Cleopatra Madonna Higgins, better known as Cleo Higgins, is a British R&B/soul/pop singer, dancer andsongwriter based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. Higgins is the lead singer of the eponymously named sister

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

Music career

Early career

In 2000, Higgins branched out from

and recorded two duets with tenor

Russell Watson Russell Watson is an English tenor who has released singles and albums of both operatic-style and pop songs. He began singing as a child, and became known after performing at a working men's club. He came to attention in 1999 when he sang "God ...

. The first song, "Someone Like You" was featured on Watson's multi-platinum debut album ''

The Voice The Voice may refer to: Fictional entities * The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics * The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe * The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...

'', which climbed to No. 1 on the U.S. classical charts. Higgins and Watson performed the song both on tour and on the National Lottery and they collaborated a second time, recording another duet called "The Best That Love Can Be" for Watson's third album, ''

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repea ...

''. In 2001, Higgins headlined the Young Voices in Concert tour, performing at the

Manchester Arena Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights s ...

in front of 15,000 people as she and almost 7,000 choir members set a ne
Guinness World Record
for the largest choir assembled in the UK. The performance was aired on the

BBC's #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

long-standing programme

Songs of Praise ''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK. The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...

. In 2002 Higgins participated in

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

's ''Songs of Bond'', a tribute to the songs of

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

where she covered " For Your Eyes Only". In 2007 Higgins released her pilot solo single "Feelin' Like This". She has toured with

Joe Budden Joseph Anthony Budden II (born August 31, 1980) is an American media personality and former rapper. He first gained recognition as a rapper with his 2003 top 40 single " Pump It Up" and as a member of the hip hop supergroup Slaughterhouse. In ...

, Jagged Edge,

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

Girls Aloud Girls Aloud were an pop girl group that was created through the ITV talent show '' Popstars: The Rivals'' in 2002. The group comprised singers Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. The group achieved a str ...

and also embarked on a university tour. Higgins has covered

Kym Sims Kym Sims (born December 28, 1966) is an American singer whose biggest success came outside her home market, most notably the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom. Sims began her career as an advertising jingle singer before breaking thro ...

' "Too Blind To See It". Higgins has worked as a brand ambassador for

CoverGirl CoverGirl is an American cosmetics brand founded in Maryland, United States, by the Noxzema Chemical Company. It was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1989 and later acquired by Coty, Inc. in 2016. The Noxell Company advertised this cosmetics li ...

2013: ''The Voice UK''

In 2013, Higgins auditioned for ''

The Voice UK ''The Voice UK'' is a British singing competition television series. Created by John de Mol, it premiered on BBC One during the spring television cycle on 24 March 2012. Based on the original ''The Voice of Holland'', and part of ''The Voice ...

'' and her Blind Audition was shown on the 3rd episode on Saturday 13 April 2013. All of the coaches turned around and she chose

Will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

's team. In the Battle round, Will.i.am kept Higgins over duo Nu-tarna. In the Knockout round Will.i.am then kept Higgins over both Lem and John. Higgins competed in the quarter-finals against both Leah and Leanne with Will.i.am giving Leah his fast pass while Higgins was voted through by the public, despite there being rumours of Will.i.Am showing favouritism to Leah and Leanne. Throughout the course of the show, Higgins was the subject of many rumours. At one point, it was reported that

was 'disgusted' by her, with comments being made that she was "the worst diva we've had" and that he was "sick to death of dealing with her". Higgins immediately rebutted these rumours stating that the press "just have to stop with the lies". Higgins was eliminated at the Semi-final stage of the reality show when she performed against

Leah McFall Leah ''La'ya;'' from (; ) appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wife Rachel. She is the mother of Jacob's first son ...

for the public vote. Will.i.am used the opportunity to dispel such rumours by telling Higgins live on television, "You are an amazing artist. I would love to work with you".

Performances

Personal life

Higgins has two children, Chika Li Ché who was born in September 2001 and Taylor James McKenzie (TJ), with her former partner, Marlon McKenzie who has appeared on ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

''.

Discography

Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Cleo 1982 births Living people 21st-century Black British women singers British contemporary R&B singers English soul singers Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands The Voice UK contestants English people of Sierra Leonean descent English women pop singers