Sinitta (born Sinitta Renay Malone in Seattle, Washington, U.S. on 19 October 1966) is a British-American singer who has lived in the United Kingdom for most of her life. She is the daughter of Canadian disco/Hi-NRG singer Miquel Brown and has a twin sister, Greta. She is best known for her hit records in the 1980s including "So Macho", "Toy Boy", "Cross My Broken Heart" and "Right Back Where We Started From". Altogether Sinitta has 14 international hit singles and 3 albums. She has also acted in a number of West End shows and has been a mentor on The X Factor and appeared as a contestant on the eleventh series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Sinitta is filming The Jump in Austria, which sees contestants train and then compete in winter Olympic sports.
Contents[]
- 2 Music career
- 3 Film and television
- 4 Personal life
- 5 Recent career
- 6 Discography
- 7 References
- 8 External links
Early career[edit][]
Sinitta began in show business by appearing in the musical The Wiz[citation needed] and the movie Shock Treatment released on Halloween 1981, and her West End credits include Cats, Little Shop of Horrors, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Hair,Masquerade and Mutiny! On 24 December 1982, Sinitta appeared on the TV programme The Tube as a dancer with Imagination.[1]
In 1985, she captained one of the teams on an ITV children's game show called The Wall Game, a programme teaching children how to act.[2]
Music career[edit][]
Sinitta began recording in 1983, aged 19, releasing her first single, "Break Me Into Little Pieces" with dance troupe Hot Gossip. That same year, she also appeared in the video of "Rock the Boat" sung by Forrest. She continued to release singles throughout 1984 and 1985, and also participated in 1984's A Song for Europe, the UK competition to find an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, with "Imagination".[3]
Success with Simon Cowell[edit][]
Sinitta was both Simon Cowell's and Fanfare Records's first signing.[4] She made "So Macho" with record producer and songwriter, George Hargreaves and managed to persuade Cowell and his boss, Iain Burton, to release the record as a double A-side with "Cruisin'". The single was released in early 1986, but stalled around the lower reaches of the Top 50 singles chart.[5]
Stock Aitken Waterman influence[edit][]
Around this time, Cowell was keen for Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) to write and produce for Sinitta. "Feels Like The First Time", Sinitta's subsequent single following "So Macho", had charted low (number 45 in the UK in October 1986) and spent only five weeks on the chart, whereas, in contrast, "So Macho" had been on the UK chart for 30 weeks in 1986, where it had peaked at Number 2.[5] Initially, Waterman declined to work with Sinitta, claiming that SAW were too busy.[4] SAW did work with Sinitta later however, and her first single with the Hit Factory was "Toy Boy".
At this time Sinitta had started to date one of the backing dancers in Mutiny on The Bounty, Sam Connery. She played the love interest, Maimiti the island princess, to David Essex (as Fletcher Christian, who is 16 years older than her. The papers labelled her "David's Darling" and called Cowell her Svengali, now they were writing, "Sinitta has a Toy Boy!"[citation needed]. Pete Waterman loved the phrase and the song was written in ten minutes for the older singer. "Toy Boy"[6] was a hit, reaching Number 4 in the UK in July 1987, staying on the charts for 14 weeks.[7]
Sinitta went on to have a further five hit singles with Pete Waterman Ltd including "G.T.O." (Number 15, December 1987), "Cross My Broken Heart" (Number 6 - March 1988), "I Don't Believe In Miracles" (Number 22 - September 1988), "Right Back Where We Started From" (Number 4 - June 1989) and "Love on a Mountain Top" (Number 20 - October 1989).[8]
Sinitta performed at London's O2 Arena in December 2012 at the Hit Factory Live concert, to celebrate 25 years of Stock Aitken Waterman. She performed with her troupe of male dancers.
Music Career decline[edit][]
Following the release of her début album Sinitta! in 1987, Sinitta moved away from working directly with Stock Aitken Waterman, although she continued to record at PWL under the direction of mixmasters Pete Hammond, Phil Hardingand Ian Curnow.[9] Her second album Wicked, released in 1989, contained only one SAW track - "I Don't Believe In Miracles" - the others being produced by the aforementioned Hammond, Harding & Curnow in addition to Nigel Wrightand German producer Ralf Rene Maue.
As the 1990s opened, PWL music proved less popular, and her singles failed to chart high in the Top 20 of the UK chart: "Lay Me Down Easy" (Number 88 – December 1989), "Hitchin' a Ride" (Number 24 – April 1990), "Love and Affection" (Number 62 – September 1990), "Shame Shame Shame" (Number 28 – July 1992) and "The Supreme EP" (Number 49 – April 1993). However, these songs were big hits in Japan, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and India, and she even had a Number 1 American dance hit. "The Supreme EP" was the last chart single by Sinitta in the UK.
