Connie Victoria Elizabeth Talbot (born 20 November 2000)
is an English singer. In 2007, she was the runner-up of the
first series of ''
Britain's Got Talent
''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloqui ...
''. She then signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album ''
Over the Rainbow'' on 26 November 2007, which has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and reached number one in three countries.
Talbot's second album, ''
Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'', was released on 24 November 2008, her third, ''
Holiday Magic'', was released on 20 October 2009 and her fourth, ''
Beautiful World'', was released on 26 November 2012. In 2019, she competed on ''
Britain's Got Talent: The Champions'' and in 2020 competed on ''
America's Got Talent: The Champions''.
History
''Britain's Got Talent'' and Sony BMG
Talbot initially auditioned for
the first series of television reality show ''
Britain's Got Talent
''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloqui ...
'' for fun, but her confidence increased when
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...
, whom she is said to have idolised, described her as "pure magic" and said that he would make her earn "
£1 million-plus this year". The judges had expected a "joke" performance as she had never taken singing lessons, but Talbot's initial performance received international press coverage. She reached the final round after winning her semi-final with a live performance of "
Ben
Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right.
Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, ...
" by
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
. On the night of the final, she sang ''
The Wizard of Oz''
's "
Over the Rainbow", but lost to
Paul Potts
Paul Potts (born 13 October 1970) is an English tenor. In 2007, he won the first series of ITV's ''Britain's Got Talent'' with his performance of " Nessun dorma", an aria from Puccini's opera ''Turandot''. As a singer of operatic pop music ...
as a result of the call-in vote. Talbot and Potts had been joint favourites to win the series.
![ConnieTalbot3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/ConnieTalbot3.jpeg)
According to journalist and ''Britain's Got Talent'' judge
Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (; né O'Meara; born 30 March 1965) is a British broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality. He began his Fleet Street career in 1988 at ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun''. In 1994, aged 29, he was ...
, Talbot's performances resulted in many children, including
Faryl Smith
Faryl Smith (born 23 July 1995) is a British soprano whose performance repertoire includes opera, classical and classical crossover. Her diverse concerts draw a wide range of audiences, and she particularly enjoys introducing new audiences to cl ...
, auditioning for
the second series of the show. After his victory, series 2 winner
George Sampson
George William Sampson (born 29 June 1993) is an English street dancer, television presenter, singer, and actor. He won the second series of ''Britain's Got Talent'' on 31 May 2008 at the age of 14. He is an official ambassador of the United D ...
spoke of his participation in the first series, where he was knocked out before the live shows, saying "I don't think I had any shot of winning last year ... When you look at the standard of Paul Potts and Connie Talbot. Paul Potts is out of this league, and Connie is out of this league – I wasn't good enough." Talbot voted for Sampson, saying "I liked his dancing – he was good on the lamppost".
Cowell had preliminarily agreed to sign Talbot with his own record label,
Sony BMG. After recording two songs in London with Talbot ("Over the Rainbow" and "Smile"), the label pulled out of the deal. Talbot's mother, Sharon, said she was told that her daughter "...was too young to be their sort of artist", adding "We have been told to look for a company which looks after children."
In a statement, the label said "there was some deliberation over the possibility of recording with Connie ... However, the decision not to proceed was made with the best intentions for Connie, taking into consideration her age and that it would not be right to do so at this time."
Cowell himself said that "when the time is right,
e wouldbe delighted to see if
hey couldmake it work".
''Over the Rainbow''
![ConnieTalbot1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/ConnieTalbot1.jpeg)
In October 2007, Talbot signed with the Rainbow Recording Company for a six-figure deal.
Rainbow Recording Company, an offshoot of record label Rhythm Riders made specifically for Talbot, was due to release Talbot's first album on 26 November 2007.
It was later reported that the album was named ''
Over the Rainbow'', and the first single, "Over the Rainbow"/"White Christmas", would be released on 3 December 2007. Experts predicted that she had a good chance of getting the
Christmas number one
In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...
,
but the single was cancelled in favour of an album-first release.
Before the album was released, there was much speculation about Talbot and the album, with music experts describing her as potentially being "the next
Charlotte Church".
