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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 ten million albums worldwide.
Early years: Stone was born in Dover, Kent, 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 made her first public
appearance at the Uffculme Comprehensive School —
which she attended —, in Uffculme, Devon, with a cover
of Jackie Wilson's 1957 "Reet Petite".
Stone grew up listening to a wide variety of music
including American 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, she 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, she has performed with such artists as
Blondie and Gladys Knight.
The Soul Sessions: 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, a cover version of Sugar Billy's 1974
"Super Duper Love". It was nominated for a
Mercury Prize in 2004.
Mind, Body & Soul: After achieving critical
acclaim with 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 "Security"
in Europe, both released as airplay only.
Introducing Joss Stone: 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 peaked at number twenty-eight on the UK
Singles Chart — where it stayed for three weeks only
— and peaked at number eighty-three on the U.S
Billboard Hot 100. It also debuted at number two on the
Billboard 200 selling 118,000 copies in its first week,
becoming the highest debut for a British solo female
artist on the U.S. charts, surpassing the record
previously held by Amy Winehouse with Back to Black. The
album has sold 60,000 copies in the UK since its
release, gaining Silver status on the charts.
2007 BRIT Awards: Stone caused controversy at the
2007 BRIT Awards ceremony, on 14 February, when
presenting the award for "British Male Solo
Artist" (won by James Morrison). Speaking with a
faux American accent and walking around the podium, she
gave a speech 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
remarks about 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.
The BRIT Awards appearance was the beginning of a string
of incidents that the UK press reported as examples of
Stone's increasingly erratic behaviour.
Other achievements: Known for her barefoot
performances and neo-hippie fashions, Stone became an
icon of sorts for stylishly earthy young women. To
promote her 2007 album, however, she changed her style
to a harder-edged, purple-haired look.
In March 2005, Stone was named the spokesperson for the
megastore Gap, replacing Sarah Jessica Parker. She
recorded two songs for its commercial — a cover of Ray
Charles' 1958 "Night Time Is the Right Time"
(retitled as "The Right Time") and a cover of
The Beach Boys' 1966 "God Only Knows". By that
time, rumours circulated about her being reportedly
dropped because she was living with
then-twenty-five-year-old songwriter/producer Beau
Dozier (son of producer Lamont Dozier) in Los Angeles,
California while she was only seventeen. However, this
was later denied.
On 14 November 2004, Stone joined Band Aid 20 to benefit
Sudan's troubled Darfur region. The group, consisting of
such luminaries as Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin and
U2 lead singer Bono, re-recorded the 1984 song "Do
They Know It's Christmas?", written by Band Aid
organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. Stone, born two
years after the release of the original single, wasn't
initially aware of who Bob Geldof was. The media
gleefully reported that she repeatedly referred to him
as Bob Gandalf. Despite some criticism, the single
became the UK's biggest seller of 2004 as well as the
Christmas number one.
On 9 February 2005, Stone was nominated for three BRIT
Awards, of which she won two — "British Female
Solo Artist" and "British Urban Act". She
performed "Angels" with Robbie Williams during
the ceremony. She also received three nominations for
the 2005 Grammy Awards — "Best New Artist",
"Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for
"You Had Me", and "Best Pop Vocal
Album" for Mind, Body & Soul —, where she
sang barefoot on stage with rock performer Melissa
Etheridge, in tribute to the late blues-rock singer
Janis Joplin. Their performance of "Cry Baby/Piece
of My Heart" was released as a single, and, through
the aid of strong digital downloads, became Stone's
first single to enter the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, when
it debuted and peaked at number thirty-two.
In July 2005, she lent her vocal talents to the
Fantastic Four soundtrack, singing the title song
"What Ever Happened to the Heroes", written by
Pink, billymann, and Christopher Rojas and produced by
Beau Dozier shortly before their break-up in October
2005.
On 2 July 2005, Stone performed at the Live 8 concert at
Hyde Park, London, and performed "Papa's Got a
Brand New Bag" with funk legend James Brown on the
British chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. On 5
February 2006, she joined Stevie Wonder, India.Arie, and
John Legend at the Super Bowl XL pre-game show in
performing a medley of Wonder's hits. Three days later,
on 8 February, she helped perform a medley of hits by
the reclusive singer Sly Stone, the frontman of Sly
& the Family Stone, on the night of the 2006 Grammy
Awards.
Stone collaborated with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and
blues singer-guitarist Jonny Lang on a cover of U2's
1988 song "When Love Comes to Town", from
Hancock's 2005 album Possibilities. She has also
recently collaborated with Lemar on his latest album The
Truth About Love, on the track "Anniversary".
Stone made her film debut in the fantasy epic Eragon,
based on the 2003 novel of the same name, released on 15
December 2006. In the film, Stone plays the witch
Angela.
At the 2007 Grammy Awards, Stone shared a win of the
award for "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or
Group with Vocals" for her collaboration with Sly
& the Family Stone, John Legend, and Van Hunt on
"Family Affair".
Stone was named the World's Best Celebrity Dog Owner in
2005 in an online poll conducted by readers of The New
York Dog Magazine and The Hollywood Dog Magazine. She
owns two female dogs: Missy (named after rapper Missy
Elliott), a Rottweiler, and Dusty (named after Dusty
Springfield, one of her major influences), a Poodle. She
was also voted the World's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2005 by
PETA, alongside Chris Martin.
Canadian singer-guitarist and photographer Bryan Adams
recently photographed Stone for the Hear the World
magazine, a quarterly culture and lifestyle publication
dedicated to the topic of hearing. Joss was #78 on
Maxim's Hot 100 in 2007. |
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