Louise Redknapp

Louise Elizabeth Redknapp (née Nurding, born 4 November 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and media personality. She was a member of Eternal, an R&B girl group which debuted in 1993 with their quadruple-platinum studio album Always & Forever. In 1995, she departed from the group for a solo career, in which she released the albums Naked (1996), Woman in Me (1997) and Elbow Beach (2000).

Aside from music, Louise has presented several television shows and was a judge on the UK version of So You Think You Can Dance. She was married to the English former footballer and television pundit Jamie Redknapp.

In 2016, she reached the final in the fourteenth series of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing. In January 2020 following a 17-year hiatus from recording Redknapp released Heavy Love to critical acclaim. To date Louise has sold over 5 Million records in the UK and 15 Million records Worldwide.

Early life
Louise Elizabeth Nurding was born in Lewisham, London. Her father was a builder and her mother worked at Gatwick Airport. Louise and her two younger brothers grew up in Eltham, London, and Oxted, Surrey. She describes herself as having come from a single-parent family with her mum.

At the age of 11, she won a scholarship to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, where she met her future Eternal colleague Kéllé Bryan on her first day.

Eternal
While out clubbing at the age of 15, Louise met the music producer Denis Ingoldsby, who was forming an all-girl group. She subsequently introduced Denis to Kéllé Bryan. Kéllé and Louise, together with sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett, formed the band Eternal in 1992. The group performed R&B, and recorded a number of hits during the 1990s. Eternal's debut single "Stay" entered the UK charts at number sixteen and climbed to number four. Louise left the group in 1995 to pursue a solo career, amid unsubstantiated rumours that she was forced to leave because a radio station in the United States dedicated to black music would not promote the racially mixed group. Redknapp says that she left because she was miserable and homesick.

Solo career with EMI
In late 1995, Louise signed a record deal with First Avenue management and EMI Records. Now professionally known simply as "Louise", her debut solo single was the orchestral ballad "Light of My Life" (which reached number eight on the UK charts). Her second solo release, "In Walked Love" (previously a hit from the self-titled 1992 album by the dance/pop group Exposé), fared less well and missed the UK top ten.

However, Louise's third single, "Naked", turned things around and became her biggest hit to date, peaking at number five in the UK.

Louise's debut solo album, also entitled Naked, was subsequently released in 1996 on the back of the single's success. The album received lukewarm reviews, but nevertheless peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart. It was later certified gold by the BPI for over 400,000 copies sold in the UK alone and over 1 Million copies worldwide. Two further singles were released: "Undivided Love" (UK No. 5) and "One Kiss from Heaven" (UK No. 9).

In 1997, Louise returned with the single "Arms Around the World", which reached number four in the UK. Her second solo album, Woman in Me, peaked at number five in the UK and went on to gain platinum status in the UK and sold over 1 Million units worldwide. The album also made an impact across Europe, charting in a number of countries. To support and celebrate the success of the album, Louise embarked on a UK-wide 'sell-out' arena tour of over twenty dates, including Wembley Arena.

"Let's Go Round Again" (a cover of a song by the Average White Band) was the second single released from the album, which reached number ten.

At the start of 1998, Louise's career was at a high point: her second album had gone platinum, she was on the cover of magazines such as Smash Hits and GQ, and she had been voted Sexiest Woman in the World by the readers of FHM magazine.

In 1998, Louise married the footballer Jamie Redknapp, then focused on making what she described as her "most personal album to date", Elbow Beach, released in 2000. Louise was more involved in the process of this album than her previous two, co-writing all 12 tracks and co-producing most of them.

The lead single from Elbow Beach, the R&B-styled "2 Faced" went straight into the charts at number three, and became Louise's highest-charting single. Despite initial hype and critical praise, total sales for Elbow Beach were weaker than the previous two productions, and the album peaked at number twelve. The same year, Louise was hired to 'sex up' the 2000 National Egg Awareness Campaign.

After Elbow Beach was released, she had one album left on her five-album deal with EMI (including Eternal's Always and Forever). In 2001, the label decided to release a greatest hits compilation, incorporating all of her top ten hit singles (including those she had performed with Eternal), called Changing Faces – The Best of Louise. The collection featured three new tracks, including a cover of Five Star's 1987 hit "The Slightest Touch". The album peaked at number nine in the UK, and she embarked on the second solo tour of her career.