The team behind the album consisted of
John Arnison
Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the most ...
, who also managed
Gabrielle and
Billy Ocean
Leslie Sebastian Charles, (born 21 January 1950), better known by his stage name Billy Ocean, is a British recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British R&B singer-son ...
, and Marc Marot, former managing director of
Island Records. It was produced and mixed by Simon Hill and Rob May.
The album was released on 26 November 2007 and was certified
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
in early December,
with Talbot being presented a gold disc by
Phillip Schofield
Phillip Bryan Schofield (born 1 April 1962) is an English television presenter who works for ITV. He is currently the co-presenter of ITV's '' This Morning'' (2002–present) and ''Dancing on Ice'' (2006–2014, 2018–present) alongside Holl ...
on ''This Morning''.
Initially, 50,000 copies of the album were pressed, but an additional 120,000 had to be made after the album sold out in days.
In late 2007, public appearances by Talbot included headlining the
Great Bridge Christmas and Winter Festival, which local police threatened to cancel unless crowds clamouring to reach the tent in which Talbot was performing could be brought under control.
At the event, on 7 December 2007, Talbot said "I love it here, it's brilliant, really fun", but had to be ushered off-stage by the police.
Talbot performed publicly in
Walsall
Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield.
Walsall is th ...
's
HMV
Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.
The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
store, and in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
's
Centenary Square
Centenary Square is a public square on the north side of Broad Street in Birmingham, England, named in 1989 to commemorate the centenary of Birmingham achieving city status. The area was an industrial area of small workshops and canal wharves ...
.
TV appearances included
GMTV and
Channel 5 news, both on 26 November 2007.
According to her mother, Talbot has received offers for film roles. Sharon said "
albots been sent a script, I haven't had a good look at it yet but it's really exciting ... Connie's a singer, not an actress, so we'll see what happens. It's completely up to her whether or not she wants to do it. I can't believe it, though."
Sharon Mawer of
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
praised ''Over the Rainbow'' by saying "She can sing, for a seven-year old, and most of the notes (if not all of them) are in the right order and sung to the right pitch; the timing is fine too".
However, she criticised the album, saying "there's no feeling, no emotion, no realisation of what each song is about; they're just pretty little songs", giving the album 2/5.
Nick Levine, of
Digital Spy, said in a review of the album that Talbot had a "sweet, pure voice", but that there is "no nuance or depth to her performance".
However, he said that "There's something inherently wrong about awarding a star rating to a seven-year-old", and that "the decidedly adult concept of musical merit should have nothing to do with
er music, awarding the album 2/5.
The album was re-released on 16 June 2008, but was available for pre-order in May, with three new tracks to replace its Christmas-themed songs.
The first single from the album, "
Three Little Birds", was released in June 2008. In April and May 2008, Talbot toured Asia to promote ''Over the Rainbow''.
Asian press attributed her success to her videos on YouTube, with the ''
Sun.Star'' mentioning that her most viewed video had been watched over 14 million times,
and ''
The Straits Times
''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...
'' saying that videos of Talbot's performances have been watched over 30 million times.
The tour made stops in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
, and Talbot and her family returned to England in late May.
Following the tour, it was reported that the album had reached number one on the charts in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as reaching number three in Singapore.
After the tour, Talbot travelled to Poland, where she performed on television.
''Over the Rainbows release in the United States in September,
resulted in attention from American press sources including
Fox Business Network
Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenu ...
and
MarketWatch. The US version was eventually released on 14 October,
with Talbot appearing on American television shows including ''
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...
'' to publicise the release.
In August 2008, it was announced that Talbot had signed a contract with Data Design Interactive for production of a video game on the
Wii console. The game was to feature 15 songs from ''Over the Rainbow'', allowing players to sing along with a computer-generated image of Talbot or against other players in a karaoke mode.
Talbot re-recorded the album for the game.
The game was scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009,
and was to be called ''Connie Talbot: Over the Rainbow'',
but was quietly cancelled due to licensing reasons over the songs to be used.
A prototype build of the game surfaced in 2020 and was purchased by video game preservationist Forest of Illusion, who later uploaded a
disk image
A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is us ...
of the game on the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
.
