Anne-Marie
Anne-Marie Rose Nicholson is an English singer and songwriter. She has achieved commercial success with the songs "Alarm", "Ciao Adios", "Friends", "2002", "Don't Play", and "Kiss My ", and was featured on Clean Bandit's "Rockabye", which peaked at number one. She has released 3 albums: Speak Your Mind, which peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart, Therapy, and Unhealthy, both of which peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart.
Anne-Marie was nominated for four awards at the 2019 Brit Awards, including Best British Female Solo Artist. To date she has been nominated for ten Brit Awards and has also received a nomination for a Billboard Music Award and a Grammy Award. She has been signed to Asylum Records since 2015. From 2021 to 2023, Anne-Marie appeared as a coach on the television singing competition The Voice UK.
Early life
Anne-Marie Rose Nicholson was born on 7 April 1990 in East Tilbury, Essex. Her mother is a local teacher and her father is a builder and handyman from the East End of London. She has an older sister named Samantha.When she was five, Anne-Marie went to stage school. She appeared in two West End productions as a child: she auditioned for Les Misérables aged six, without telling her parents, and performed in Whistle Down the Wind with Jessie J when she was twelve.
Anne-Marie attended St Clere's School at Stanford-le-Hope, where she was involved in performing arts. Her initial popularity there ended when she was fourteenshe was shunned and bullied by her classmates after being accused of cheating on her boyfriend, when she had only spoken to another boy on the phone late at night. Anne-Marie also said she regrets being a difficult childexacerbated by her grandmother's death when she was twelveand was advised by Ed Sheeran to "call mum and dad every day". She began filming herself singing in her room as a teenager. Anne-Marie went on to go to Palmer's College in Thurrock.
Anne-Marie is a black belt in Shotokan karate. She began taking lessons aged nine, and became a triple world champion, winning double gold in the Funakoshi Shotokan Karate Association World Championships in 2002, and further gold and silver in 2007; as well as gold in the United Kingdom Traditional Karate Federation National Championships. She credits karate with teaching her the "discipline and focus" necessary for her singing career, but tours have made it difficult for her to find time for the sport.
Career
2013–2015: Career beginnings and ''Karate''
After a chance meeting, Anne-Marie secured recording time in Rocket Studios, owned by Elton John, which signed her to a recording contract after hearing her sing. On Rocket, she released the demo "Summer Girl" in 2013. It attracted attention when Ed Sheeran linked to it on his Twitter account. A possible solo career was curtailed for her to develop herself as an artist. After guest appearances on songs by Magnetic Man, Gorgon City, and Raized by Wolves, she gained the attention of Rudimental, and in 2014 she was asked to replace a vocalist who left the band. Anne-Marie then spent two years touring with Rudimental as a vocalist. She also featured on four tracks on their second album We the Generation, including co-features with Dizzee Rascal and Will Heard, and "Rumour Mill", which reached number 67 on the UK Singles Chart and gave her enough confidence to go solo. She said that she was writing daily while touring.Anne-Marie's debut extended play, Karate EP, was released on 10 June 2015, under Rudimental's then-new label Major Tom's. Produced by Josh Record and Two Inch Records, it contained three tracks and a remix. Debut single "Karate" and "Gemini" led to Anne-Marie making her first solo live performances. The Guardian favorably reviewed "Boy" and opined that Karate "proves she's ready to step out alone". She released the single "Do It Right" in November, which peaked at number 90 on the UK Singles Chart and was certified platinum in Australia.
2016–2018: ''Speak Your Mind''
Her debut album had the working title of Breathing Fire. In May 2016, Anne-Marie released "Alarm", the first single from her debut album. It spent one week at number 76 in June before resurfacing a month later; it later peaked at number 16 and was certified double platinum in the UK. In October 2016, Anne-Marie was confirmed to play at the 31st edition of Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, Netherlands. On 10 October 2016, Anne-Marie featured on Illy's song "Catch 22". The same month, Clean Bandit released their song "Rockabye", with Anne-Marie as main vocalist and featuring Jamaican rapper Sean Paul. It spent nine consecutive weeks at number one and gained the coveted Christmas number one. The song has since been certified multi-platinum across most of Europe, North America and Oceania. The Official Charts Company ranked "Rockabye" as the 57th biggest song of the decade in the UK.In March 2017, Anne-Marie released "Ciao Adios", which she had previously performed live at KOKO on 28 November 2016. The single became a top 10 hit in the UK, charting at number nine and being certified double platinum by the BPI. In May 2017, Anne-Marie teamed up with Nick Jonas and Mike Posner on the single "Remember I Told You". Anne-Marie's next single saw her collaborate with Snakehips on "Either Way", which also featured Joey Badass. In September 2017, Anne-Marie released "Heavy", followed by "Then" on 15 December. In 2018, Anne-Marie collaborated with Marshmello on "Friends". The song was released on 9 February 2018, and was Anne-Marie's second top five UK hit as a lead artist. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, "Friends" was the ninth best-selling single of 2018 with sales of 9.6 million track-equivalent units.
