Natasha Lewis

**Natasha Lewis McCartney** (born February 26, 1984) is an American singer. Born in Austin, Texas, she started her career as a fashion model walking some shows in Milan before signing with Prepy Records in 2007. Lewis' first album "Sexy Sweet Thing" (2007) became an international success and her second album "Extreme Behavior" (2009) was one of the best selling albums by a pop artist that year, making Natasha recognized as one of the biggest pop stars in the world. In 2010, Lewis released her third album, "Sex. Love. Control. Vanity." and went on tour with her former boyfriend, the singer Francis Leverett. After a 4 years hiatus, she released her fourth studio album "Continuum/Interrupted, which" was acclaimed by the critics and had many hits like "The Best" and "Wake Me Up". One year later, the singer started her much anticipated Off The Map World Tour, also known by Continuum Tour, a title given by the fans while waiting for the tour when the singer was at the Himalayan monastery. Lewis' fifth studio album Super Bitch was released later that year having one of the singer's best debut sales. It also spawned the top 10 hits "Blindfold Me" and "Lemonade". Lewis was established as a pop icon. Her work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including six Grammy Awards, seven MTV Video Music Awards, ten Billboard Music Awards and much more. According to Billboard, Natasha has sold about 15 million

albums in the United States and 40 million all around the world.

## Life and career

### **1984-2006: Early life and modeling career**

Born in 26 February, 1984 in Austin, Texas, Natasha Lewis always wanted to be a star. As a little girl, she was always part of modeling contests, has done plenty of local TV work, and all that kind of stuff. When Lewis was only 15, she left her family's farm and left to New York, where she signed a contract with IMG Models. After a year of tests and minor jobs, Natasha had her first fashion week in New York. Since then she started working non-stop, signing later with agencies in London, Milan, Paris, and Australia. Lewis has done several editorials for magazines like Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and Elle, and walked for brands like Alexander McQueen, Versace, Burberry, Calvin Klein, and many others. Being a successful model, especially in Europe, helped Natasha make connections with people in the music industry and that's how she managed to get a contract with BMG.

### **2007-2010: *Debut album*, *Extreme Behavior* and *Sex. Love. Control. Vanity.***

By 2007, Natasha had relocated to Los Angeles to work extensively with her record label to complete her debut album, *Sexy Sweet Thing*, and to set up 4her own division on the label called Prepy Records. *Sexy Sweet Thing* was released on August 14, 2007, reaching number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland and appearing in the top five in Australia, UK and the US.[45][46] Its second single, "Irresistible", reached the top five in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Four other singles, "A Girl Like Me", "Screwed", "Want It" ("Kiss Kiss" in Europe), and "Shoulda Neva", were released from the album. At the Video Music Awards 2008, "Want It" won Best Dance Video.

Natasha was one of the opening acts on Francis Leverett's 2008 Conquering The World Tour in Europe and Oceania. While traveling the globe, she started writing songs for *Extreme Behavior*, her second studio album, which was released on May 19, 2009. Its first single, "Bad Girl" went number one in Canada and number three in the UK, while reaching number three in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. "You Spin Me Round", followed as the second single from the album and became Natasha's first UK number one. Its third single was "Slave", was the biggest hit from this album, reaching number one in multiple countries including US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Germany.  At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Natasha won 2 awards from 7 nominations, including Best Pop Video for "Slave". *Extreme Behavior* was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.
In september 2010, Natasha released "V", the lead single from her third studio album *Sex. Love. Control. Vanity.* It debuted atop the *Billboard* Hot 100, becoming her second number-one single in the country. Its second single "On The Stereo" followed two months later, and "Breathe Me" served as its third single. Both reached the top ten in the US and number one in the UK.