''Christmas Album'' and ''Holiday Magic''
In November 2008, it was announced that Talbot had produced a series of new songs for an album.
Recorded in her bedroom studio, ''
Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'' was released on 24 November.
It is a
Christmas themed album,
featuring, according to Talbot's official website, "a mix of classics and modern Christmas tunes".
News was also released of a one-off
Christmas special
Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists and writers. A prominent aspect of Christian media, the topic first appeared in in literature and Christmas music. Filmmakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptatio ...
to be shown on
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 ...
in the days leading up to Christmas, featuring footage of Talbot's journey to America and a "secret concert" at her primary school. The documentary, ''Christmas with Connie'', was shown on
ITV Central
ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands. It was created following the rest ...
on 18 December.
Talbot appeared at
Walsall
Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield.
Walsall is th ...
's
HMV
Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.
The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
branch shortly after the release of her ''Christmas Album'' to sign copies and meet fans. She then embarked on a promotional tour making stops around the world, which included a performance at
Ewha Womans University
Ewha Womans University () is a private women's university in Seoul founded in 1886 by Mary F. Scranton under Emperor Gojong. It was the first university founded in South Korea. Currently, Ewha is one of the world's largest female educational inst ...
in Korea, and a performance on the "A Heart for Children" television charity gala in Berlin, Germany. She returned home in mid December, to have "a quiet family Christmas".
''Connie Talbot's Christmas Album'' was difficult to obtain in Britain after the distributor,
Pinnacle Entertainment
Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. was an American gambling and hospitality company. It was acquired by Penn National Gaming in 2018. At the time of acquisition, it operated sixteen casino properties, located in Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Miss ...
, went into administration. Talbot's mother, Sharon, was quoted as saying "We don't really know what's going to happen at the moment ... We think they'll probably wait and promote the album later this year. It's a shame, but they can still get the album in Asia and the US."
Reviewing the album for ''FemaleFirst'' magazine, Ruth Harrison gave it 4/5, saying that Talbot has "a great voice when it comes to
swing, but lets us down in parts".
In April 2009, Talbot again travelled to the US to publicise her new single, a cover of "
I Will Always Love You". The single was released in the US on 7 April, along with a newly recorded "You Raise Me Up". Talbot then traveled to the US on 30 April, and returned on 2 May. Appearances included a performance on ''
Good Day New York
''Good Day New York'' is a morning show airing on WNYW Fox 5 (channel 5), hosted by Rosanna Scotto and Bianca Peters. It is a Fox owned-and-operated television station in New York City, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox C ...
'' on
Fox Broadcasting Company
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by Fox C ...
's
WNYW
WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagsh ...
.
Talbot's third album, ''
Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic
''Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic'', also known as ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Magic'', is the third album by British child singer Connie Talbot. Released 13 October 2009 by AAO Music, it features rerecordings of songs from Talbot's previous albu ...
'', was released on 20 October 2009 in the United States and on 30 November 2009 in the United Kingdom. The United States album is dedicated to the
Toys for Tots
Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. The program was founded in 1947 by reservist Major Bill Hendricks.
Th ...
campaign, of which Talbot has been named the child ambassador. In a statement, Bill Grein, Vice-President of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, said:
Along with Talbot's third album, a television special, entitled ''Holiday Magic'', was produced by
WVIA. ''Holiday Magic'' featured performances of all of the songs from ''
Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic
''Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic'', also known as ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Magic'', is the third album by British child singer Connie Talbot. Released 13 October 2009 by AAO Music, it features rerecordings of songs from Talbot's previous albu ...
'', and was available to all
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
stations shown in November and December 2009.
A 17-track DVD of the special, including two additional songs, "What a Wonderful World" and "Over the Rainbow", was released for sale.
2010–2015
Talbot opened a special concert celebrating South Korea's hosting of the G20 summit of world leaders in 2010.
She performed for her largest ever audience when she performed on Chinese state television for the Chinese new-year in 2011. Viewing figures for the event were estimated to be around 400 million.
During this time, Talbot continued to upload videos of her performances onto YouTube.
