Jade Hill

Jade Rosemary Hill (Born 8th August 1992) is a British recording artist, fashion designer and song writer. After successfully auditioning in front of Will.Rocca for a place in a girl band he was creating, Jade became a member of the girl band Storm. During her time with the group, she acheived 3 Top 20 singles and a multi platinum selling album. The five piece enjoyed success across Europe, especially in Germany, during their time together. Initially signed to Hot Eye Records the girls moved to Black Cat Records which Storm member Zoe Thompson owns. After many problems, Zoe dropped her own group from the label causing outrage. Jade went on to work on solo material and established herself as an independent artist, creating her own label; Miss Cherry Records. Her debut album In The Small Print was released in late 2011 to critical acclaim and despite having no singles released from it, the album outpeaked Storm's debut album. Her debut single is set for release in April.
==Early Life==
Jade was born on 8th August 1992 to Richard and Frances Hill. Her mother was only 18 years old and unemployed when she gave birth to Jade. Richard, her father, was 21 and worked at a local garage. With little support and financial struggles, Jade grew up with little luxury in a small one bedroom council flat. Her little brother, Declan, was born in 2001 making the house more cramped. She was raised in Liverpool until she turned 13 as her parents decided to move London as they came into money due to a Lottery win. Despite living a luxurious new life Jade still claims; I'm a common girl at heart. It's funny to see my parents splash the cash as I remember when we used to struggle to pay for an economy own brand tin of soup'. She attended a secondary school in London which was very different to her previous school back in Liverpool. Speaking on the subject, Jade said; It wasn't a very nice experience. Everyone was nice that was for sure but it lacked personality. The uniform was bland, everyone got on, the teachers were dull and no fights seemed to happen. I'm not promoting violence but I was from a deprived area, I was used to a bit of rough and tumble. Back home it had character and everyone was unique, but in London it just seemed.......bland, non-descript'. Tanya Stephenson, of Teen Titans fame, also attended th same school. Jade's father became addicted to Heroin in 2006 after he started to but it with his extra money. On December 17th 2007, he overdosed and died at his home. Jade came back from school and discovered his body. This shocked Jade so much that she entered into a state of depression and refused to speak to anyone for almost 3 months. The death of her father made her turn to songwriting as a way of letting out her emotions and thoughts.
==Auditions==
In 2009, Jade auditioned for a place in a local band called HoneyBee. She sang a rendition of About You Now by Sugababes. Despite receiving a lot of praise, Jade failed to make the group. Again in 2009, an audition for a 5 piece girl band was being held by Fantastic Records. That group went on to be Brown Sugar who are now a successful recording Pop/R&B group. Jade failed to make the final line up and instead, Chloe Byrne was chosen to complete the group. Even after continous knock backs, Jade auditoned for Will.Rocca when she heard that he was looking to piece together a new girl group to rival Hard Sugar, G2L, GirlSpice & Brown Sugar. She sang a ballad version of Umbrella by Rihanna and was praised for her performance. Jade successfully auditioned and earned a place in the group alongside Zoe Thompson, Jasmine King, Charlotte Campbell & Jennifer Allen. The group went on to become Storm. Speaking about auditioning for the group, she had this to say;
"After being knocked back so many times I wasn't expecting to get through. Not one part of me thought I would make the group and the only reason I auditioned was genuinly just to have a fun day out and to sing. Looking around the room there were like 50 girls all waiting and rehearsing. I just stood quietly by myself in the corner. All the girls were so pretty, lots of them were blonde barbie doll types, some were beautiful dark skinned girls who looked like princesses and others were big chested and skinny. Then there was me.....quiet, small, pale skinned and ginger. Never in a million years did I think I would make the group but......I did!"
