Carolynne Willey (née Good; born 5 August 1980) is a British singer-songwriter, actress and former model from
Leeds,
England. She is a founding member of the Carolynne Good Band, based in Leeds and London. She is best known for finishing in third place on the
second series
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...
of the
BBC singing competition ''
Fame Academy'' in 2003. In 2011, Willey was a contestant on ''
The X Factor'' and made it to the judges' houses' stage of the competition. She returned to the show the
following series in 2012 and made it to the live shows, but was eliminated after the first live show following a sing-off against
Rylan Clark.
Early and personal life
Carolynne Good was born in
Leeds, Yorkshire. She attended Pudsey Grangefield High School.
She was previously married to footballer
David Poole. In August 2015, Good announced that she was in a relationship with England cricketer
David Willey, whom she married in November 2016.
Singing career
1998–2001: Early career
Poole's early musical influences included
The Eagles,
U2,
The Carpenters, and
Mary Chapin Carpenter. In 1998, having moved from Leeds to London to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter, she was one of the final 15 in auditions for
S Club 7,
along with ''
Pop Idol'' contestant
Zoe Birkett. The following year, Poole joined and fronted a five-member
country music band, with which she toured the UK. In 2001, she signed her first publishing contract with
BMG Music Publishing. In 2000, she continued to develop her songwriting talents in the UK and Europe. She split most of her time between London and
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, writing for other recording artists, writing and recording with different songwriters and producers.
2003–05: ''Fame Academy'', songwriting and touring
In 2003, Poole appeared in the
second series
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...
of the
BBC's singing competition ''
Fame Academy'', in which she reached the final. A song she co-wrote with fellow contestants
Alex Parks and
James Fox, titled "Not Your Average Kind of Girl", was included on Parks' 2003 debut album ''
Introduction''. The album reached number 5 on the
UK Albums Chart and has since been classified 2x
Platinum in the UK, and
gold in six other countries including Italy, Greece, Germany, and Australia.
Poole spent 2004 continuing to writing songs, and in the next year toured the UK with
Tony Christie. Under the wing of Christie's Amarillo Music, she co-wrote new material and formed the Carolynne Good Band in 2005 with songwriter/bassist Don Rogers, drummer Sean Fitzgerald, guitarists Alex Rogers and Alex Sharman from the London-based band Starling, and keyboard player Maki. The band described their sound as "a mixture of classic singer-songwriter melodies with a country flavour."
2011–12: ''The X Factor''
In 2011, Poole auditioned for the
eighth series of ''
The X Factor''.
She reached the "judges' houses" stage, where
Louis Walsh was her mentor in the "over 25s" category, but failed to progress through to the live shows, with Walsh instead choosing
Johnny Robinson,
Kitty Brucknell
Kimberley Dayle Edwards (born 15 November 1984), formerly known professionally as Kitty Brucknell, is an English pop singer. She rose to fame as a finalist on the eighth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2011, where she finished in seventh place.
...
,
Jonjo Kerr
'' The X Factor'' is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The eighth series aired on ITV on 20 August 2011 and ended on 11 December 2011. Dermot O'Leary hosted the main show on ITV, while Caroline Flack and series ...
and
Goldie Cheung
'' The X Factor'' is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The eighth series aired on ITV on 20 August 2011 and ended on 11 December 2011. Dermot O'Leary hosted the main show on ITV, while Caroline Flack and series ...
(who later dropped out and was replaced by
Sami Brookes
'' The X Factor'' is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The eighth series aired on ITV on 20 August 2011 and ended on 11 December 2011. Dermot O'Leary hosted the main show on ITV, while Caroline Flack and series ...
).
Poole auditioned again for the
ninth series, and made it to the live shows with
Gary Barlow as her mentor. In the first week of the live shows, Poole sang
Nicki Minaj's "
Starships
A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between planetary systems.
The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1882 in '' Oahspe: A Ne ...
".
Despite positive comments, however,
she was in the bottom two the following night with controversial "boys" contestant
Rylan Clark.
Nicole Scherzinger voted against Poole as Clark was in her category, while
Gary Barlow and
Tulisa voted to eliminate Clark based on the final showdown performance. This meant Walsh had the casting vote, but he appeared unable to make up his mind. After hesitating for some time, he eventually said "I'm going to with Carolynne, I want to keep Carolynne.", although he had to say who wanted to ''send home'', not who he wanted to save. Eventually, after being pressured for an answer by presenter
Dermot O'Leary, Walsh made his decision by saying, "I want to take it to deadlock!". O'Leary then revealed that Poole had received the fewest public votes and she was sent home, much to the disgust of Barlow, who stormed off stage and later called Clark a "joke act" and "talentless".
2014–present: Debut album
Following ''The X Factor'', Poole relocated to the United States for five months.
[ She spent time gigging in Arizona and Los Angeles as well as in Nashville, Tennessee, commonly known as the "home of country", where she collaborated with songwriters and producers including Jeff Silbar.][ In 2014 and 2015, she played at the C2C: Country to Country festival in London.] In early 2015, Poole received radio airplay on BBC Radio 2 Country with a song titled "Cupid Must've Been High". Later Poole released her debut single, "I Love You but Shut Up", which features guitar-playing by Albert Lee. The single was play listed on BBC Radio 2, which led to a Terry Wogan session. A tour in support of the single is planned. She will return to play two slots at C2C in March 2016.
Carolynne released her debut 5 song album "Coming Back To Me" on 7 April 2017 and was subsequently nominated for two British Country Music Association Awards.
Acting career
Since 2005, Poole has appeared on stage in pantomime and has also acted in short films. In August 2008, she began shooting her first feature film playing Frankie in ''The Last Days of Edgar Harding'', which was released in 2011. In 2010, she played the role of Sue in Bill Kenwright
William Kenwright, CBE (born 4 September 1945) is an English West End theatre producer and film producer. He has also been the chairman of Everton Football Club since 2004.
Kenwright was born in Liverpool and attended Booker Avenue County Prima ...
's UK tour of ''Dreamboats and Petticoats
''Dreamboats and Petticoats'' is a jukebox musical based on popular songs from the fifties and early sixties. The musical, featuring those songs of the rock 'n' roll era, is set around the years 1957 to 1963 and was written by Laurence Marks an ...
'', and had a minor role in the BBC film '' Eric and Ernie''. In May 2012, Poole appeared in '' Emmerdale'' as a girlfriend. She later played Justin Gallagher
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the British soap opera ''Emmerdale'' in 2010, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by the soap's executive producer, Steve Frost.
Charlie Haynes
Charles "Ch ...
's new fiancée Talia Brice.
References
External links
* (Archive copy)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poole, Carolynne
1980 births
Living people
English women singer-songwriters
British country singers
The X Factor (British TV series) contestants
21st-century English women singers
21st-century English singers
Actresses from Huddersfield
Musicians from Huddersfield