Date of Birth
11 December 1987, Dover, Kent, England, UK
Birth Name
Joscelyn Eve Stoker
Nickname
Jossie
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Mini Biography
Joscelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist. Her second album, the similarly multi-platinum Mind Body & Soul (2004), topped the UK Albums Chart for one week and spawned the top ten hit "You Had Me", Stone's most successful single on the UK Singles Chart to date.
Both the album and single received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, while Stone herself was nominated for Best New Artist, and in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2004, was ranked fifth as a predicted breakthrough act of 2004. She became the youngest British female singer to top the UK Albums Chart. Stone's third album, Introducing Joss Stone, released in March 2007, achieved gold record status by the RIAA and yielded the second-ever highest debut for a British female solo artist on the Billboard 200, and became Stone's first top five album in the US. She released her fourth album, Colour Me Free!, on 20 October 2009, which reached the top 10 on Billboard. Stone released her fifth album, LP1, on 22 July 2011, which reached the top 10 on Billboard. Throughout her career, Stone has sold 14 million records worldwide, establishing herself as one of the best-selling soul artists of the 2000s, and the best-selling British artists of her time. Her first three albums have sold over 2,722,000 copies in the US, while her first two albums have sold over 2 million copies in the UK. Stone has earned numerous accolades, including two Brit Awards and one Grammy Award out of five nominations.
She made her film acting debut in 2006 with the fantasy adventure film Eragon, and made her television debut portraying Anne of Cleves in the Showtime series The Tudors in 2009. Stone was the youngest woman on the 2006 Sunday Times Rich List-an annual list of the UK's wealthiest people. In 2012, her net worth was estimated to be 10 million, making her the fifth richest British musician under 30. The Soul Sessions Vol. 2 (2012) is her fourth consecutive album to reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200.
Joscelyn Eve Stone was born on 11 April 1987 at Buckland Hospital in Dover, Kent and spent her teenage years in Ashill, a small pastoral village near Cullompton in Devon. She is the third of four children born to Wendy (Skillin) and Richard Stoker. Her father owns a fruit and nut import-export business; her mother worked as Stone's manager until October 2004. Stone made her first public appearance at the Uffculme Comprehensive School-which she attended-in Uffculme, Devon, with a cover version of Jackie Wilson's 1957 song "Reet Petite". Stone has dyslexia and left school at age sixteen with only three GCSE qualifications. "It wasn't that I was stupid. I'm just a little bit dyslexic and I wasn't very academic. I'm more artistic", she says. Stone grew up listening to a wide variety of music including 1960s and 1970s 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. "My first CD that I owned was Aretha Franklin: Greatest Hits. And I saw the advert on TV and it was just like little clips of her songs. I had no idea who she was-I was only like 10 so. I said, 'Oh yeah, that looks really good', so I wrote it down and I said to my mum, 'Can I have that for Christmas?' So she told my friend Dennis, who always gets me good music anyway, and he got that for me. So that was one of my first albums that I loved."
She would later tell 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." Stone possesses the vocal range of a mezzo-soprano and contralto. She's famous for performing barefoot and has been described as "the white Aretha Franklin" since her debut in music industry. However, Stone was the subject of some contention in the United States, where her audience expected soul artists to have been born in poverty and have had a rough and painful life in order to sing soul music due to its emotional nature. People also expected someone with a voice like hers to be black. In 2004, Stone began dating Beau Dozier, with whom she co-wrote the song "Spoiled". Dozier is the son of Motown producer Lamont Dozier, who is best known as part of Holland-Dozier-Holland. The couple ended their relationship in November 2005.
In a 2016 interview, Stone revealed that she was in a relationship with music promoter SiChai for three years. Stone is a lifelong vegetarian, and has taken part in various campaigns for animal rights group PETA, Stone also owns a number of rescue dogs.
Trivia
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Took part in the Band Aid 20 re-recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?". [November 2004]
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Supports Liverpool Football Club
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Nominated for 3 Grammys: best new artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance ('You Had Me') & Best Pop Vocal Album (Mind, Body & Soul) (2005)
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Is dyslexic.
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Tom Cruise is a fan of her music and a friend of hers.
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Owning Missy, a Rottweiler, and Dusty, a Poodle, she was chosen "World's Best Celebrity Dog Owner" in 2005 by the readers of two US dog magazines.
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Is a vegetarian. Once known as the World's Most Famous Vegetarian.
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are fans of hers.
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Winner of two Brit Awards in 2005 for "British Female Solo Artist" and "British Urban Act".
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Won a Grammy for "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" in 2007.
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Has three siblings: Daniel, Lucy and Harry.
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Third of four children born to Richard and Wendy Stoker.
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Grew up in Ashill, Devon.
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Ranked #78 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list.
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She lives in Devon, UK, in a house close to her family's place.
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Close friends with Robbie Williams, ever since performing together at the 2005 Brit Awards.
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At age 17 Stone became the youngest female solo artist to top the UK album charts with "Mind, Body & Soul" (2004).
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Invited actor Vinnie Jones to participate in her 3rd album "Introducing Joss Stone". He is the male voice in the album's 1st track "Change (Vinnie Jones Intro)".
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On tour with her new album "Colour Me Free" [January 2010]
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She suffered from dyslexia, and it contributed to her poor performance in school. She auditioned for a spot on the competition television show Star For a Night when she was thirteen.
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She has performed onstage with the likes of Gladys Knight, Melissa Etheridge, and Smokey Robinson.
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She was born to parents Richard and Wendy Stoker. She has three siblings named Daniel, Lucy, and Harry. She.
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She kicked off her Total World Tour in April of 2014 with plans to play a concert in every country on the planet.
Trademarks:
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Performing barefoot
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Singing barefoot
Quotes
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It's sad that people listen to music and decide how the singer should look.
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People say I'm the white Aretha Franklin. I wish I was her.
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[on why she always performs barefoot]: "I don't want to fall over, man."
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I smoke weed, but I don't think it's really a drug. It's more of a herb. I don't regret saying that at all. I think everyone smokes weed and people who say they don't are lying! Weed has been given this evil stamp, but how is it dangerous? It's going to make you laugh your a**e off? You might go to sleep? I think alcohol is much more harmful.
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Mick Jagger is always having a go at me for smoking. I've known him and the rest of the band for years now and I love them. Mick is always on at me about drinking honey and buying humidifiers for my voice. I follow his advice, then he sees me smoking a roll-up and goes mental. I try to stop, I do, but it's hard.
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[February 2008, asked how she protects her heart while promoting the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's annual Heart Truth awareness campaign] In England we smoked rolled cigarettes. It's better to smoke rollies than straights because straights have chemicals that keep them burning. So if you have to really smoke, smoke rollies.