Geri

**Geraldine Anne Fletcher**, also known as **Geri** (born October 3, 1980) is a British singer, composer, and designer. After many years working successfully in the fashion area with her brand called Fletcher, Geri moved to New York and decided to sign up for the CSAV Idol in 2008 becoming known by the general public.

Geri got into the competition but was the first eliminated, criticized for her lack of visual personality, which was very ironic since she's a fashion designer. In 2010 she signed with Fach Records and released her debut album, *The Key*. It spawned five commercially successful singles, with the major ones being "Oh No!", "Wind It Up" and "Love Made Me Stupid". The first one reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while also becoming the best selling song of that year. In 2016, Geri released her second studio album *Feel.* The album was well received by fans and critics but was a commercial failure.

In the meantime, Geri worked on moving Fletcher runway shows from Paris to New York, expanding the brand in America. It successfully worked and its sales were boosted. The brand had now many famous faces on their campaigns, such as Kate Logan and Kendall Jenner. Geri is now working on her third studio album, which is set for release in March 2019. Its lead single, "Time Is Up" was released on January 4 and the music video was received with controversy.

## Life and career

#### **1980–2003: Early life**

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on October 3, 1980, Geraldine Anne Fletcher has always been a creative child. With many talents in the arts, ranging from music to acting, she eventually decided to follow in the fashion area. In 2001, Geri started working on British Vogue as an intern and got to know lots of people on the fashion industry. One year later she got to work on Givenchy, as a personal assistant to Alexander McQueen and later also worked with Jean-Paul Gaultier.

#### **2004-2009: Fletcher and CSAV Idol**

Some friends encouraged by friends to start her own brand, and that's what Geri did. In 2004 she started Fletcher with her own designs as a more commercial clothing line as compared to the high fashion ones she worked for. The brand started off really well in Paris and two years later it became part of Paris Fashion Week. In 2007, Geri moved to New York planning on expanding Fletcher. In 2008 some friends encouraged her to sing up to CSAV Idol to try out on singing just for fun, as she always expressed how much she loved music. She gave it a shot and was surprised to find out about her selection, almost giving up because she didn't want that exposure at that time.

However, Geri was the first eliminated from the competition. She was very criticized about her lack of visual originality, which could compromise her star quality. She took the critics very seriously because as a fashion designer she was supposed to be creative in her looks, but instead she was impersonating other pop stars. Fach Records was interested in her and offered a one record deal to work on her image and sound and see if it would work, opening up the possibility of a deal extension in the future.

#### **2010-2016: The Key, career break and Feel**

Geri's debut studio album *The Key* was released on June 15, 2010. The album features a large number of collaborations with producers and other artists, including Nellee Hooper, Tony Nilsson, Hawksley Workman, Mirja Breitholtz, Ludacris and Pharrell Williams. Geri created the album to modernize the music to which she listened when in high school, and *L.A.M.B.* takes influence from a variety of music styles of the 1980s and early 1990s such as new wave, synthpop, and electro-rock. Geri saw this first album as an opportunity to delve further into pop music and to convince the world of her talent, depth and artistic worth after the Idol fiasco. The album debuted on the US *Billboard* 200 albums chart at number one, selling 288,000 copies in its first week. *The Key.* was a commercial success reaching multi-platinum status in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, and had five singles which were commercially successful. The album was also supported by the All Night Long Tour, which traveled to many countries in the world.

In 2011, after finishing the tour, Geri took a break from the music industry to focus again on her fashion brand, while getting inspiration for her next album. The following year, Fletcher (offices and showrooms) arrived on New York's Fifth Avenue, marking it's biggest expansion. In 2014 the brand's fashion show moved from Paris Fashion Week to New York's. At that same time, Fach Records closed its doors and then Geri signed a record deal with Interscope and began writing for her new album. *Feel* was released on January 29, 2016, after a series of postponements. The album marked a series of battles between Geri and her label, which didn't want to promote the album properly after the poor commercial impact of its lead single, "Touch". Interscope also wanted to choose the singles that could be potential hits, going against the singer's wishes. Geri ended her contract with the label that year and signed with Island Records.

#### **2017-present: Art-ficial**

On December 28, 2018, Geri teased fans on her social media pages with a mysterious video that stated "extermination is your only hope, right?" and showed a quick clip of her face at the end. On January 4, 2019, "Time Is Up" was released as the lead single off her new album *Art-ficial.* A press release from Island Records revealed that the album would sound more electronic than her previous works.

## Discography

### **Studio Albums**

* *The Key* (2010)
* *Feel* (2016)
* *Art-ficial (2019)*