User:Alex Curran-Gerrard Bio

Alex Curran-Gerrard (born September 23rd 1982) is an English singer-songwriter, model, fashion columnist and record producer. She made her debut in September 1997 under the guidance of Arista Records founder Clive Davis, and became the first recording artist have her first five singles top the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Between 1997 and 1999, she released 3 US Diamond selling albums, "Vision Of Love" (1997), "Music Box" (1998) and "Merry Christmas" (1999).

"Daydream", her fourth album, was released in November 2000 and sold over 25 million copies worldwide. In 2002, she released "Butterfly" and "Rainbow" became her final album on Arista Records when released in September 2003.

Curran-Gerrard has sold over 145 million albums, singles and video albums. At the World Music Awards 2000, she was named the World's Best Selling Female Artist of All Time, with 53 million sales with just three albums released. In 2003, she was awarded the Chopard Diamond Award for selling over 100 million albums. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, she is the third best-selling female artist and sixteenth overall recording artist with shipments of over 63 million albums in the US. She is also ranked as the best-selling female artist of the U.S. Nielsen SoundScan era (third best-selling artist overall). She has the most number-one singles for a solo artist in the United States (eighteen; second artist overall behind The Beatles). In addition to her commercial accomplishments, Carey has earned five Grammy Awards, and is well-known for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style, and use of the whistle register.

Curran-Gerrard will release her seventh studio album, "Emancipation", in 2010 which will be her first on her new label Jive Records and first since coming off her five year hiatus.

1997: Signing To Arista Records
In January 1997, Alex appeared on ITV talent show, StarSearch. She came second in the competition but was called the next day by over 10 record labels from America icluding Columbia, Jive, Epic, BMG but she eventually signed with Arista Records and Clive Davis, who would become a career-long mentor for the singer.

She began writing her debut album in March 1997 alongside Ben Margulies. Despite being allowed to co-write some tracks, Arista executives believed the album needed careful management and banned Curran-Gerrard or Margulies from producing the album. Clive Davis assured Alex that this was for the benefit of her career.

1997-1998: Vision Of Love
After turning up at the offices of Arista with a 15 track album, which was eventually cut down to 11 tracks. "Vision Of Love" entered the U.S. Billboard 200 at number 10, but topped the chart just 5 weeks later. It has been certified 9x platinum by the RIAA denoting shipments of over 9 million in the US alone. In the UK, the album was moderately successful, debuting and peaking at

Three singles were released from the album, "Vision Of Love", "I'll Be There" and "Make It Happen". All three topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and were all top ten hits in the UK.

2005-2010:Hiatus From Music
On the final night of her "Rainbow Tour" at the Anfield football stadium in her home town of Liverpool, Alex said "After an amazing career that has spanned eight years, I feel now is the time to take a break to spend time with my family. I have a little girl and an amazing boyfriend to spend time with and this is not the end, it's the beginning. I hope to perform for you again very soon." After she performed her final song of the tour, which was Hero, she invited everyone from the crew onto the stage and performed a bow. Perhaps dispelling rumours of her being a diva, she thanked each of the crew by name whilst on stage. Fans were visibly distressed and gave Alex a 15 minute standing ovation. Her then-boyfriend (now husband) Steven Gerrard walked on stage with a diamond encrusted disk and announced that two of her albums, "Music Box" and "Daydream" had both been certified Diamond by the RIAA. Alex broke down in tears and left the stage.

In between her albums, she has been working on other artists album, writing and producing for Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, JLS, Lee Ryan, Alexandra Burke and Leona Lewis.

2010: Emancipation
In January 2010, nearly 7 years since the release of her previous album, Alex announced she was making a comeback. In a surprise interview on UK television, Alex confirmed rumours she had been working on a new album for over 5 years and that she will be releasing her first single since March 2004 in May. No other details have been announced but Alex has written on her website "WOW! You need to look out on a certain talent show final, maybe in the US or maybe in the UK, and you'll see the newest single from AC-G.

Personal Life
Alex grew up moving around the world with her mother, but was normally based in Liverpool where she was born. She is the first daughter of R&B legend Whitney Houston and Robert Curran, best known by his stage name of Bobby Brown. In 2006, Alex's mum filed for divorce from Curran after fifteen years of marriage. In a 2007 interview, Alex revealed "I haven't spoken to my father since the divorce was filed. He hasn't seen my youngest little girl and that's the way he wants it to be." Alex has also claimed that marital issues betweeen Houston and Curran was to blame for the decline in her mothers career.

She is currently married to Liverpool FC captain Steven Gerrard. The couple began seeing each other in January 2002 and have two children, Lily-Ella (born February 24th 2004) and Lexie (born May 9th 2006). They currently reside in Formby.