Jessica Simpson

Jessica Ann Simpson was born on July 10, 1980 and she is an American pop music singer who rose to fame during the late 1990s. In the following decade, she starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey, in the MTV reality show Newlyweds, released her own line of beauty products and started a career as an actress whilst continuing her music career. Jessica Simpson was born in Abilene, Texas and raised in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Jessica Simpson is the daughter of Joe Truett Simpson ( a former Baptist youth minister ) and Tina Ann Drew ( a former Sunday School teacher). She has a younger sister, Ashlee, who launched her own music career in mid-2004. Jessica Simpson started singing at the age of twelve as a part of her Baptist church choir. At the same age, she made an unsuccessful application for The New Mickey Mouse Club, which starred fellow pop singers Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, among other future stars. Jessica Simpson attended J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. She was discovered singing at a church camp by a head of a small contemporary Christian record label and recorded an album over the next three years; however, the label folded before the record could be released. She dropped out in her senior year in order to tour and promote her demo album, which was funded by her grandmother, Joyce (thus the reason for the name of her 2004 holiday album, ReJoyce: The Christmas Album); she later earned her GED. During this time, Jessica Simpson toured with the Christian Youth Conference circuit performing with Kirk Franklin, God's Property and CeCe Winans. She and her father sold copies of the album after her performances. Tommy Mottola of Columbia Records obtained a copy of the album and, thinking Jessica Simpson had potential as a pop singer, signed her as such. Christian influences can still be found in much of her music. Simpson's third film, Blonde Ambition, is set to be released in 2008. Filming for the movie "The Witness", a spy comedy, had been scheduled for the same time but has been postponed. Simpson then returned to the recording studio, switching labels from Columbia to Epic Records. Her fourth album, A Public Affair, was released on August 29, 2006 via Epic Records. The album debuted at # 5 on the Billboard 200 with 101,000 copies sold in its first week. The first single, "A Public Affair" (# 14, 2006), reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100 but quickly fell off the charts. The music video for "A Public Affair" featured Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Christina Milian, Maria Menounos, Andy Dick and Ryan Seacrest. A second single, "I Belong To Me," was also released through her website and is now included on the CD itself. The single's video appeared on TRL countdowns, but quickly fell off. Simpson recently said she is due back in front of the cameras filming her next movie role in "The Witness." She also said she will be publishing a book containing selections from her personal journal and photographs, titled "Look Up To the Sky." Simpson has also been confirmed to be in studio recording with Eddie Galan and Drew Lane.