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Craig Ashley David is a british RnB singer that graces the airwaves with his smooth voice and the dexterity of his talent. His videos showcase his pleasant face and a body that women would definitely love to follow in the bedroom.
Craig Ashley David, or simply Craig David was born in Southampton on May 5, 1981. He was a good student at Bellemoor Secondary School which makes Afro-Grenadian father, George and an English-Jewish mother, Tina, very proud. As early as his high school days, his mother encouraged Craig to write songs which in turn was used for Write a Song For Damage competition which he won. He also wrote the lyrics to the b-side of the band's Wonderful Tonight which was called “I'm Ready”. While in the studio Craig also recorded a cover version of the Human League classic Human which became his first record.
He began writing his own stuff at age twelve and at age fifteen began MCing at the local club his father was chairman of. He teamed up with DJ . In time he got interested in the Garage scene and soon met a different local boy, Mark Hill, one half of Artful Dodger, a group to which he owes much of his debuting and maybe his career to.
Born To Do It, Craig's debut solo album, was released in the UK on August 14, 1999 and directly made no 1. It has been on the no 1 spot around the world including Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Malaysia. More RnB than garage,the album reveals the smoothness and dexterity of his vocal talents as well as his strong song-writing skills.
His second album, Slicker Than Your Average was in 2002, and 6 singles were released from it and became hits as well. These were: "What's Your Flava?", "Hidden Agenda", "Rise & Fall" (featuring Sting), "Spanish" , "World Filled With Love", and "You Don't Miss Your Water ('Til The Well Runs Dry”).
From the fence of Telstar records, which went bankrupt, he transferred to Wildstar for his second album and then signed to Warner Music for his latestchart-topping album, "The Story Goes..."
In 2005 he made his comeback with the single "All The Way" . Not so long after, he released his third album "The Story Goes..." (August 2005). The album's hits were "Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)" and "Unbelievable" .
Awards & Certifications
2000 Born To Do It
- 1 UK [UK. 4x Platinum]
- 11 US (2001 release)[U.S. Platinum]
- 2 AUS [8 million worldwide]
- 4 UK [UK. 2x Platinum]
- 32 US [U.S. Gold ]
- 5 AUS [4 million worldwide]
2005 The Story Goes...
- 5 UK
- 9 AUS [4 million worldwide]
At the 2001 Brit Awards, Craig David received the most nominations in the history of the said event.The categories where he was nominated were:
- Best British Album
- Best British Dance Act
- Best British Male
- Best British Single
- Best British Video
|Year||Title||UK Singles||US Hot 100||US R&B/Hip-Hop||AUS Singles||Album|
|1999||Rewind||2||-||-||-||Born To Do It|
|2000||Fill Me In||1||15||19||6||Born To Do It|
|2000||"7 Days"||1||10||52||4||Born To Do It|
|2001||"Walking Away"||3||44||-||5||Born To Do It|
|2001||"Rendezvous"||8||-||-||28||Born To Do It|
|2002||"What's Your Flava"||8||-||-||10||Slicker Than Your Average|
|2003||"Hidden Agenda"||10||-||-||24||Slicker Than Your Average|
|2003||"Rise And Fall"(featuring Sting)||2||-||-||6||Slicker Than Your Average|
|2003||"Spanish"||8||-||-||-||Slicker Than Your Average|
|2003||"World Filled With Love"||15||-||-||32||Slicker Than Your Average|
|2004||"You Don't Miss Your Water (TilThe Well Runs Dry)"||43||-||-||180||Slicker Than Your Average|
|2005||"All The Way"||3||-||-||31||The Story Goes...|
|2005||"Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)"||4||-||-||49||The Story Goes...|
|2006||"Unbelievable"||18||-||-||96||The Story Goes...|
Craig David claims famous fans
Jaime Foxx, award winning hollywood actor, is a self-confessed Craig David fan. The Miami Vice star says the singer's debut album Born To Do It belongs to his favorite albums. He says that Craig David was "pumping" and wanted Craig to be "seeked down".
- "Born To Do It", Craig's first solo album, was released in the UK on August 14, 1999 and instantly made it to the no 1 spot. The title arrogantly stated title owes to Craig's favourite film as a kid “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” where the candy man is asked how he makes such great candy. But rather than explain he just replies that you wouldn't ask a fish how it swims or a bird how it flies because they were "born to do it".
- The music video for "What's Your Flava?", a single from "Slicker Than Your Average" is again a parody of the children's classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Craig sponsors a "lottery", and four females discover "golden CD's" (similar to the "Golden Tickets" in the movie), during the tour, three of the four females misbehave and disappear from the tour the winner of the lottery and the one that did not disappear was with Craig in a glass elevator, as the music video fades.
- Craig's videos have noticeably shown some degree of acting, when asked about his plans towards acting he says that music is his only preoccupation at the moment. Although, he doesn't close his doors, maybe in the long run, he'd try acting he says. Among his favourite actors is The Matrix and Devil's Advocate lead actor Keanu Reeves.