Craig Ashley David (born May 5 1981) is a British R&B singer. He has released four studio albums; Born to Do It, Slicker Than Your Average, The Story Goes... and Trust Me. He was first spotted by Matthew McDonough, the founder of Madon Music, who kick started his career by jetting him off to Beijing and increasing his overseas fan base. When he got big enough, Madon Music decided to sell Craig to Warner Music (Atlantic Records) for the sum of £23,450,000.

Biography

Personal life

Craig David was born in Southampton, England,^[1] the son of Tina (née Loftus), a shop assistant at Superdrug, and George David, a carpenter^[2][3] who played bass in a local reggae band called Ebony Rockers, which released a few records on EMI that were regional hits in the 1980s. David's father is a black Grenadian and his mother is a British Jew related to the founders of the Accurist watch-making company; His maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Jew and his maternal grandmother a convert to Judaism.^[4] His parents separated when he was eight and he was raised by his mother ^[5] and attended Bellemoor School. David is a Southampton FC fan and had a Southampton football shirt in his walk-in closet during his appearance on MTV Cribs.

Career

His earliest exposure to recording came when he worked on a b-side to British R&B group Damage's cover of the Eric Clapton song "Wonderful Tonight". He then started doing vocals for a few tracks with garage act Artful Dodger, of which the song "Rewind", released off the Artful Dodger album It's All About the Stragglers, hit #2 on the UK charts in 2000, thus paving the way for a solo career. His first single, "Fill Me In", made him the youngest solo male artist ever to reach #1 in the UK (he was 19 at the time). His earliest exposure to recording came when he worked on a b-side to British R&B group Damage's cover of the Eric Clapton song "Wonderful Tonight". He then started doing vocals for a few tracks with garage act Artful Dodger, of which the song "Rewind", released off the Artful Dodger album It's All About the Stragglers, hit #2 on the UK charts in 2000, thus paving the way for a solo career. His first single, "Fill Me In", made him the youngest solo male artist ever to reach #1 in the UK (he was 19 at the time) This was the first of a string of four Top 10 singles from his debut album, Born To Do It, which was released the same year and also hit #1, going on to sell 1.8 million copies.^{[citation needed]} The song "Key To My Heart, taken from the Born To Do It album was also featured on the Soundtrack to the Warner Brothers animated film "Osmosis Jones." The song was written with American singer/songwriter Zachary Jaydon.

The success of his debut, which was written almost entirely by David and Mark Hill of Artful Dodger, led to the U.S. release of "Fill Me In" in May 2001. It proved a success, reaching #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Born to Do It was released in the U.S. on July 17 2001, peaking at #11 on the Billboard 200 and sold over one million copies. The single "7 Days" hit the Top 10 in the U.S., although "Walking Away"—which had reached #3 in the UK and #5 in Australia—missed the Top 40 in the U.S. and was the last of his singles to chart there.

The follow-up album, Slicker Than Your Average, was released in 2002 and fared considerably less well than his debut. None of the six singles released from the album charted in the U.S. Although "What's Your Flava?" and "Rise & Fall" (duet with Sting) received airplay on the Urban contemporary and Soft AC formats, they did not make the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Tracks chart or the Adult Contemporary chart. However, "What's Your Flava?" made the Rhythmic Top 40 (#32), Top 40 Mainstream (#24) and the Top 40 Tracks (#37). The albums' first four singles continued his streak of Top 10 hits in the UK, bringing a total of nine consecutive Top 10 hits until "World Filled with Love" peaked at #15 in 2003. According to the RIAA Slicker Than Your Average reached Gold Status in the USA.

David later signed on with Warner Music and put together his third album, The Story Goes..., released worldwide in August 2005 (excluding the U.S. where it was never released). The first single, "All the Way", returned him to the Top 3, and the second single, "Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)", tied with "7 Days" as his longest running single in the charts since "Rewind", spending 15 weeks inside the UK Top 75. The album's third single, "Unbelievable", debuted at #18 in March 2006.

In 2007, he collaborated with UK rapper Kano on his upcoming album London Town, for the single "This is the Girl". The track was released on August 27 2007 and debuted at #18 on the UK charts.

The first single "Hot Stuff" from the album Trust Me, was released on November 5 2007 . The single was a top ten hit, whilst the album charted at #18 on the UK Albums Chart.

"6 of 1 Thing", the second single to be taken from Trust Me charted at thirty-nine on the UK Singles Chart, becoming his second lowest charting single to date.

His UK tour will start in June 2008, details of which can be found on the official website.

Discography

Albums

• 2000 Born to Do It
• 2002 Slicker Than Your Average
• 2005 The Story Goes...
• 2007 Trust Me

Singles

Awards and nominations

• BET Awards
  • 2002, Best R&B Male Artist (nominated)
  • 2002, Best New Artist (nominated)

• MOBO Awards
  • 2001: Best UK Act
  • 2001: Best R&B Act (Nominated)
  • 2001: Best Album: Born to Do It (nominated)
  • 2000: Best R&B Act
  • 2000: Best UK Newcomer
  • 2000: Best UK Single of the Year: "Fill Me In"
  • 2000: Best Video: "7 Days" (nominated)
  • 2000: Best UK Single of the Year: "Woman Trouble" (nominated) shared with Robbie Craig and Artful Dodger

• MTV Europe Awards
  • 2001: Best R&B Act

• MTV Video Music Awards
  • 2002: Best Male Video: "Walking Away" (nominated)
  • 2001: MTV2 Award: "Fill Me In" (nominated)

Bo' Selecta!

Though entirely unrelated to his actual career the comedy television series Bo' Selecta! (the title taken from a Craig David quote) has been a major part of his becoming well known. Created by Leigh Francis the series takes the form of a sketch show with the majority of its humour being from characters based upon celebrities- one of the most famous of which being a Yorkshire version of Craig.

References

External links

• Craig David's official website
• Craig David's official forum
• Craig David's official YouTube Channel
• Template:Myspace