EMI later released a second greatest hits album entitled Finest Moments, with a slightly different track listing.

After EMI
In 2002, Redknapp signed a £1.5 million contract with her manager Oliver Smallman's Positive Records (a division of Universal Music) to record her fourth solo album. The album was due for release in 2004 alongside the single "Bounce Back". However, due to the singer becoming pregnant with her son Charley, the album was never released. The only single released from the album was the double A-side "Pandora's Kiss"/"Don't Give Up", which peaked at number five and raised money for Tickled Pink/Breast Cancer Care. The unreleased album saw Louise work with the likes of Sylvia Bennett Smith and Marc 'M2E' Smith, Mark Hill and Pete Martin. The album would also have included Louise's first duet with boy band 3rd Wish on the track "Don't Ever Change".

Return to music
In August 2017, Redknapp posted a picture of herself in the recording studio on her Instagram account, showing that she had been working on new music. On 13 September 2017, Louise revealed she would be returning to the music industry by announcing her first live show in more than 15 years at Under The Bridge in London on 22 December 2017. Titled 'Intimate & Live', the show had enough demand for tickets selling out in under 5 minutes, leading promoters and Louise to announce additional dates for January 2018 in Manchester, Glasgow, and Birmingham.

On 1 February 2018, Warner/Chappell UK confirmed Redknapp had signed a deal with them to release new material later in the year.

In February 2019, Louise announced she had signed a global record deal with ADA / Warner Music.

On 25 March 2019, Louise announced that her fourth solo album Heavy Love would be released on 18 October 2019. The lead single, "Stretch", was released on 26 March 2019 to critical acclaim. She then released follow-up singles "Lead Me On", "Small Talk", "Breaking Back Together", "Not the Same" and "Hurt" as a bonus single after announcing Heavy Love was to be pushed back to a 2020 release.

Television career
On television, Louise has presented editions of SMTV Live, CD:UK, Soccer Aid: Extra Time, This Morning (interviewing fashion designer Tracy Boyd and others), three series of the revived The Clothes Show for UKTV Style, and in March 2007 the controversial documentary The Truth About Size Zero for ITV.

With her husband Jamie Redknapp and former footballer Tim Sherwood, Louise Redknapp published a magazine called Icon, aimed solely at professional sports stars and celebrities. They later sold the magazine to another publisher.

Redknapp has been seen as the face of a number of advertising campaigns: the "Safe and White" campaign for Boots, Flora's "Omega 3" products, Boots and BT. She became brand ambassador for Orbit gum in 2007 and a model for Avon.

In autumn 2007, Redknapp was unveiled as the new face of Triumph lingerie for 2007, 2008 and 2009. In November 2008, the Redknapp family were also unveiled as the Nintendo Wii Family for their Christmas 2008 advertising campaign, followed by The Louise Redknapp Nintendo Wii Fit Campaign in March 2009. In 2010, Louise and husband Jamie fronted a new campaign by Thomas Cook promoting their holidays on TV and throughout the media.

In 2009, Louise filmed a follow up documentary The Truth About Super Skinny Pregnancies displaying the pressures on women to stay in shape during and after their pregnancies.

In September 2009, Redknapp presented The Farmer Wants a Wife for Five, a relaunch of a series that originally appeared on ITV in 2001. In 2009 Louise was also announced as the face of online fashion retailer Fashion Union.

In January 2010, Louise took over from Amanda Hamilton as the full-time presenter of the BBC Sunday morning programme Something for the Weekend. However she was not asked to join her co-presenters when the show moved to Channel 4 in March 2012.

She was a judge on the UK version of So You Think You Can Dance, broadcast on BBC One.

In the July 2004 edition of FHM magazine, Louise was named the "Sexiest Woman of the Decade".

In 2011, Louise Redknapp made her acting debut alongside Ray Winstone as Diana Smith in the feature film The Hot Potato.

Louise has a cosmetic range named Wild About Beauty, which she launched with make-up artist Kim Jacob.

On 15 August 2016, Louise was announced as a contestant for the fourteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing. She reached the 2016 finals with professional dancer Kevin Clifton, but BBC sports presenter Ore Oduba won.

In April 2018, Louise made her radio debut, guest-presenting two evening shows on Heart, on Sunday 8 April and Sunday 15 April.

