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Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10 1980) is an American Pop singer and actress who rose to fame during the late 1990s. She starred with her then husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show Newlyweds, released her own line of beauty products called Dessert, and started a career as an actress with appearances in the TV series That '70s Show and in the film The Dukes of Hazzard.

Biography

Early life

Simpson was born in Abilene, Texas and raised in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. She is the daughter of Joe Truett Simpson (a former Baptist youth minister) and Tina Ann Drew (a former Sunday School teacher). She has a younger sister, Ashlee, who launched her own music career in mid-2004. Jessica started singing at the age of twelve as a part of her Baptist church choir. At the same age, she made an unsuccessful application for The New Mickey Mouse Club, which starred fellow pop singers Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, among other future stars.

Simpson attended J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. She was discovered singing at a church camp by a head of a small contemporary Christian record label and recorded an album over the next three years; however, the label folded before the record could be released. She dropped out in her senior year in order to tour and promote her demo album, which was funded by her grandmother, Joyce (thus the reason for the name of her 2004 holiday album, Rejoyce: The Christmas Album); she later earned her GED. During this time, she toured with the Christian Youth Conference circuit performing with Kirk Franklin, God's Property and CeCe Winans. She and her father sold copies of the album after her performances.

Tommy Mottola of Columbia Records obtained a copy of the album and, thinking she had potential as a pop singer, signed her as such. Christian influences can still be found in much of her music.

Early music career

On November 23, 1999, Simpson released her debut pop album Sweet Kisses, which reached a peak of number twenty-five on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and also made the top forty of the UK charts. The album proved to be a success, selling two million copies in the U.S. Her first single, the Platinum-selling "I Wanna Love You Forever," reached the top five of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and the top ten in Canada and the U.K. in late 1999. Her second single, a duet with then-boyfriend, now estranged husband Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees, "Where You Are," was a modest radio hit. The last single from the album, the John Mellencamp-sampled "I Think I'm in Love with You," was a top forty hit in the U.S. and a top twenty hit in Canada and the UK In 2000, Simpson won two Teen Choice Awards for Choice Breakout Artist and Love Song of the Year ("Where You Are").

Simpson's second album, Irresistible, released on June 5 2001, reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and top twenty of the Canadian album charts. Despite this improvement, the album's sales were less than satisfactory; to date, it has only managed to be certified Gold in the U.S. for selling 500,000 copies. The title track lead single, "Irresistible," reached the top twenty in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, as well as the top forty in Australia and Switzerland. A follow-up single entitled "A Little Bit" was also released, but failed to achieve much success apart from reaching the top twenty in Portugal and #10 in Mexico

Between her second and third albums, Simpson released a collection of remixes entitled This Is the Remix on July 2, 2002. However, the collection failed to even chart on the Billboard 200.

Marriage and reality television

On October 26 2002 Simpson married Nick Lachey. Simpson famously announced that she remained a virgin until her wedding night, making Lachey the only man she had been with. During the summer of 2003, Simpson and husband Lachey's reality show Newlyweds began airing on MTV. Though Simpson was moderately famous before the series began, the show is considered responsible for transforming her into a star. However, on November 23 2005, Simpson and Lachey officially announced their separation in a joint statement. The couple filed for divorce in Los Angeles courts on December 16, 2005 citing "irreconcilable differences". Simpson moved out of the $3,750,000 USD mansion she shared with Lachey in Calabasas into a $5,000,000 USD home in the Hollywood Hills.

Throughout the run of three seasons, she seemed to epitomize the stereotypical dumb blonde, notably when she asked whether the Chicken of the Sea tuna she was eating was chicken or fish, and when she thought that buffalo wings were made from actual buffalo. Her apparent stupidity made the show a huge hit, making the average rating for each episode about 1.4 million viewers. (The gaffe was also a running joke in a Pizza Hut commercial, where she was shown to be annoyed at having her intelligence mocked again.) When introduced to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Simpson responded: "You've done a nice job decorating the White House."

