Lady Sovereign
Louise Amanda Harman, better known by her stage name
Lady Sovereign, is an English rapper and grime artist from Wembley, North-West London, who is noted for her professional success in performing styles of music generally dominated by males.
She was born on 19th December 1985 and grew up on a deprived council estate which has now been demolished, with her two other siblings, an older sister and a younger brother. At the age of 15, her bad behaviour and poor attendance record gave her difficulty in fitting in at school and she was later expelled.
Lady Sovereign has often been quoted in interviews stating that her musical inspiration to pursue a career in rap came from British hip hop and R&B recording artist, rapper, songwriter and producer,
Ms. Dynamite. Although she has worked hard to get where she is at, her career aspirations and intentions cannot be doubted, yet she has been involved in her fair share of controversial incidents.
In September 2009, where she was making an appearance at
Parklife Festival in Brisbane, Australia, she was arrested for assault and drunk and disorderly behaviour on a night out after spitting at a nightclub bouncer, prior to only landing in the country 7 hours before. She was ordered to pay a fine and compensation to the bouncer. Yet, only 4 months less than a year after this circumstance, she was interviewed by
Diva Magazine, during which she came out as a lesbian, making her one of the first LGBT rappers in the music industry.
Her music has been used in advertisements for
Nintendo and
Verizon Wireless, on soundtracks to video games such as
Need for Speed and
Midnight Club, and in film and on television programmes such as
St. Trinian's,
Malcolm in the Middle,
The Hills and
90210, whilst she has also supported artists and bands including
Dizzee Rascal,
Basement Jaxx and
The Streets on tour. Further to this, she has also made numerous appearances herself on television, namely on
Soccer AM,
Total Wipeout and being the third evicted on the seventh series of of
Celebrity Big Brother in 2010.
The Ordinary Boys
The Ordinary Boys are an English indie rock band from Worthing, West Sussex, whose name derives from a song by 80's lyricist
Morrissey, where he sings about his own inability as a child and teenager to escape what he felt was the stifling ordinariness of Manchester life, however, this was not the band's first name as they were formerly called
Next in Line. The group have been cited claiming that they were influenced by mod revival and Britpop as well as other bands, among which include
Madness,
The Specials,
The Kinks and
The Smiths.
The band that originally split up in 2008 consisted of the following founding members: Samuel Preston (
vocals, guitar) who also co-wrote
X Factor 2009 runner-up
Olly Murs' collaboration with
Rizzle Kicks,
Heart Skips a Beat, which reached
number one in the UK Singles Chart in 2011, William Brown (
guitar), James Gregory (
bass) and Simon Goldring (
drums), who had replaced Charles Stanley in 2005. However, in 2011 after a 3 year hiatus from the music industry, the band re-formed replacing Brown and Gregory with the fresh-faced trio of Dane Etteridge, Dan Logan who was formerly a bassist with
The Kooks, and Toby Horton.
Their music has been used on soundtracks for video games such as
Burnout and in film and on television programmes such as
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix and
The IT Crowd. In addition to this, lead singer Samuel Preston, who is more commonly known by his surname, appeared on the fourth series of
Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, where he came fourth.
Nine2Five
Nine2Five is a remixed version by
The Ordinary Boys of
Lady Sovereign's second single
9 to 5, where the track was renamed, re-recorded and released as a duet single and was credited as
The Ordinary Boys vs. Lady Sovereign, where it became the band's second top 10 single. The track reached
number 6 in the UK Singles Chart in 2006 and was a much bigger hit for
Lady Sovereign than her original release had been, where it peaked at number 33 in the chart. The genre of the record is noted as rap, grime, hip hop, ska and indie and has a track length of 3:00.
