Stacey Solomon
Stacey Chanelle Clare Solomon is an English singer and television personality. In 2009, she finished in third place on the sixth series of The X Factor, and gained a number one single on the UK Singles Chart when her fellow The X Factor finalists released a cover of "You Are Not Alone".
Solomon won the tenth series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Her debut single, a cover of "Driving Home for Christmas", was released on 19 December 2011. Solomon then released her debut album Shy on 18 April 2015. In September 2016, she began appearing as a panellist on Loose Women and in November of the same year, she presented .
Life and career
Early life and career beginnings
Solomon was born in Dagenham. Her father is from a Jewish family that had emigrated to Britain from Iraq and Poland. Her mother was born into a Church of England family, and had converted to Judaism before marrying Stacey's father. Her parents divorced when she was nine. She attended King Solomon High School.2009–2010: ''The X Factor''
In 2009, Solomon auditioned for the sixth series of The X Factor, performing "What a Wonderful World". Solomon was among the top 12 contestants and advanced to the live shows and was mentored by Dannii Minogue. During the first week of the live shows she performed Coldplay's "The Scientist", which gained positive reviews from the judges. During week two, she performed "At Last", receiving the most public votes. She sang "When You Wish Upon a Star" during the third week. On the fourth week, all contestants had to sing rock songs; Minogue selected "Somewhere Only We Know", and Solomon's performance resulted in positive reviews. On the fifth week, she sang "Son of a Preacher Man". The sixth week into the competition, Solomon sang Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever". During the sixth week, she also released a cover of Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone", which topped the charts on the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart On the seventh week, she performed "I Can't Make You Love Me" and again received positive reviews from the judges and the audience. In the quarter-final, Solomon performed "Rule the World" by Take That and "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" by Elton John. In the semi-final she performed another Michael Jackson song, "The Way You Make Me Feel", and the song "Somewhere" for which she received a standing ovation again by the judges. During the final week, Solomon performed a duet "Feeling Good" with Michael Bublé. She also performed "What a Wonderful World" and "Who Wants to Live Forever". Solomon was awarded third place in the competition, behind Joe McElderry and Olly Murs.Solomon went on tour with her fellow X Factor finalists. In December 2010, she returned to the show, where she presented the show from Essex for winner, Matt Cardle.
2011–2016: ''Shy''
In June 2011, Solomon began working on her debut album, due to be released in 2012. Her first single from the album was originally to be released in February, but was delayed. On 5 November 2011, Solomon performed to thousands as the headline act at Paisley's Christmas Lights Switch On event. In September 2011, it was reported that Solomon was in a bidding war between record labels. However, she stated that she will have complete control. She was also asked to join The Only Way Is Essex, but turned it down.On 18 December 2011, Solomon released a cover of Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas" as her Christmas single. The single was used for the Iceland Christmas commercial and reached number 27 in the UK Singles Chart. In June 2012, she said she recorded a number of singles with an album planned in September 2012, but later moved that release date to February 2013, and then to November 2013.
On 29 November 2013, Solomon was announced as the headline artist to lead a choir of over 110,000 primary school children. She joined the Young Voices tour, which took place from 14 January to 5 February 2014 in Birmingham, Sheffield, London and Manchester. The singer performed tracks from her forthcoming debut album on the tour, scheduled for release in 2014. Her debut album "Shy" was released in April 2015 along with the title track "Shy." In 2016, she released her second single from the album, "My Big Mistake."
2017: Return to ''The X Factor''
Solomon returned to the fourteenth series of The X Factor UK on Saturday 2 December 2017 and Sunday 3 December 2017, where she co-presented alongside George Shelley where she interviewed the fourteenth series finalists parents, families, relatives and friends at the live finals from ExCeL London on things such as how they feel about their finalist who is competing in the competition and wishing their finalist who is competing 'good luck'. The interview is to give the audience a sense of what kind of support the finalists have behind them. Solomon and Shelley were co-presenters for this purpose of interviewing only, the main presenter is Dermot O'Leary. She returned again in the same position, the following year.Television career
Solomon took part in the tenth series of the reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! She beat Shaun Ryder in the final and was crowned "Queen of the Jungle". She gained 80.07% of the public votes.In 2011, she became the face of supermarket Iceland, taking over from Coleen Nolan. Solomon performed a duet with Ryder at the 16th National Television Awards – "Feeling Good" and "Step On" by Happy Mondays. In October 2010, she won the Living TV show Party Wars.
In April 2011, Solomon and Keith Lemon presented Sing If You Can.
On 5 September 2011, Solomon appeared in the Sooty episode "The Wedding" as Miss Solomon the Vicar.
From 11 March 2012, Solomon and Chris Moyles presented Sky Living's dating show The Love Machine. In Spring 2012, Solomon starred in an episode of Mad Mad World on ITV with Eamonn Holmes and Stephen K. Amos.
From 5 September 2012, Solomon was part of the judging panel for ITV2's Top Dog Model.
In May 2014, Solomon recorded the theme tune for Channel 5's children's show Pip Ahoy!. She also has a recurring role in the show, voicing Fuchsia the Flamingo.
From February 2015, Solomon took part in the second series of The Jump and was eliminated on 4 February.
Throughout Summer 2016, Solomon appeared several times as a guest panellist on ITV daytime show Loose Women. It was later announced that she would become a regular panellist alongside Lisa Riley after Vicky Pattison and Jamelia left the show.
On 22 September 2016, it was announced that Solomon would take over from Laura Whitmore and become co-host of newly named I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! spin-off I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Extra Camp alongside Vicky Pattison, Joe Swash and Chris Ramsey. She didn't return for the following series.
On a celebrity special of The Chase aired on 30 October 2016, Solomon won £60,000 in her individual chase, opposing Anne Hegerty.
On 25 June 2017, Solomon appeared as a guest on ITV2's Love Island After Sun; a chat show companion show to Love Island. She also took part in a celebrity edition of The Crystal Maze on Channel 4. In January 2018, she participated in And They're Off! in aid of Sport Relief.
Stacey also launched a clothing range with Primark on 11 October 2018.
In February 2019 on an episode of Loose Women, Solomon announced that she would become a regular panellist for ITV2’s Celebrity Juice hosted by Keith Lemon.
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
As lead artist
As featured artist
Personal life
At the age of 17, Solomon became pregnant by her then-boyfriend, Dean Cox. The couple split up some time before the birth of their son, Zachary, on 21 March 2008. On 5 May 2012, Solomon gave birth to her second son Leighton with then-fiancé Aaron Barnham. Solomon has been with her partner Joe Swash, since 2015. On 23 May 2019, she gave birth to her third child with Swash, Rex, at 37 weeks.Solomon has been open about her battles with anxiety.