Craig David

Craig Ashley David MBE born 5 May 1981 is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999 featuring on the single ReRewind by Artful Dodger Davids debut studio album Born to Do It was released in 2000 after which he has released a further five studio albums and worked with a variety of artists such as Sting Tinchy Stryder Big Narstie Kano and Jay Sean David has 20 UK top 40 singles and seven UK top 40 albums selling over 15 million records worldwide as a solo artist David has been nominated for fourteen Brit Awards five times for Best British Male and twice receiving a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance David was born in Southampton Hampshire the only child of Tina née Loftus a retail assistant at Superdrug and George David a carpenter and grew up in the Holyrood estate Davids father is AfroGrenadian and Davids mother is AngloJewish and related to the founders of the Accurist watchmaking company Davids maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Jew and his maternal grandmother a convert to Judaism Davids parents separated when he was eight and he was brought up by his mother He attended Bellemoor School and Southampton City College David was bullied by other students at school He wrote and released the song Johnny in 2005 about his memories of being bullied Davids father George David played bass in a reggae band called Ebony Rockers As a teen David began accompanying his father to local dance clubs where DJs let him take the microphone Davids earliest exposure came when he worked on a Bside to British group Damages cover of Wonderful Tonight on the track Im Ready He then started doing vocals for the UK garage duo Artful Dodger on tracks such as Something and What Ya Gonna Do Wildstar Records first became aware of David when the artists then manager Paul Widger met the labels coowner Colin Lester and played some of his music Lester later told HitQuarters that he was particularly impressed by the first song he heard Walking Away saying That was an absolute standout It struck me that any seventeenyearold that could write a song like this had huge potential The Wildstar boss was further won over when on later visiting the artists home in Southampton he found Davids tiny bedroom stacked from floor to ceiling with 12 vinyl records commenting That convinced me he was the real deal and not just some kid acting out the part At that point Lester offered him a development deal with his label When Lester later heard the song 7 Days he said he immediately heard a numberone record and promoted the contract to an album deal the same day Source Article Craig David from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30