Pixie Lott

Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott (born 12 January 1991) is an English singer-songwriter, dancer and actress. Her first single, "Mama Do" was released in June 2009  It went straight to number one in the UK Singles Chart. Her second single, "Boys and Girls", also went to the top of the UK charts in September 2009. Her first album, Turn It Up was released in September 2009. It reached number six on the UK Albums Chart. The album had Top 20 singles. Over a million copies of the album were sold. Her second album, Young Foolish Happy, was released on 14 November 2011. "All About Tonight", the first single from that album, entered the charts at number one on 17 September 2011. It later became her third UK number one hit.

Many good things are said about her live performances and style. In July 2010, Lott was a guest judge for the auditions for the seventh series of The X Factor in Cardiff. She replaced Dannii Minogue, who was on maternity leave.

Lott released "Boys and Girls" as her first US single on 24 August 2010. The release happened at the same time as her first movie, Fred: The Movie was shown on television. In January 2010, Lott was named one of 2010's "Faces to Watch" by the American magazine, Billboard.

Early and personal life
Pixie was born in Bromley. She lived in Petts Wood and then Bickley. All three are suburban areas of south-east London. Her mother gave her the nickname "Pixie" because she was born "such a tiny, cute baby who looked like a fairy". She started singing in her church school and when she was five, she went to the Italia Conti Associates Saturday school in Chislehurst. She later went to the main school – Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts – at 11. While there, she got a scholarship. At the age of 13, Lott moved with her family to Brentwood. During her time as a student she was in the West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, and in BBC One's Celebrate the Sound of Music in 2005, aged 14, as Louisa von Trapp. At the age of 14, she was part of the chorus on Roger Waters's opera Ça Ira. Lott did not go to school much during this time because she was making her album but says she got straight 'A' grades in her GCSEs.

She was voted No. 45 in 2010 and No. 31 in 2011 in FHM'''s 100 Sexiest Women list.

She says Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston had large effects on her style of singing.

Music career
2008–09: Early career
In 2006, at the age of 15, she sang for L. A. Reid. He then signed her to the Island Def Jam Music Group. After a change of managers, many different record labels wanted her to sing for them. Lott left the Island Def Jam Music Group. She began working with Mercury Records in the UK and Interscope Records in the U.S. She formed a publishing deal, as a songwriter, with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in December 2007. This was as the same time that she was writing and recording tracks for Turn It Up.

Lott played her first festival concert in the Big Top at the Isle of Wight Festival 2009. This took place during her first full British tour. She was on tour to support The Saturdays on The Work Tour.

2009–10: Turn It Up

Lottt released her first single, "Mama Do", on 8 June 2009. The video was directed by Trudy Bellinger. It was released to MySpace. The video had over three million views on YouTube. It entered both the iTunes chart and UK Singles Chart at number one. The song had over 50,000 sales when it entered the charts. Lott said she was shocked at how well the single did. The song was also recorded in Simlish for Electronic Arts' The Sims 3. It spent one week at number one. The song was in the top fouty for eleven weeks and spent eighteen weeks in the top seventy five. The single also did well outside the UK. It was in the top forty in eleven other countries. It was number eight in Denmark and number ten in France. The single was hit "silver" by the British Phonographic Industry on 28 August 2009 after it sold over 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom. On 15 August 2009, Lott performed at Asia's very first MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia concert. Other groups at that concert included Hoobastank, The All-American Rejects, Kasabian, Boys Like Girls, Estranged and Raygun. Lott's second single "Boys and Girls" was released on 6 September 2009. It became No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart on 13 September 2009. During the week that it became number one, the single sold just under 50,000 copies. It spent nineteen weeks in the top seventy-five and eight weeks in the top forty. The music video for the song was directed by Diane Martel. The song released was also released as her first single in the United States.

Lott's third single from the album was "Cry Me Out". It was released on 23 November 2009. The music video was directed by Jake Nava. He had also directed videos for Beyoncé, Leona Lewis and Shakira. The video was made in Cuba.  The fourth single, "Gravity", was released on 8 March 2010. Its video had already been shown on Channel 4 on 6 February 2010. Lott won two MTV EMA Awards for "Best UK & Ireland Act" and "Best Push Artist" (best break-through artist). Lott won a Cosmopolitan 2009 Ultimate Women Award for Ultimate Newcomer. In 2009, Lott won The Caron Keating Breakthrough Talent Award at The Variety Club Awards.

"The Way The World Works", from Lott's first record was used in the U.S. medical drama Private Practice. Lott was chosen as the face of Nokia's "Illuvial Pink Collection" mobile phone. Lott was nominated for British Breakthrough Act, British Female Solo Artist and British Single at the 2010 BRIT Awards. She was also the opening act of Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth Tour in the UK 7–26 May 2010.  Lott also performed at the V Festival in August 2010.

The fifth single from Lott's album, "Turn It Up", was released on 7 June 2010. Lott recorded a song for the movie Street Dance 3D. The song was "Live For The Moment". It was also on the soundtrack for the movie. On 23 May 2010, Lott performed at the Radio 1 Big Weekend in Bangor, North Wales. On 4 July 2010 she performed at T4 on the Beach in Weston-super-Mare.

Lott has written a song for Alexandra Burke's first album, Overcome. The song is "You Broke My Heart". She also wrote a song for Girls Can't Catch named "Happy Alone". This song was a free Christmas download on their website. She also has written two tracks on Lisa Lois's album. Lois was the Dutch X Factor's winner. These two songs were "No Good For Me" and "Promises, Promises". They where the first and second singles from that album.

Lott was cast as Judy, Fred Figglehorn's love interest, in the movie Fred: The Movie. The comedy was released on America's Nickelodeon network on the 18 September 2010.

2011–present: Young Foolish Happy
Lott's second album, Young Foolish Happy was to be released on 7 November 2011. It was actually released on 14 November 2011. On 17 September, Lott said that the album would have collaborations with Stevie Wonder and John Legend. The first single from the album, "All About Tonight", was played on BBC Radio 1's The Chris Moyles Show on 11 July 2011. The single was released on 4 September. It started at number . This was her third UK number 1 single.   The second single was "What Do You Take Me For?". The rapper Pusha T also performed on this single. Its music video was first shown on 6 October 2011. The single could be downloaded on 4 November 2011.

Lott was a contestant in the 2014 series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Discography
 Turn It Up (2009)
 Young Foolish Happy'' (2011)

Tours
 As the headline act
 2010 – The Crazycats Tour

 As a special guest
 2010 – Rihanna – Last Girl on Earth Tour (UK Dates)

 As supporting act
 2009 – The Saturdays – The Work Tour (Selected Dates)

References

Other websites

1991 births
Living people
Actors from Essex
Actors from London
English movie actors
English pop musicians
Musicians from Essex
People from Brentwood, Essex
People from the London Borough of Bromley
Singers from London
Strictly Come Dancing participants