Maria Lawson

Maria Lawson (born 24 May 1979) is an English singer.

Lawson released her first single, "A Night to Remember," in 1982, which was used in a Gala Bingo advertisement.

In 1997, Lawson, known as Kimara Lawson in Italy, achieved chart success with several singles in collaboration with Italian dance group Ti.Pi.Cal. (Daniele Tignino, Riccardo Piparo and Vincenzo Callea).

With Ti.Pi.Cal, Lawson recorded "Hidden Passion" (1997), "Live For Today (1997), "Follow Your Heart" (1998), "Music Is My Life" (1999) and What I Like (2006), and two singles as Kimara Lawson - Stand up (2000) & Heaven (2000).

Lawson was signed to Peer Music Publishing from 2002 to 2005 and started her career as a singer-songwriter.

During that time she worked with established producer David Brant, who produced three tracks for her, "Rush", "I Wanna Say Yes" and "Inferno".

During her time as a singer-songwriter, she worked with recording artist Gabrielle and performed on Gabrielle's hit singles "Out of Reach" (as featured in the Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack), "Don't Need the Sun to Shine (to Make Me Smile)" and the live version of "Rise".

She has also provided backing vocals for many other artists, including Kelly Clarkson, Anita Baker and British soul singer Lemar.

Lawson auditioned for the first series of The X Factor in 2004, but she was rejected by judge Simon Cowell after reaching the "bootcamp" rounds.

She recorded several singles with Ti.Pi.Cal. Lawson was the fifth contestant eliminated in the second UK series of television talent show The X Factor in 2005.

In 2005 she auditioned for the second series of the show.

She released her debut self-titled album in 2006.

On 6 March 2006 Lawson announced that she had signed to the Phonogenic branch of the Sony BMG record label.

Her debut single, "Sleepwalking", was released on 14 August 2006.

BBC Radio 2 "A-listed" the track (putting it on heavy rotation), and it achieved a position of number 20 in the UK Singles Chart.

Her self-help/autobiography entitled Life Starts Now was released in November 2008.

Lawson outlined in her 2008 autobiography life starts now, that during her second addition for the X factor, Cowell immediately remembered her from the previous year, stating that he had "made a mistake" in not putting her through to the live shows.

After performing "Stop" by Sam Brown at her audition, Lawson proceeded through to the bootcamp rounds with fellow singer, Sharon Osbourne emerging as her new mentor.

Following the bootcamp rounds, Lawson continued to proceed to the Osbourne household in Los Angeles, where she sang in the live stages of the show as part of Osbourne's top four.

At the beginning of the live shows, Lawson performed"Piece of My Heart" and "You're Beautiful".

Lawson became one of the notable returnees, and eventually rose to the top making the top eight.

Lawson outlines week four of her live shows, where she performed a cover to cover the James Blunt hit "You're Beautiful", receiving the most public votes for that week.

In the fifth week of the live shows, Lawson performed "Brown Sugar", receiving criticism from judges that it was unsuitable for her.

After the public vote, Lawson found herself in the bottom two for the first time with Irish girl group The Conway Sisters.

Voting figures showed that Lawson received twice as many votes as The Conway Sisters, meaning that if it came to a deadlock, Lawson would be saved.

Following the sing off, the two out of the three judges voted against Lawson, sending her home.

Simon Cowell voted against Lawson, backing his act The Conway Sisters.

Louis Walsh also voted against Lawson, stating that he “followed his heart”.

Lawson's mentor, Sharon Osbourne, said that she was a victim of the "Irish Mafia", referring to Irish judge Louis Walsh's decision to vote in favour of the Irish act at Lawson's expense.

This caused a media uproar and Walsh threatened to quit the show after days of negative press.

Lawson's elimination was also a shock for bookmakers who had her as a 66–1 outsider to leave the programme.

After Lawson was eliminated from the show, she was approached by at least three major record labels.

Lawson appeared in the female lead role in the West End production of Thriller – Live from 14 April 2009 to March 2010.

She released her second studio album, Emotional Rollercoaster in 2014.

Lawson lives in London with her husband Lawrence and their two children.

Lawson was born and raised in London.

She is the youngest in a family of five, with three brothers and one sister.

She is of Jamaican, Chinese and Cuban descent.

Her mother is Jamaican, her father has Cuban heritage and her grandfather is Chinese from a family descending from the name Chang.

Before appearing as a contestant on The X Factor finishing in eighth place, Lawson was a client of Active Music Management, who obtained her first record deal with President Records and her first publishing deal.