Biography
Jade Ewen built an R&B career that crossed paths with U.S. rapper Kwame, musical impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the ever-changing girl band Sugababes. She entered the world in Plaistow, London in 1988, the daughter of a Jamaican mother and a Scottish-Sicilian father, and took on early caregiving duties for her two parents, both living with registered disabilities, as well as for her younger siblings. A scholarship took her to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, after which she logged screen credits on The Bill and Casualty and performed as Nala in the West End staging of The Lion King while also portraying Aggie Thackery in the Australian children’s series Out There.
In 2005 she made her initial foray into pop as one of five members in the Sony BMG girl-group Trinity Stone, whose lone single, “Move a Little Closer,” appeared before the act split in 2007. Jazz-hip-hop artist Kwame discovered her MySpace page and released one of her tracks on his Make Noise label; around the same period she contributed songs to the debut albums of Booty Luv and Jessica Mauboy. Her decisive break arrived in 2009 when the BBC invited her onto the talent contest Your Country Needs You to select the U.K.’s Eurovision entry; she won the public vote by a wide margin. Performing the Andrew Lloyd Webber co-written song “My Time,” she placed fifth in the international final, the strongest U.K. finish in seven years.
Polydor Records signed her shortly afterward, and her follow-up single “My Man” entered the Top 40; yet in that same week she was asked to replace Keisha Buchanan—the final original member—as the sixth Sugababe. Ewen re-recorded Buchanan’s parts for the group’s seventh studio album, Sweet 7, issued in early 2010.
In 2005 she made her initial foray into pop as one of five members in the Sony BMG girl-group Trinity Stone, whose lone single, “Move a Little Closer,” appeared before the act split in 2007. Jazz-hip-hop artist Kwame discovered her MySpace page and released one of her tracks on his Make Noise label; around the same period she contributed songs to the debut albums of Booty Luv and Jessica Mauboy. Her decisive break arrived in 2009 when the BBC invited her onto the talent contest Your Country Needs You to select the U.K.’s Eurovision entry; she won the public vote by a wide margin. Performing the Andrew Lloyd Webber co-written song “My Time,” she placed fifth in the international final, the strongest U.K. finish in seven years.
Polydor Records signed her shortly afterward, and her follow-up single “My Man” entered the Top 40; yet in that same week she was asked to replace Keisha Buchanan—the final original member—as the sixth Sugababe. Ewen re-recorded Buchanan’s parts for the group’s seventh studio album, Sweet 7, issued in early 2010.