Anne-Marie's debut studio album, Speak Your Mind, was released on 27 April 2018. Prior to the release of her album, Anne-Marie released the single "2002" on 20 April in response to constant urging by Ed Sheeran, the co-creator of the song. "2002" became one of Anne-Marie's most successful singles worldwide. It peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, where it spent 47 non-consecutive weeks. In South Korea, the song topped the country's year-end chart in 2019, making Anne-Marie the first and only foreign artist to achieve this feat. That same year, "2002" was also the most-streamed song on the Korean music streaming service Melon. As of March 2023, "2002" is the fourth-longest-charting song in Melon history, and the only non-Korean song to surpass 350 million streams on the platform.
Her debut album, Speak Your Mind, was a commercial success, peaking at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart and charting in 22 other countries. It has since been certified Platinum in the UK and remained on the chart for a total of 102 non-consecutive weeks. Speak Your Mind was also the biggest debut album by a British artist in 2018. On 15 June 2018, Anne-Marie teamed up with Rudimental and Major Lazer on a song "Let Me Live", which also featured Mr Eazi. In July 2018, Anne-Marie featured on a David Guetta song titled "Don't Leave Me Alone", which peaked at 18 on the UK Singles chart.
In November 2018, Anne-Marie released the single "Perfect To Me", which was a remixed and retitiled version of her song "Perfect" from her debut album. On 4 November, Anne-Marie and Marshmello performed an acoustic version of "Friends" at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards. The same month, Anne-Marie and James Arthur recorded "Rewrite the Stars" from The Greatest Showman for the re-recording of its soundtrack, The Greatest Showman: Reimagined.
2019–2021: ''The Voice UK'', single releases and ''Therapy''
Following the release of her debut album in 2018, Anne-Marie began working on her next album. In an interview at the Brit Awards 2019, she stated that the album had been finished. However, it was ultimately scrapped later that year.In June 2019, Anne-Marie performed her first solo set on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival 2019. In August 2019, Lauv released the single "Fuck, I'm Lonely", featuring Anne-Marie, for the soundtrack of 13 Reasons Why: Season 3. Anne-Marie released the song "Birthday" on 7 February 2020. On Mother's Day 2020, Anne-Marie released the song "Her". In May 2020, Anne-Marie featured on a remix of "This City" by Sam Fischer. "To Be Young", was released on 17 July, featuring American rapper Doja Cat. On 28 August, Anne-Marie featured on the Rudimental song "Come Over", alongside Tion Wayne. On 12 November, Anne-Marie released the single "Problems". On the same day, her documentary, How To Be Anne-Marie, was released on YouTube Originals. The documentary gives light to the fans and a closer look about her personal life and her "time away from the limelight". Her documentary also features fellow celebrities, including Little Mix.
On 2 January 2021, she made her first appearance as the newest coach for the tenth series of The Voice UK, replacing Meghan Trainor. A member of her team, Craig Eddie, won series 10, giving Anne-Marie her first win on her first series as a coach. Anne-Marie spent the next two years as the coach, with the twelfth series, aired in 2023, being her last.
On 15 January, Anne-Marie released the single "Don't Play" in collaboration with British YouTuber and rapper-singer KSI and English DJ and producer Digital Farm Animals as the lead single from her second studio album. Anne-Marie contributed vocals on the song "Way Too Long" in collaboration with Nathan Dawe and MoStack on 9 April. The same month, she teamed up with Singaporean singer JJ Lin on a song "Bedroom" from his EP, Like You Do. On 13 May, Anne-Marie announced the single "Our Song" with Niall Horan as the third single from her upcoming second studio album. The song was released on 21 May. On 12 July, Anne-Marie released the track "Beautiful". The music video for the song retold the life of the Syrian refugee and parathlete Dima Aktaa. On 23 July, Anne-Marie released the single "Kiss My " as the fourth single, featuring Little Mix and released the album Therapy. It peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart.
On 30 September, Anne-Marie released her first book "You Deserve Better: An Imperfect Guide To Finding Your Own Happiness". The book was published by Orion Spring and was a Sunday Times bestseller. As of 8 February 2022, the book has sold over 10 000 copies. The Korean version of the book was published on 23 February 2022 and was the only official translation.
In November 2021 it was announced she would dance with Graziano Di Prima in the 2021 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, which she went on to win. The same month, Anne-Marie and Niall Horan released a cover of Fleetwood Mac's song "Everywhere" for the BBC Children in Need alongside other British musicians, including Ed Sheeran and Yungblud.