==2010 - 2011: Storm==
In mid 2010, Will.Rocca and the rest of Storm started to work together on their music. He wanted to create unique sound for the group which differed from other girl bands. They worked tirelessly night and day with a whole team of people to make their sound just right. Their debut album was still in working progress when they released their debut single, a cover of the Madonna hit, La Isla Bonita. The track received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Many dubbed it as 'unoriginal' and 'bland'. Kirsten Falkner from MegaHits Magazine gave it a scathing review; The original was annoying to start with, just another generic pop song but 20 years later some idiot thought it would be a great idea for 5 talentless out of tune school girls to cover it and expect it to sell millions! First of all, only the Irish one can sing, secondly they look like the 1990's threw up on them and lastly, if you're going to cover a song at least put your own spin on it! The track is so mind numbling dull I'd rather watch paint dry!!!'. The single peaked at No.14.
The groups second single 'This Is My World' faired better as it charted in the Top 10 at No.9 and received critical praise for its message and attitude packed vocals. The song is their biggest selling one to date and their highest charting single. The single was soon preceded by their debut album 'Stronger'. The album received mixed to positive reviews and entered and peaked just outside the Top 10 at No.11. Despite not reaching Top 10 status, the album went on to be certified double platinum.
The third and final single from their debut album was In My Heart. Many critics called this song the highlight of the album as it shows off the girls vocal ranges and the lyrics are extremely personal and heart felt. This was their first ballad released. The single peaked at No.17 before quickly dropping off of the charts. In My Heart still managed to out sell their debut single.
After Hot Eye Records closed its doors, they were signed to Black Cat Records, which Zoe Thompson owns. They worked on a new version of their debut album and were going to re-release it as Stronger: Deluxe Edition.'' The album was set to include 5 new songs alongside a whole new look design. The first single from the album was set to be'' So What!?' however plans were shelved as they were controversially dropped by Zoe. The group then split and haven't contacted each other since. However while Jennifer Allen was on Celebrity Big Brother, Jade tweeted many messages of support throughout her time in the house, suggesting that those two had no hard feelings. No word about a re-union has been heard.
==2011 - Present: Solo Work, In The Small Print & Miss Cherry Records==
After being dropped from Black Cat Records, Jade immediately began to work on solo material to express all the emotions she was feeling. With or without a label, Jade was going to release her music to the public. Her mother gave her some money which eventually was put towards launching her own label, Miss Cherry Records. Jade worked with small time and unknown producers during the recording of her album. She didn't want to sound too over-produced and like everything else in the charts. She released her debut album; 'In The Small Print' in December 2011. No singles were released before the album as Jade wanted to test the water and see what the response to the songs would be. Which ever ones received to most praise, she would consider as possible singles.
The album entered at No.9 which made her not only the first Storm member to release a solo album but the only Storm member to acheive a Top 10 as a soloist. It went on to be certified platinum and is still currently in the Top 100 despite little, if any, promotion going towards the album.
In The Small Print received critical acclaim. Leona Walker from MetaCritic gave it the following positive review;
'Storm had nothing to give to music, I'm sorry but it's true. When I heard that Jade was going solo I expected another generic pop record that would be even less enjoyable than Storm's dull music due to her small, limited budget. On first play, the album sounds odd and I wasn't sure if it was a good odd or a horrible odd. After my second listen, I fell in love with the album. It is nothing like I've listened to before. Jade gets as far away from her Storm sound as possible and establishes herself as an underrated icon in pop music'. The way to describe her sound.....quirky?.....experimental?.....mind-blowing?.......JADE!. She is unique and has really found her feet and has detached from the manufactured, unoriginal image that she was given in Storm. This album could be placed in a collection of CD's from fans of Kate Bush, Siobhan Donaghy, Robyn & M.I.A. It has something so oddly-beautiful about it. Stand out tracks are 'Last One Standing', 'Walk' and 'Wilt'. Let's hope that this album isn't a one off and that Jade continues to grow and explore with her sound even more'.
The first official single will be 'Last One Standing'. It is set for an April 2012 release.
==Discography==
===Singles===
Single 	Airplay Top 20	UK 	GER	Album
Last One Standing	TBR 	TBR	TBR	In The Small Print
===Albums===
Album 	Chart Heat	UK	IRL	GER	FRA	AUS	US
In The Small Print	9 	13	58 	4 	89 	171	-
Category:Artists
Category:British artists
Category:Indie