Joss Stone (born Joscelyn Eve Stoker on 11 April 1987) is an English soul, R&B, and blues singer, songwriter, and occasional actress who emerged to fame in late 2003 with her debut album, The Soul Sessions, which was certified triple platinum by the BPI, and was announced as one of the twelve albums on the shortlist of Mercury Prize nominees. Her second album, the also-triple-platinum-selling Mind, Body & Soul, topped the albums chart in the United Kingdom for one week and spawned the hit single "You Had Me", which made the top ten of the UK Singles Chart. Both album and single each received a nomination for Grammy Awards in 2005. Throughout her career, Stone has sold over ten million albums worldwide, and has won two BRIT Awards and one Grammy Award. She also ventured in the film business, making her acting debut in the fantasy adventure film Eragon, released in December 2006, as a witch named Angela.

Stone was born in Dover, Kent, and spent her teenage years in Ashill, Devon. She is the third of four children born to Richard and Wendy Stoker. She made her first public appearance at the Uffculme Comprehensive School—which she attended—in Uffculme, Devon, with a cover of Jackie Wilson's 1957 "Reet Petite". Because of her dyslexia, Stone left school at age sixteen with just three GCSE qualifications. "It wasn't that I was stupid. I'm just a little bit dyslexic and I wasn't very academic. I'm more artistic", she says.

Stone grew up listening to a wide variety of music including American R&B and soul music performed by such artists as Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin; as a result, she developed a soulful style of singing like her idols. In 2001, at the age of thirteen, she appeared on the BBC Television's talent show Star for a Night singing Donna Summer's 1979 "On the Radio". She told MTV News, "I kind of clicked into soul music more than anything else because of the vocals. You've got to have good vocals to sing soul music and I always liked it ever since I was little".

In 2002, she decided to back her ability by flying out from England for an audition in New York City with S-Curve CEO Steve Greenberg. She also signed a global music publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing in the UK. Since then, she has performed with artists such as Blondie and Gladys Knight.

After being signed by S-Curve Records, Stone flew to Miami, Florida to start working on her debut album, The Soul Sessions, released on 16 September 2003. She collaborated with people with solid credentials in the Miami soul scene such as Betty Wright, Benny Latimore, Timmy Thomas, and Little Beaver. She also worked with contemporary acts Angie Stone and The Roots.

The album consists of little-known soul tracks by Wright, Franklin, Laura Lee, and Bettye Swann. Released in late 2003, it reached the top five on the UK Albums Chart, and also made the top forty of the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The lead single, "Fell in Love with a Boy", which was a reworking of The White Stripes' 2001 "Fell in Love with a Girl", reached the top twenty of the UK Singles Chart, as did the second single, a cover version of Sugar Billy's 1974 "Super Duper Love".

After achieving critical acclaim with The Soul Sessions, Stone recorded her second album—this time made mostly of songs co-written by her—, Mind, Body & Soul, released on 28 September 2004. She was quoted to say this was her real debut. "I think my singing is so much better on this album", she says. It proved to be an even bigger success than her previous album, as it debuted at number one in the UK (breaking the record for the youngest female ever to top the UK Albums Chart, a record previously held by Avril Lavigne) and just missed the top ten of the U.S. Billboard 200, after peaking at number eleven. The lead single, "You Had Me", became her first top ten hit in the UK and was also a hit worldwide. Follow-up singles "Right to Be Wrong" and "Spoiled" both made the top forty, and "Don't Cha Wanna Ride", the top twenty. "Spoiled" landed just outside the top fifty of U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, peaking at number fifty-four.

Stone began working on her third studio album, Introducing Joss Stone, at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, in May 2006. It was released on 12 March 2007 in the UK on Virgin Records, involving production by Raphael Saadiq and collaborations with Lauryn Hill, Common, and Joi. Virgin describes it as "an electrifying mix of warm vintage soul, '70s-style R&B, Motown girl-group harmonies, and hip-hop grooves". Stone herself describes it as "truly me. That's why I'm calling it Introducing Joss Stone. These are my words, and this is who I am as an artist". She also revealed on The Tavis Smiley Show that her break-up with Beau Dozier was a source of inspiration while writing Introducing Joss Stone. The album debuted at number twelve on the UK Albums Chart. It also debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 selling 118,000 copies in its first week, becoming the highest debut for a British solo female artist on the U.S. charts, surpassing the record previously held by Amy Winehouse with Back to Black. It has sold 60,000 copies in the UK since its release, gaining silver status on the charts.

"Tell Me 'Bout It", the album's lead single, debuted and peaked at number twenty-eight on the UK Singles Chart—where it stayed for three weeks only—, and peaked at number eighty-three on the U.S Billboard Hot 100. The second single, "Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now", a collaboration with rapper Common, made the top sixty-five of the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Stone turned its music video to a Product Red—this means that the video is available online over iTunes and that the gains from these sales revert to Product Red, an organisation which helps women and children in Africa affected by HIV and/or AIDS. Stone is the first artist to do this, entering the Guinness World Records. On 4 October 2007, Stone's official website confirmed "Baby Baby Baby" as the album's third single.

Known for her barefoot performances and neo-hippie fashions, Stone changed her style to a harder-edged, purple-haired look to promote Introducing Joss Stone.