Maggie Coughlan praised her covers of
Katy Perry's "
Firework
Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices in ...
" and
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical ...
's "
Grenade", but was most impressed by her cover of
Adele
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a rec ...
's "
Someone Like You", which she said was performed "with such grace that she makes the entire performance look effortless".
The video was also picked up by
PerezHilton.com. After the death of
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...
, Talbot posted a cover version of "
Run to You" as a tribute. The video received attention from around the world. In November 2011, she released "Beautiful World" as a single on
iTunes. The song was written by Talbot when she was seven. A demo of the track was placed on YouTube, and became the 39th most watched video in the world on the day it was uploaded.
She was the youngest artist to make the UK album charts, and the youngest to release a gold-selling record. Others involved in the event included
Randolph Matthews and
The High Kings
The High Kings is an Irish folk group formed in Dublin in 2008. The band consists of Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Darren Holden, and Paul O'Brien. As of 2020, the group had released five studio albums, four live albums, and two live DVDs, an ...
. Performances took place elsewhere in the United Kingdom, including Manchester and Birmingham.
Talbot toured with the Young Voices choir for a second year in early 2013, performing at venues across the UK. The
African Children's Choir also took part in these events.
Her song "Let's Get Along", written by Kipper, was featured on
ONE Campaign's agit8
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
album that July. Talbot also featured in the song "Building Bridges", which also made the agit8 album, together with
Jordan Jansen.
In October 2013, Talbot's vocals featured in the theme song of the newly-released video game ''
Rain
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...
'',
and she appeared as a special guest at the
African Children's Choir concert in Walsall, UK. It was announced that Talbot would be an ambassador for the
African Children's Choir and have a school named after her.
In 2014, she performed two concerts in South Korea (Osan and Seoul) in late April, shortly after the
Sewol ferry tragedy. She performed with yellow ribbons to show her respect for the families of the victims. The proceeds from at least one of the concerts were donated to the fundraising efforts in support of the families of the victims.
In July, a DVD and Blu-ray was released of her concerts in Hong Kong and Taiwan during her ''Beautiful World'' tour in 2012. It features live performances of the songs from ''Beautiful World'', and two additional songs, "I Will Always Love You" and "Over the Rainbow".
On 17 November 2014, Talbot released the five-song EP ''Gravity'', containing the original songs "Gravity" and "Inner Beauty", with the latter also appearing as an instrumental acoustic version.
''Matters to Me'' (2016–present)
On 19 February 2016, the release of digital single "Shut Up (Move On)" was announced. The single is taken from Talbot's studio album ''Matters to Me'', a 13-track album with a bonus track available only on iTunes. The album was released on 25 March 2016.
On 11 May 2017, Connie Talbot released a song called "Good to Me", which she stated is "about a person who I admired, respected and who taught me so much. That person sadly passed away and I wrote this song from my heart." On 13 October 2017, Connie released a video for the song "Rumours".
In April 2019 she collaborated with
Boyce Avenue
Boyce Avenue is an American cover band formed in Sarasota, Florida, by brothers Alejandro Luis Manzano, Daniel Enrique Manzano, and Fabian Rafael Manzano. The brothers attended Pine View School in Osprey, Florida. The band is named after a co ...
covering the
Jonas Brothers song "Sucker".
On 31 August 2019 Talbot took part in ''
Britain's Got Talent: The Champions'' with an original composition, "Never Give Up on Us". The song was released the same day. By the following day, the song had reached number eight on the U.K.
iTunes chart.
On 27 January 2020 she competed on ''
America's Got Talent: The Champions'', where she performed her romantic original song "I Would" on the piano.
Personal life
Talbot lives in
Sutton Coldfield,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
with her mother, Sharon, her father Gavin, her older brother Josh, and her older sister Mollie.
In 2006, she sang at her late grandmother's funeral.
Her father and her brother both support
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
.
Discography
Albums
Video albums
Extended plays
Singles
Other appearances
Music videos
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Talbot, Connie
2000 births
Living people
Britain's Got Talent contestants
English women pop singers
English child singers
21st-century English women singers
21st-century English singers
Child pop musicians