On 23 October 2018, Louise recorded herself narrating Roald Dahl's The Enormous Crocodile for an audio cassette release, creating memorable voices for every animal character apart from Trunky the Elephant, who is voiced by Michael Rosen.

On 4 March 2021, Redknapp's memoir entitled You've Got This: And Other Things I Wish I Had Known was released.

In May 2021, Redknapp appeared on The Masked Dancer masked as Flamingo. She was the second celebrity to be unmasked.

Personal life
Redknapp was voted "Sexiest Woman in the World" by the readers of SKY Magazine in 1997.

She married football player Jamie Redknapp at a ceremony in Bermuda on 29 June 1998.

In 2003, Redknapp's single "Pandora's Kiss"/"Don't Give Up", was released to raise money for Breast Cancer Care's "Tickled Pink" campaign. She also participated in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice in 2008, to raise money for charity. (Over £400,000 was raised.) Redknapp organised a charity sale of celebrity designer clothes at the London department store Selfridges for the charity Mothers4Children in November 2009.

After a diagnosis of back pain from endometriosis, and treatment by laser surgery, Redknapp gave birth to a boy named Charles William "Charley" Redknapp on 27 July 2004 at London's Portland Hospital. Charley was named after Redknapp's grandfather, who had died on the day that she found out that she was pregnant. She gave birth to her second son in 2008. Redknapp stated that he was named Beau as a tribute to Jamie's father, the football manager Harry Redknapp, because Harry was born in Bow.

Following several months of media speculation about their marriage, Louise Redknapp confirmed in September 2017 that she had separated from her husband. A family court in central London granted the couple a decree nisi for divorce after 19 years of marriage on 29 December 2017.

Other tracks

 * 1995 "Real Love" ("Light of My Life" B-side)
 * 1996 "All of You" ("In Walked Love" B-side)
 * 1996 "Do Me Right" ("Naked" B-side)
 * 1996 "Keep the Lovin' In" ("Naked" B-side)
 * 1996 "How in the World" ("Undivided Love" B-side)
 * 1996 "Better Next Time" ("Undivided Love" B-side)
 * 1997 "Don't Be Shy" ("Arms Around the World" B-side/Woman in Me album track)
 * 1997 "Intimate" ("Arms Around the World" B-side)
 * 1997 "Just When I Thought" ("Let's Go Round Again" B-side)
 * 1997 "How You Make Me Feel" ("Let's Go Round Again" B-side)
 * 1997 "Distraction" (Japanese Woman in Me album bonus track)
 * 1998 "Woman in Me (Live)" ("All That Matters" B-side)
 * 1998 "When Will My Heart Beat Again (Live)" ("All That Matters" B-side)
 * 1998 "If I Can't Have You" (A Tribute to the Bee Gees album track)
 * 2000 "Say Yes" ("2 Faced" B-side)
 * 2000 "Lost" ("2 Faced" B-side/Elbow Beach album track)
 * 2000 "Clear Water" ("Beautiful Inside" B-side)
 * 2000 "Better Back Off" ("Beautiful Inside" B-side)
 * 2003 "Don't Give Up" ("Pandora's Kiss" B-side)

Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" ! scope="col" | Award ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Category ! scope="col" | Nominee(s) ! scope="col" | Result ! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref. ! scope="row" rowspan=2|Brit Awards ! scope="row" rowspan=3|NME Awards ! scope="row" rowspan=5|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
 * + Awards and nominations received by Louise Redknapp
 * 1997
 * rowspan=2|British Female Solo Artist
 * rowspan=6|Herself
 * Nominated
 * 1998
 * Nominated
 * 1998
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|1998
 * Best Solo Artist
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=3|
 * Most Desirable Person
 * Won
 * 1999
 * The Pop Personality You Would Most Like To Be Marooned On A Desert Island With
 * Won
 * The Pop Personality You Would Most Like To Be Marooned On A Desert Island With
 * Won
 * rowspan=3|1996
 * Best Female Singer
 * Won
 * rowspan=3|
 * Best Album
 * rowspan=2|Naked
 * Nominated
 * Best Album Cover
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|2000
 * Most Fanciable Female
 * rowspan=2|Herself
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * Best Dressed Female
 * Nominated
 * rowspan=2|
 * Best Dressed Female
 * Nominated
 * Nominated