&B and soul music performed by such artists as Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin; as a result, she developed a soulful style of singing like her idols. In 2001, at the age of fourteen, she appeared on the BBC Television's talent show Star for a Night singing Donna Summer's 1979 "On the Radio". She told MTV News, "I kind of clicked into soul music more than anything else because of the vocals. You've got to have good vocals to sing soul music and I always liked it ever since I was little".

In 2002, Stone decided to back her ability by flying out from England for an audition in New York City with S-Curve CEO Steve Greenberg. She also signed a global music publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing in the UK.

Since then, Stone has performed with such artists as Blondie and Gladys Knight. She was named as the spokesperson for the megastore Gap, although she was reportedly dropped because of rumours of her living with then-twenty-five-year-old songwriter Beau Dozier (son of record producer Lamont Dozier) while she was only seventeen.

After being signed by S-Curve Records, Stone flew to Miami, Florida to start working on her debut album, The Soul Sessions, released on 16 September 2003. She collaborated with people with solid credentials in the Miami soul scene such as Betty Wright, Benny Latimore, Timmy Thomas, and Little Beaver. She also worked with contemporary acts Angie Stone and The Roots.

The album consists of little known soul tracks by Wright, Franklin, Laura Lee, and Bettye Swann. Released in late 2003, it reached the top five in the UK Albums Chart, and also made the top forty of the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The lead single, "Fell in Love with a Boy", which was a reworking of The White Stripes' 2001 "Fell in Love with a Girl", reached the top twenty of the UK Singles Chart, as did the second single, "Super Duper Love".

After achieving critical acclaim for The Soul Sessions, Stone recorded her second album, this time made mostly of songs co-written by her—, Mind, Body & Soul, released on 28 September 2004. It proved to be an even bigger success than her first album, as it debuted at number one in the UK (breaking the record for the youngest female ever to top the UK Albums Chart, a record previously held by Avril Lavigne) and just missed the top ten of the U.S. Billboard 200, after peaking at number eleven. The lead single, "You Had Me", became her first top ten hit in the UK. Follow-up singles "Right to Be Wrong" and "Spoiled" both made the top forty, and "Don't Cha Wanna Ride" the top twenty. "Spoiled" landed just outside the top fifty of U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, peaking at number fifty-four. The fifth single is "Less Is More" in Latin America and Australia and "Segurity" in Europe, both released as airplay only.

Stone began working on her third studio album, Introducing Joss Stone, in Barbados, in May 2006. It was released on 12 March 2007 in the UK via Virgin Records, involving production by Raphael Saadiq and collaborations with Lauryn Hill, Novel, and Common. Virgin describes it as "an electrifying mix of warm vintage soul, '70s-style R&B, Motown girl-group harmonies, and hip-hop grooves". Stone herself describes it as "truly me. That's why I'm calling it Introducing Joss Stone. These are my words, and this is who I am as an artist". She also revealed on The Tavis Smiley Show that her break-up with Beau Dozier was a source of inspiration while writing Introducing Joss Stone. The album debuted at number twelve on the UK Albums Chart. "Tell Me 'Bout It", the lead single, debuted (and so far peaked) at number twenty-eight on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the U.S. Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.

Stone caused controversy at the 2007 Brit Awards ceremony when presenting the award for "British Male Solo Artist" (won by James Morrison). Speaking with a faux American accent and stalking the stage, she launched into a largely incoherent diatribe in which she asked the audience to send "big love" to Robbie Williams, who had been the butt of earlier jokes made by host Russell Brand. Williams had been reported as going into rehab that same week. As her speech continued, she made a dig at Brand, implying that he was heading for rehab himself (while singing a passage of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"). Brand stated that he was "a bit worried about that poor cow" at the close of the show. She also has had a string of mincidents which she has been heckled about lately. These include fans booing her for showing up late for a gig, her publishing a 7000 word thank you list for her album (containing phrases like "That was some serious cheesecake") & giving an impromptu press conference to a bunch of security guards that she had mistaken for reporters.