Paloma Faith (singer)

Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith is an English singer/songwriter, born in 1981. She was born in Hackney, London and is known for her unique, retro style.

As of December 2013, she has released two studio albums 'Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful' (2009) and 'Fall To Grace' (2012), the former was certified platinium and the latter double platinium in the UK.

In 2012, she had her first Top 10 hit with epic soul ballad 'Picking Up The Pieces', reaching number 7 in the UK.

In 2013, she went to Americian and began working on a third album.

She made her debut in a feature film in 2007 the re-make of 'St Trinian's' and since appeared in British TV programmes such as Holby Blue and and Room 101, the latter saw her put Fifty Shades Of Gray into Room 101 as one of her pet hates.

Music
Paloma used to mimick famous singers like Etta James.

During her time at college she worked in a pub, the pub manager asked her to front their band, which later became known as 'Paloma & The Penetrators'.

During one performance with the band, she was asked by a manager of the Epic Records music label to, during the interview Paloma asked him to turn off his phone and when he refused she walked out of the interview.

A few months later with her song 'Broken Doll' coming to the attention of the manager, to thought it was a 'fantasically crafted song with brillant lyrics', he asked her back in to offer her a music contract.

She turned down an offer to be part of Amy Winehouse's band and began writing her own songs. Paloma's first recongnised work was written for Josh Weller in 2008, called 'It's Christmas (And I Hate You)'.

In July 2009, she released her first single Stone Cold Sober it had a decent amount of sucess reaching number 17 in the UK Singles Chart. Her debut album 'Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful' was released in September 2009, it debuted at number 14 in the UK Album Chart and later climbed to a peak of number 9. It was also BBC Radio 2's album of the week.

In the same month the next single New York was released a pop/soul ballad it peaked at number 15 in the UK Charts.

Her third single and title track from the album, with a laid back retro-Soul sound performed less well on the charts despite mostly positive reviews, it peaked at number 64.

The Rock 'n' Roll infulenced fourth single [[Upside Down' was released in March 2010, it became 'Record of the Week' on Radio 1, the single peaked at number 55 on 28th March in the UK Charts.

A re-released version of New York was also released in August 2010, featuring rapper Ghostface Killah, due to lack on radio airplay it debuted at only number 82, but then climber to a peak of 44 the following week.

Smoke and Mirrors was the fifth and final single from her debut album, an upbeat pop song with soul infulence it peaked at number 140 in the UK Charts. The video was uploaded on to Youtube in September 2010.

In 2011, she was nominated for Best British Solo Artist at the Brit Awards, although unsucessful this was her first nomination at the BRIT Awards.

She soon began working on her 2nd album, in Feburary 2012 she revealed it would be called 'Fall To Grace'.

The album's first single 'Picking Up The Pieces', which was described as a epic ballad joined BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2's playlists and debuted at number 7 in the UK Singles Chart, it remains her highest charting single to date! She performed the song on 'The Voice UK'.

The album itself 'Fall To Grace' was released on 29th May, it recieved mainly postive reviews with Digital Spy giving in 4 stars out of 5.

It debuted at number two in the UK Album Chart for the week ending the 2nd June, with sales of 35, 024, charing just under Gary Barlow's Sing for the Queen's Jubilee. The album spent an impressive 5 weeks inside the Top 10, it spent 50 weeks in the UK Album Chart Top 100 and 13 weeks inside the Top 10, after climbing back up the chart, after been re-released with a extra track in October 2013.

It also reached number 15 in New Zealand's chart and number 10 in the Irish Charts, number one in Scotland and number 86 in the Swiss Charts.

The album's 2nd single was released in August 2012, the music video showed Paloma Faith performing on stage in a Soho club, it recieved mostly postive reviews from critics and peaked at number 50 in the UK Charts.

The next single was a cover of INXS 80's hit 'Never Tear Us Apart', featuring on a re-packed version of her album the song peaked at number 17 in the UK Charts, it recived 4 out of 5 stars by website Digital Spy.

The singles artwork featured Paloma saluting and wearing a big metalic gold dress with a honey-comb looking bottom half, she performed the song on BBC show Strictly Come Dancing.

The next single 'Just Be' was a piano power ballad, it was reportdly to be 'a song for real lovers'.

It recieved airplay on BBC Radio 2 and some smaller commericial and BBC Stations and peaked at number 66 in the UK.

The album's fifth single 'Black and Blue' was released in March 2013, it recieved some radio airplay including on community radio station WHCR, but overall less airplay than previous singles. It failed to chart within the Top 200 in the UK, despite being a great song.

As of November 2013, Paloma Faith was working a third studio album.