DID YOU KNOW? Craig David’s mother is related to the founders of the Accurist watch-making company.
Craig Ashley David is a British singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer who rose to fame in 1999 featuring on the single, “Rewind” by garage DJ/Producer Artful Dodger. Born in Southampton, Hampshire his debut studio album, “Born to Do It”, was released in 2000, after which he has released a further five stuydio albums and worked with a varuety of artists such as Tinchy Stryder, Kano, Jay Sean. Rita Ora, Sting.
Craig David’s earliest exposure came when he worked on a B-side to British group Damage’s (1994-2001) cover of “Wonderful Tonight” (1997). He then started doing vocals for a few tracks for Artful Dodger. At the age of seventeen he was offered a development deal with label Wildstar Records after his manager at the time, Paul Widger met the label’s co-owner, Colin Lester. Lester was impressed with hearing David’s track, “Walking Away” and was convinced he was the real deal after listening to “7 Days”, he said immediately it was a number-one record and promoted the contract to an album deal the same day.
The song “Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)”, from Artful Dodger’s album “Its All About the Stragglers”, hit number two on the UK charts in 1999, thus paving the way for his debut album. His first single, “Fill Me In” released April 2000 topped the UK chart and was the first of a string of four top 10 simngles 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 succes of this album, which was written almost entirely by David and Mark Hill of Artful Dodger, led to the US release of “Fill Me In” in May 2001. It peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold over 1 million copies. The single “7 Days” hit the top 10 in the US, UK and Australia and in 2009, MTV viewers voted “Born To Do It” as number 2 on their “Greatest Album of All Time” poll, behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.
Since then Craig David has 20 UK top 40 singles, and seven UK top 40 albums, selling over 15 million records worldwide as a solo artist. He has been nominated for thirteen Brit Awards and 2 Grammy Award nominations for ‘Best Male Pop Vocal Performance’. His most recent and sixth studio album, “Following My Intuition” was released on 30th September 2016 by Sony Records. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, giving David his first number one album since his debut, “Born To Do It”, reached the top spot in 2000.
Article by Candice Eastman.
He discovered the gem when he was 12 years old and still has it now, claiming it to be why he fell in love with music. He likes to play disc golf when he's not writing about music. He is a one-of-a-kind individual who is always the first to bust out his air guitar on the dance-floor.
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