Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American pop singer who rose to fame during the late 1990s. She has starred with her husband Nick Lachey (pronounced la-SHAY) in the MTV reality show Newlyweds, released her own line of beauty products called Dessert, and has also started a career as an actress.
Early life and career
Simpson was born in Abilene, Texas and raised in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas. She is the daughter of Joe (a Baptist youth minister) and Tina Simpson and has a younger sister, Ashlee, who launched her own music career in mid-2004. Jessica started singing at the age of twelve as a part of her Baptist church choir. At the same age, she made an unsuccessful application for The New Mickey Mouse Club, which starred fellow singers Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, among other future stars.
Jessica attended J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. Simpson was discovered singing at a church camp by a head of a small contemporary Christian record label and recorded an album over the next three years, but the label went out of business before the album could be released. She dropped out her senior year in order to tour and promote her demo album, which was funded by her grandmother, Joyce (thus the reason for the name Rejoyce: The Christmas Album); she later earned her GED. During this time, she toured with the Christian Youth Conference circuit performing with Kirk Franklin, God's Property and CeCe Winans. She and her father sold copies of the album after her performances.
Tommy Mottola of Columbia Records obtained a copy of the album and, thinking she had potential as a pop singer, signed her as such. Jessica eliminated the Christian influences from her appearance and music.
On November 23, 1999, Simpson released her debut pop album Sweet Kisses, reaching a peak of #25 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and also making the top 40 of the UK charts. The album proved to be a success, selling 2 million copies in the U.S.. Her first single, the platinum-selling "I Wanna Love You Forever", reached the top 5 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and the top 10 in Canada and the UK in late 1999. Her second single, a duet with then-boyfriend, now-husband Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees, "Where You Are", was a modest radio hit. The last single off the album, the John Mellencamp-sampled "I Think I'm in Love With You", was a top 40 hit in the U.S. and a top 20 hit in Canada and the UK. In 2000, Simpson won two Teen Choice Awards for Choice Breakout Artist and Love Song of the Year ("Where You Are" featuring Nick Lachey).
Simpson's sophomore effort Irresistible, released on June 5, 2001, reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and top 20 of the Canadian album charts. Despite this improvement, the album's sales were less than satisfactory; to date, it has only managed to be certified gold in the U.S. for selling over 500,000 copies. The title track, which was featured as the lead single, went top 20 in the U.S., Canada and the UK, as well as top 40 in Australia and Switzerland. A follow-up single entitled "A Little Bit" was also released, but failed to achieve much success apart from going top 20 in Portugal. Compared to her competition in pop princesses and ex-Mouseketeers Aguilera and Spears, Simpson seemed to be lagging behind in terms of chart success and sales.
Between her second and third albums, Simpson released a collection of remixes entitled This Is The Remix on July 2, 2002. However, the collection failed to even chart on the Billboard 200, suffering from lack of promotion.
On October 26, 2002, Simpson wed Nick Lachey.
During the Summer of 2003, Simpson and husband Lachey's reality show Newlyweds began airing on MTV. Though Simpson was moderately famous before the series began, the show is considered responsible for transforming her into a true star.
Throughout the run of three seasons, she often appeared as a stereotype of a dumb blonde, notably when she asked whether the Chicken of the Sea tuna she was eating was chicken or fish, and when she thought that buffalo wings were made from actual buffalo. Her apparent stupidity made the show a huge hit, making the average rating for each episode about 1.4 million viewers. When introduced to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Simpson responded: "You've done a nice job decorating the White House".
Banking on the success of her new popularity, she appeared on a variety show with Lachey on the ABC called the Nick and Jessica Variety Hour on April 11, 2004. A pilot for a sitcom on ABC was also planned, but was rejected by network executives in May 2004. During the Summer of 2004, Simpson won three Teen Choice Awards for Choice Female Fashion Icon, Choice Hottie Female and Choice Female Reality/Variety TV Star, further proving that Newlyweds had greatly strengthened her overall popularity. In 2005, the series won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show. A couple of months later, the show finally wrapped.
Coinciding with Newlyweds, her third album, In This Skin, was released on August 19, 2003. On a whole, the record featured a much more mature sound compared to her earlier releases. Though the album initially was not a huge success, it got its chance to rebound on the charts when a special collector's edition was released on March 2, 2004. This helped Skin to reach a peak of #2 on the Billboard 200 and the top 40 of the UK charts, due largely in part to the success of Newlyweds. The album eventually proved to be her most successful, selling 3 million copies in the U.S. and allowing her teetering music career a second chance. The lead single off the album was a cover of Diane Warren's "Sweetest Sin"; the song was not very successful, however, and caused a backlash in sales of Skin early on. The follow-up single, the gold-selling "With You", enjoyed much more success, and became her biggest hit since "I Wanna Love You Forever". The song went top 10 in the UK and top 20 in the U.S. and Australia, as well as on world adult charts. The third single, a cover of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away", also went top 20 in the U.S.. A cover version of Robbie Williams' "Angels" was released as the fourth and final single.
After the success of Newlyweds, many doors opened for Simpson to branch out in her career. One way was by creating her own line of beauty products called Dessert. The show's success also gave Simpson the opportunity to release an album of Christmas songs; the end product, Rejoyce: The Christmas Album, appeared on November 23, 2004. For a collection of holiday covers, the album proved successful; it reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200 and was certified gold in 2005. It includes a duet with her sister Ashlee on the song "Little Drummer Boy". Jessica and Ashlee also performed the song together on Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas, which aired on the ABC on December 1, 2004.
More recently, Simpson has made her way into the world of acting; her film debut as Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard hit theaters in August 2005. The film debuted at number one at the box office, grossing more than thirty million dollars. The movie has grossed over forty million dollars so far. One of the tracks off the soundtrack for the movie, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", is sung by none other than Simpson and was used as a single to promote the film. The song debuted at #33 on the Hot 100; the biggest debut of Simpson's career. The single became a huge seller regarding digital downloads through programs such as iTunes, which in turn aided it in becoming a chart success; after only two weeks on the chart, it peaked at #14, but dropped quickly. The video for the song earned itself quite a bit of media attention for being particularly more raunchy than any of Simpson's previous videos, as it included her in a revealing ensemble and ended with her washing a car in a bikini. This could be accounted to the fact that she is playing the role of Daisy Duke in the video, but she has still been criticized by a number of Christian groups, and her use of sexuality to sell has led her to be compared to Willa Ford and Christina Aguilera. The single charted well overseas also, reaching #4 in the UK and #7 in Australia.
Simpson's next album, titled And The Band Played On, will be released in November 2005. It has been described as having "a little bit of everything in it", and it will sound like "Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Stevie Nicks — it's all over the place. But then there's songs for us girls to dance to in the club", according to Simpson. Information has it that the lead single off the album will be "Fired Up", a song written by Simpson and Scott Storch, whom described the song as Jessica's "Dirrty." As of late July 2005 there were rumors that a song was produced by none other than Lil' Jon for her album which would signify her transition from ballads to more danceable pop, which she is not as known for. For the first time, Simpson has participated for much of the process of the creation of the album; she has registered a number of songs earlier this year on ASCAP.com and is also the executive producer of the album.
Upcoming projects for Simpson include a role in the film Room Service, as well as a clothing line called "Princy" set to be released by the end of 2005.
