Devon is not a place renowned for its contribution to the soul music business. Well, with one exception - Joss Stone. Jocelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987 in Dover, England note ), better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer, songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist. Her second album, the equally multi-platinum Mind Body & Soul, topped the UK Albums Chart for one week and spawned the top ten hit "You Had Me", Stone's most successful single on the UK Singles Chart to date. Both album and single each received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, while Stone herself was nominated for Best New Artist, and in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2004 was ranked fifth as a predicted breakthrough act of 2004. She became the youngest British female singer to top the UK Albums Chart in history to have her first album at number one. In early 2009, she joined the eclectic supergroup Super Heavy (2001-Present).
Stone's third album, Introducing Joss Stone, released in March 2007, achieved gold record status by the RIAA and yielded the second-ever highest debut for a British female solo artist on the Billboard 200, which became Stone's first Top 5 album in the United States and first non-Top 10 album in the United Kingdom. Stone released her fourth album, Colour Me Free!, on 20 October 2009, which reached the Top 10 on Billboard. Stone released her fifth album, LP 1, on 22 July 2011, which reached the Top 10 on Billboard.
Throughout her career, Stone has sold 13 million albums, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time, best-selling soul artists of the 2000s and best-selling British artists of her time. Her first three albums have sold over 2,722,000 copies in the United States, while her first two albums have sold over 2,000,000 copies in United Kingdom. She has two Brit Awards and a Grammy to her name. She's also done a bit of acting- including The Tudors as Anne of Cleves and a voice part in the new James Bond video game, Blood Stone.
She Prefers Going Barefoot, frequently performing barefoot.
In 2021 she competed on and won the 2nd series of The Masked Singer (UK) as Sausage, while pregnant.
Not to be confused with Joss Whedon.
Discography:
- The Soul Sessions (2003)
- Mind Body & Soul (2004)
- Introducing Joss Stone (2007)
- Colour Me Free! (2009)
- L P 1 (2011)
- The Soul Sessions Volume 2 (2012)
- Water for Your Soul (2015)
This musician contains examples of:
- Anti-Christmas Song: "The Anti-Christmas Carol"
- Bowdlerize: The Band Hero version of "You Had Me" bizarrely does this to the word "wasted".
- Break Up Song: "You Had Me."
- Chronological Album Title: Played with in LP 1, where the title alludes to it being her first album after leaving EMI.
- The Cover Changes the Gender: Her cover of "Fell In Love With A Girl" by The White Stripes.
- Cover Version:
- Many, with The Soul Sessions and its sequel being full-on Cover Albums.
- Jimmy Kimmel united her with a band for the Portmanteau's sake: Joss Stone Temple Pilots, "Interstate Love Song".
- Granola Girl: Bare feet, hippie dresses, advocating for animal rights...
- Genre Throwback: One of the leading forces of Neo Soul.
- Important Haircut: In 2006, she dyed her hair brown. The label protested, and she replied by dying it pink
in protest. - Mistaken for Gay: after a photoshoot◊ with KT Tunstall, which was widely interpreted as both (actually hetero) singers implicitly admitting a lesbian identity.
- New Sound Album: Introducing... Joss Stone, which has a strong influence from genres such as as funk and hip hop. Also, Like Water For Chocolate, which had a lot of ska and reggae sound implemented into it.
- Riches to Rags: After starting with the exact opposite (country girl who became a music star), Stone had to give her money back to EMI to get out of her contract.
- Silly Love Songs: A few, most notably "Super Duper Love".
- Singing Voice Dissonance: Sings like an American girl. Talks like a British girl.
- Stage Names: Joscelyn Stoker abbreviated her first name and took her grandma's surname.
- Super Group: Super Heavy, along with Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Damian Marley, and A.R. Rahman.
- Title Track: "Water for Your Soul" - even if it's not on the regular tracklist.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Common in "Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now" and Lauryn Hill in "Music", both off Introducing... Joss Stone.