In March 2005, Stone was named the spokesperson for the megastore Gap, replacing Sarah Jessica Parker. She recorded two songs for its commercial—a cover of Ray Charles' 1958 "Night Time Is the Right Time" (retitled as "The Right Time") and a cover of The Beach Boys' 1966 "God Only Knows". By that time, rumours circulated about her being dropped from the campaign because she was living with then-twenty-five-year-old songwriter/producer Beau Dozier (son of producer Lamont Dozier) in Los Angeles, California while she was only seventeen. However, this was later denied.

Stone joined Band Aid 20 on 14 November 2004 to benefit Sudan's troubled Darfur region. The group, consisting of such luminaries as Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin and U2 lead singer Bono, re-recorded the 1984 song "Do They Know It's Christmas?", written by Band Aid organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. Stone, born two years after the release of the original single, wasn't initially aware of who Bob Geldof was. The media gleefully reported that she repeatedly referred to him as Bob Gandalf. Despite some criticism, the single became the UK's biggest seller of 2004 as well as the Christmas number one.

Stone was nominated for three 2005 BRIT Awards, of which she won two—"British Female Solo Artist" and "British Urban Act". She performed "Angels" with Robbie Williams during the ceremony, which took place at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London on 9 February 2005. She also received three nominations for the 2005 Grammy Awards—"Best New Artist", "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for "You Had Me", and "Best Pop Vocal Album" for Mind, Body & Soul—, where she sang barefoot on stage with rock performer Melissa Etheridge, in tribute to the late blues-rock singer Janis Joplin. Their performance of "Cry Baby/Piece of My Heart" was released as a single, and, through the aid of strong digital downloads, became Stone's first single to enter the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, when it debuted and peaked at number thirty-two.

In July 2005, Stone lent her voice to the Fantastic Four soundtrack, singing the title song "What Ever Happened to the Heroes", written by Pink, billymann, and Christopher Rojas and produced by Beau Dozier shortly before their break-up in October 2005.

Stone performed at the Live 8 concert at Hyde Park, London on 2 July 2005, and performed "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" with funk legend James Brown on the British chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. On 5 February 2006, she joined Stevie Wonder, India.Arie, and John Legend at the Super Bowl XL pre-game show in performing a medley of Wonder's hits. Three days later, on 8 February, she helped perform a medley of hits by reclusive singer Sly Stone, the frontman of Sly & the Family Stone, on the night of the 2006 Grammy Awards.

Stone collaborated with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and blues singer-guitarist Jonny Lang on a cover of U2's 1988 song "When Love Comes to Town", from Hancock's 2005 album Possibilities. She also collaborated with Lemar on his third studio album The Truth About Love, on the track "Anniversary".

Stone made her film debut in the fantasy epic Eragon (based on the 2003 novel of the same name), released on 15 December 2006, in which she plays the witch Angela.

At the 2007 Grammy Awards, Stone shared a win of the award for "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for her collaboration with Sly & the Family Stone, John Legend, and Van Hunt on "Family Affair".

Stone was named the World's Best Celebrity Dog Owner in 2005 in an online poll conducted by readers of The New York Dog Magazine and The Hollywood Dog Magazine. She owns two female dogs: Missy (named after rapper Missy Elliott), a Rottweiler, and Dusty (named after Dusty Springfield, one of her major influences), a Poodle. She was also voted the World's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2005 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), alongside Chris Martin. Stone, a longtime vegetarian, recently starred in an ad for PETA, whose tagline states, "I am Joss Stone and I am a vegetarian".

Canadian singer-guitarist and photographer Bryan Adams recently photographed Stone for the Hear the World magazine, a quarterly culture and lifestyle publication dedicated to the topic of hearing.

Stone was ranked number seventy-eight on Maxim's 2007 Hot 100.

On 28 June 2007, Stone asked Queen guitarist Brian May to perform "Under Pressure" with her at the Concert for Diana, held at Wembley Stadium, London on 1 July. Initially he said yes, but when he realised how very different the arrangement was from the original, he realised that "he was not going to be able to do it justice", so he rejected it. Instead, she performed the song solo as well as her hit "You Had Me" and a cover of Sam & Dave's 1968 "Ain't That a Lot of Love" with Tom Jones.

On 7 July 2007, Stone performed at the South African leg of the Live Earth concerts at the Coca Cola Dome, in Johannesburg, to promote awareness of global warming. She performed the Introducing Joss Stone tracks "Girl They Won't Believe It", "Headturner", "Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now", "Music", and "Tell Me 'Bout It" besides "Right to Be Wrong".

Stone has recently covered Nat King Cole's 1965 classic "L-O-V-E" for the latest advertising campaign for Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle fragrance, entitled Coco Mademoiselle. The Joe Wright-directed short film stars Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley as fashion legend Coco Chanel. The song is also available on iTunes.

Stone caused controversy at the 2007 BRIT Awards ceremony, on 14 February, when presenting the award for "British Male Solo Artist" (won by James Morrison). Speaking with a faux American accent and walking around the podium, she gave a speech in which she asked the audience to send "big love" to Robbie Williams, who had been the target of earlier jokes made by host Russell Brand. Williams had been reported as going into rehab that same week. As her speech continued, she made remarks about Brand, implying that he was heading for rehab himself (while singing a passage of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"). Brand stated that he was "a bit worried about that poor cow" at the close of the show.

The BRIT Awards appearance was the beginning of a string of incidents that the UK press reported as examples of Stone's increasingly erratic behaviour.

*2003: The Soul Sessions *2004: Mind, Body & Soul *2007: Introducing Joss Stone

*2004: Mind, Body & Soul Sessions: Live in New York City

*Official UK website *Official U.S. website *Official German website *Official Finnish website * * *