Banking on the success of her new popularity, she appeared on a variety show with Lachey on the ABC called the Nick and Jessica Variety Hour on April 11 2004. A pilot for a sitcom on ABC was also planned, but was rejected by network executives in May 2004. During that summer, Simpson won three Teen Choice Awards for Female Fashion Icon, Hottie Female, and Female Reality/Variety TV Star, further proving that Newlyweds had greatly strengthened her overall popularity. In 2005, the series won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show. Shortly after, Newlyweds wrapped.

Since the couple married Simpson's career has sky-rocketed whilst Lachey's has held.

Coinciding with Newlyweds, her third album, In This Skin, was released on August 19 2003. On a whole, the record featured a much more mature sound compared to her earlier releases. Though the album initially was not a huge success, it got its chance to rebound on the charts when a special collector's edition was released on March 2 2004. This helped Skin to reach a peak of number two on the Billboard 200 and the top forty of the UK charts, due largely to the success of Newlyweds. The album eventually proved to be her most successful, selling just three million copies in the U.S. and allowing her teetering music career a second chance. The first single from the album was a cover of Diane Warren's "Sweetest Sin"; the song was not very successful, however, and caused a setback in sales of Skin early on. The follow-up single, the Gold-selling "With You," enjoyed much more success, and has gone on to become her signature song and arguably most successful single. The song reached the top ten in the UK and the top twenty in the U.S. and Australia, as well as on world adult charts. The third single, a cover of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away," also reached the top twenty in the U.S. A cover version of Robbie Williams' "Angels" was released as the fourth and final single from the album.

Film and current activities

After the double success of her reality show and In This Skin, Simpson began to bank on her new-found popularity by releasing a line of edible beauty products called Dessert Beauty and Dessert Treats. She has also unleashed her own clothing line called JS.

She had her first acting role in a small cameo in the Dana Carvey comedy The Master of Disguise.

During the summer of 2005, Simpson made her first major film appearance as Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard. The film debuted at number one in the box office charts, grossing more than thirty million USD. One of the tracks off the soundtrack for the film, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," was sung by Simpson. It peaked within in the top twenty in the U.S., but made it well into the top ten in other countries such as the UK and Australia, making it arguably Simpson's biggest international hit. The provocative music video for the single also earned itself quite a bit of media attention. Both the song and video hit #1 on the iTunes Music Store.

In the aftermath of Dukes, Simpson is rumored to play opposite Dane Cook in Employee of the Month, in the comedy Room Service, and in the Quentin Tarantino-produced film, Mort the Dead Teenager based on the Marvel Comic of the same name.

Simpson's next album, And the Band Played On, is set to be released so in May 2006. It has been described as having "a little bit of everything in it," and it will sound like "Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Stevie Nicks — it's all over the place. But then there's songs for us girls to dance to in the club," according to Simpson. Information has it that the lead single off the album will be "Fired Up," (The song could be heard at WWTDD.com) a song written by Simpson and Scott Storch, who described the song as Simpson's "Dirrty." It has been rumored that the track is to be produced by Lil' Jon. For the first time, Simpson has participated for much of the process of the creation of the album; she has registered a number of new songs on ASCAP.com and is also the executive producer of the album. Other songs confirmed for the album include "Sexified", "Back To You", and "Swing With Me". One of Storch's tracks, the dance-club burner "Fire It Up" — he calls it Jessica's "Dirtty" — is a contender to be the LP's first single. Simpson also recorded another club track, "Mr. Operator," with Storch during their session together three weeks ago.

In November 2005, after months of speculation, Jessica Simpson and her husband Nick Lachey officially announced that they had split. Jessica Simpson filed for divorce on December 16, 2005, from her estranged husband of three years, Nick Lachey citing "irreconcilable differences". She has asked the courts not to grant Lachey spousal support.

Discography

References

• Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey officially call it quits - MSNBC

External links

• Jessica Simpson's Official Website
• Jessica Simpson at IMDb

• 1980 births
• American actors
• American female singers
• American pop singers
• Baptists
• Dance Top 40 acts in United States
• English Americans
• Film actors
• High school dropouts
• People from Texas
• Rhythmic Top 40 acts
• Sex symbols
• Television actors
• Whistle register singers