Sinitta's only studio album release during this period, Naughty Naughty (1995), was a collection of pop covers and received a limited release in Asia. She appeared on the cast recording album for What a Feeling, a live recording taken from the Apollo Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh in May 1997. She replaced Irene Cara to tour with Sonia (also a former SAW artist) and Luke Goss (former Bros) in the rock and pop musicals concert, What a Feeling[10] in 1997.
Film and television[edit][]
Sinitta acted in the 1986 film Foreign Body and she also played the lead role in The Friends by Rosa Guy. In May 2005, Sinitta performed on Hit Me Baby One More Time on ITV. In 2006, Sinitta competed on Sky1's Cirque de Celebritéand appeared on The X Factor, as part of Simon Cowell and then Louis Walsh's mentoring team. In 2006, Sinitta appeared briefly on an episode of Songs of Praise with her mother Miquel Brown.[10]
She hosted her own chat show on MTV[citation needed]. In spring 2007, she teamed, as a judge, with David Ian, David Gest and choreographer Brian Friedman on ITV's musical talent search series, Grease Is The Word.
Sinitta has also had a cameo appearance on daytime soap, Neighbours, appeared as a panellist on Never Mind The Buzzcocks on Phill Jupitus's team and was parodied on the comedy show, Star Stories. In March 2008, she appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap, swapping spouses with ex-Coronation Street actor Bruce Jones.[11] On 10 April 2008, it was announced that Sinitta had joined the panellists on ITV daytime show, Loose Women.
Sinitta appeared as a contestant on ITV's 2010 series of Dancing on Ice, partnered by series regular professional Andre Lipanov.[12]
In November 2011, she appeared as a contestant on the eleventh series of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!. She joined the show on day three along with Pat Sharp, the DJ. Sinitta was the second contestant to be voted out of the jungle by the public, receiving just 2.38% of the votes cast.
In November 2013 Sinitta appeared in a remake of the 1980s song, "Take On Me", as a Children In Need special tribute alongside Harry Hill, the Hairy Bikers and many more.
The X Factor[edit][]
Sinitta appeared as Cowell's righthand woman at the judges' houses stage of The X Factor and she helped to choose, style and mentor artists such as Leona Lewis, Olly Murs and One Direction.
She continued to work with Cowell, as a mentor support on The X Factor, and in the 2010 series 7 show she worked with the Groups category, at judges' houses in Marbella.[13]
With Cowell's departure from the UK version, Sinitta assisted Louis Walsh in the 2011 series 8 show with the over 25s category. Previously on The X Factor Sinitta has worked on:
- Series 1 (2004): Over 25s (Steve Brookstein - won the show)
- Series 2 (2005): Groups (Journey South - finished third)
- Series 3 (2006): 16-24s (Leona Lewis - won the show)
- Series 4 (2007): Groups (Same Difference - finished third)
- Series 5 (2008): Boys (Eoghan Quigg - finished third)
- Series 6 (2009): Over 25s (Olly Murs - finished second)
- Series 7 (2010): Groups (One Direction) - finished third)
- Series 8 (2011): Over 25s - assisted Louis Walsh (Kitty Brucknell - finished sixth)
- Series 10 (2013): Boys - assisted Louis Walsh (Nicholas Mcdonald - finished second)
In 2009, she regularly appeared on The Xtra Factor which is ITV2's spin-off of The X Factor, interviewing contestants' friends and family.[citation needed] She also made appearances on the 2011 The Xtra Factor, in which she visited one of the finalists' home towns.[citation needed]
Personal life[edit][]
In April 2002, Sinitta married Andy Willner. In November 2005, she announced that Kerry West was to be a surrogate mother for a baby with her husband. At eight weeks into the surrogacy, however, West suffered a miscarriage. She had been carrying twins.[14] They divorced in 2010.[15]
Recent career[edit][]
In early 2008, Sinitta began working with other producers and writers, including her aunt Amii Stewart and Nate & Sangoon on new material for a potential future studio album[citation needed]. Sinitta's first Greatest Hits album was released on 19 October 2009, her 46th birthday. Taking the title from her 1989 smash hit single; Right Back Where We Started From - The Hits Plus Collection is a comprehensive anthology of Sinitta's recording career from 1986 until the present day. The double CD album was released by Cherry Pop Records in association with Sony Music Entertainment.[citation needed] Sinitta now has her own production company and talent site, Attinis (Sinitta backwards) Productions and record label BritBratPop Music. She manages two girl groups, Say No More and REEformed, and the boyband 5 Daiz.[citation needed]
Sinitta is currently taking part in the Channel 4 series 'The Jump' which airs on 26 January, alongside competitors Sir Steve Redgrave and 'The Only Way Is Essex' star Amy Childs.[16]
Discography[edit][]
Main article: Sinitta discography;Studio albums
- 1987: Sinitta!
- 1989: Wicked
- 1995: Naughty Naughty