Craig David

Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single "Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger.

The song "Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)", from the Artful Dodger album It's All About the Stragglers, hit number two on the UK charts in 1999; thus, paving the way for a solo career.

David's first single, "Fill Me In", released on Colin Lester's and Ian McAndrew's Wildstar Records, topped the UK chart and was the first of a string of four top 10 singles from his debut album Born to Do It, which eventually sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, earning multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries.

The song "Key to My Heart", taken from the US version of the album, was also featured in the award-winning Warner Bros. animated film Osmosis Jones.

David's debut studio album, Born to Do It, was released in 2000, after which he has released a further five studio albums and worked with a variety of artists such as Sting, Tinchy Stryder, Big Narstie, Kano and Jay Sean.

David has 20 UK top 40 singles, and seven UK top 40 albums, selling over 15 million records worldwide as a solo artist.

David has been nominated for fourteen Brit Awards: five times for Best British Male, and twice receiving a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

David was born in Southampton, Hampshire, the only child of Tina (née Loftus), a retail assistant at Superdrug, and George David, a carpenter, and grew up in the Holyrood estate.

David's father is Afro-Grenadian and David's mother is Anglo-Jewish and related to the founders of the Accurist watch-making company; David's maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Jew and his maternal grandmother a convert to Judaism.

David's parents separated when he was eight and he was brought up by his mother.

He attended Bellemoor School and Southampton City College.

David was bullied by other students at school.

The success of David's debut, which was written almost entirely by David and Mark Hill of Artful Dodger, led to the United States release of "Fill Me In" in May 2001.

It reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Born to Do It was released in the United States on 17 July 2001, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 1 million copies.

The single "7 Days" hit the top 10 in the U.S.; although "Walking Away", which had reached number 3 in the UK and number 5 in Australia, missed the top 40 in the U.S. and was the last of his singles to chart there.

The follow-up album, Slicker Than Your Average, was released in 2002.

The album's first four singles continued David's streak of top 10 hits in the UK, bringing a total of nine consecutive top 10 hits until "World Filled with Love" peaked at number 15 in 2003.

None of the six singles released from the album charted in the U.S. Although "What's Your Flava?"

and "Rise & Fall" (duet with Sting) received airplay on the urban contemporary and soft adult contemporary formats, they did not make the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs or Adult Contemporary charts.

However, "What's Your Flava?"

made the Rhythmic Top 40 chart (number 32), Mainstream Top 40 chart (number 24) and the Top 40 Tracks chart (number 37).

According to the RIAA, Slicker Than Your Average was certified gold in the U.S.

David also commented that the album title could be looked at in two different ways: "On the one hand, it's coming across like I'm arrogant. On the other hand, it's saying I have a lot more composure on the album.""

The album was leaked onto the internet prior to its official release but David was not too bothered as he felt it "spreads the word".

He wrote and released the song "Johnny" in 2005 about his memories of being bullied.

David's father, George David, played bass in a reggae band called Ebony Rockers.

As a teen, David began accompanying his father to local dance clubs, where DJs let him take the microphone.

David's earliest exposure came when he worked on a B-side to British group Damage's cover of "Wonderful Tonight", on the track "I'm Ready".

He then started doing vocals for the UK garage duo Artful Dodger, on tracks such as "Something" and "What Ya Gonna Do".

Wildstar Records first became aware of David when the artist's then manager Paul Widger met the label's co-owner Colin Lester and played some of his music.

Lester later told HitQuarters that he was particularly impressed by the first song he heard, "Walking Away", saying "That was an absolute stand-out ... It struck me that any seventeen-year-old that could write a song like this had huge potential."

The Wildstar boss was further won over when, on later visiting the artist's home in Southampton, he found David's tiny bedroom stacked from floor to ceiling with 12" vinyl records, commenting: "That convinced me he was the real deal and not just some kid acting out the part." At that point Lester offered him a development deal with his label. When Lester later heard the song "7 Days", he said he immediately heard a number-one record and promoted the contract to an album deal the same day.

David later signed on with Warner Music and put together his third album, The Story Goes..., which was released worldwide in August 2005 (excluding the U.S. where it was never released).

The first single, "All the Way", returned him to the top 3.

The second single, "Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)", tied with "7 Days" as his longest-running single in the charts since "Re-Rewind", spending 15 weeks inside the UK top 75.

The album's third single, "Unbelievable", debuted at number 18 in March 2006.

In 2007, David collaborated with British rapper Kano on his album London Town, for the single "This Is the Girl".

The track was released on 27 August 2007 and debuted at number 18 on the UK charts.

In April 2009, MTV viewers voted Born to Do It as number 2 on their "Greatest Album of All Time" poll, behind Michael Jackson's Thriller.