*Sex. Love. Control Vanity.* was released on November 22, 2010, and debuted atop the *Billboard* 200 with first-week sales of 324,000 copies. The album sold four million copies worldwide and received two Grammy nominations. *S.L.C.V.*'s fourth single was "Break You Hard", and a music video was filmed. However, due to personal problems, the music video and all the following promotion for the single were canceled. She also embarked on the Double the Trouble tour in March 2011, which was scheduled to conclude the following December, but ended earlier when Natasha canceled the remaining dates due to her personal problems, later revealed to be exhaustion.

### **2011-2014: Monastery and delay of new album**

In 2011, she went to a monastery in Himalaya, and there she stayed for almost two years. Natasha was supposed to start recording her fourth studio album in 2012, but production was delayed due to Lewis' involvement with the monastery.

In January 2013, Fach Records sent her a letter asking to come back and start working on new material right away, or she would've been dropped from their cast. Natasha felt too pressured, went back to Los Angeles and decided to leave the label, signing a contract with Musik Factory.

In June 2013, Lewis released a letter to her fans explaining the delays in the release of her next album, noting she had gone through personal pains and was focusing on raising her son Justin. In August 2013 Natasha started recording her new album.

### **2014-2017: Continuum/Interrupted and Super Bitch**

In March 2014, Natasha released the album's lead single "The Best", which reached number one in UK and US. The second *Continuum/Interrupted* single, "State of Mind", was released two months later, topping the charts in Hungary and UK and reaching number 7 in the US. *Continuum/Interrupted* was released in May 27, 2014 to critical acclaim. Helen Brown in *The Daily Telegraph* praised Lewis for "making two great albums that felt as one". The album debuted atop the *Billboard* 200 chart, and sold more than 6 million copies worldwide as of July 2017. Months later, she embarked on the Off The Map World Tour, building on a plane crash in the jungle concept. Earning $123 million, the tour included cities canceled from the Double the Trouble tour itinerary.

In August 2015, she released her fifth album's lead single, "Blindfold Me" featuring Dreamer, which peaked at number 2 in the US. The album, titled *Super Bitch*, was named after the writing sessions of one song. It was released on December 4, 2015, and sold 687,000 copies in the US during its first week (including streamings). *Super Bitch* was
Natasha's third number one *Billboard* album. Its second single "Lemonade" was released one month earlier and reached number one in the US. *Super Bitch* and "Sax" were nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance, respectively. The latter was the biggest single from the album, reaching number one in multiple countries including UK, US, Canada and more.

On June 2010, Natasha released "La La Love", the lead single from the next segment for the Super Bitch project. On August 29, 2016, right after her performance at the Video Music Awards 2016, Lewis unexpectedly released her fifth studio album on the iTunes Store without any prior release date announcement. The album debuted atop the *Billboard* 200 chart, giving Natasha her fourth consecutive number-one album in the US. *Super Bitch Vol. 2* received positive reviews and commercial success, selling 281,000 copies in five days. The single "La La Love", peaked at number two on the *Billboard* Hot 100 chart. "Player", "Touch of My Hand", and "Love Me Down" were also released as singles, the latter having the music video and promotion scrapped without no given reason.

### **2017-Present: Greatest hits, The Voice and residency**

On Semptember 10, 2018, Natasha Lewis went on Good Morning America, on ABC, to make a big announcement. The singer revealed that she will release her first greatest hits album, called The Iconic Collection, on the next November 23. The lead single from the collection "Anywhere' was released on the same day as the announcement. Lewis also revelead the she would start her own two-year concert residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, titled Natasha Lewis: Iconic, featuring all of her hits.

## Discography

*Main article: Natasha Lewis discography*

#### **Studio albums:**

* *Sexy Sweet Thing*(2007)
* *Extreme Behavior* (2009)
* *Sex. Love. Control. Vanity.*(2010)
* *Continuum/Interrupted*(2014)
* *Super Bitch*(2015)
* *Super Bitch Vol. 2* (2016)
* *Homemade Experiments* (2019)

## Concerts

#### **Tours**

* Hollywood Doll Tour (2009)
* Double the Trouble Tour (2011)
* Off the Map World Tour (2015)
* NATASHA World Tour (2021)