Louise

Having left Eternal behind, Louise artfully combined an approachable image with pin-up glamour, rising among the foremost British female pop acts of the 1990s.

She entered the world in Lewisham, London, in 1974 and enrolled at the Italia Conti Academy stage school at age eleven. While out clubbing she encountered producer Denis Ingoldsby, who sought vocalists for a new girl group; Louise recommended her school friend Kelle Bryan, and the addition of sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett completed the line-up Eternal. Debuting in 1993, the quartet quickly ranked among Britain’s leading pop attractions, notching six Top 20 singles and a multi-platinum album before Louise departed in 1995—the same day Robbie Williams exited Take That.

Securing a contract through First Avenue Management and EMI Records, she issued her first solo release, “Light of My Life,” which peaked at number eight. Although the Diane Warren composition “In Walked Love” barely reached the Top 20, the provocative imagery and suggestive content of the third single “Naked” emerged as one of the decade’s defining pop statements and reversed her commercial trajectory. The accompanying debut album climbed to the Top Five, while follow-up singles “Undivided Love” and “One Kiss from Heaven” attained number five and number nine respectively. Returning in 1997 with the Janet Jackson-styled “Arms Around the World,” which landed at number four, she delivered her second album The Woman in Me, also reaching number five. “Let’s Go Round Again” became her most commercially successful single, shifting more than 250,000 copies despite peaking at number ten, and “All That Matters” supplied an eighth Top 20 entry; she then launched her inaugural solo tour, twenty sold-out shows that included Wembley Arena.

Voted the world’s sexiest woman by FHM readers in 1998, Louise married footballer Jamie Redknapp that same year and began recording a third album on which she contributed to every track. Released in 2000, Elbow Beach represented her most intimate work to date; although lead single “2-Faced” outperformed all prior releases on the chart, the album itself missed the Top Ten. After the compilation Changing Faces appeared the following year, she parted ways with her label. In 2002 she joined manager Oliver Smallman’s Positive Records imprint and collaborated with several prominent producers, yet only the 2003 single “Pandora’s Box,” which reached number five, materialized before she paused her recording career. During the hiatus she founded Icon magazine for professional athletes, hosted UK Style’s The Clothes Show and the ITV1 documentary The Truth About Size Zero, and served as the face of Triumph Lingerie.

For roughly the next decade Louise withdrew from public view to raise her two children. She reentered the spotlight in 2016 as a contestant on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, advancing to the finale alongside partner Kevin Clifton before finishing runner-up to sports presenter Ore Oduba. Realizing how much she had missed performing, she returned to the studio in 2017 to create her first new music in fifteen years. A series of intimate, sold-out live dates ensued, and she secured a worldwide deal with Warner Music in 2018. March 2019 brought the single “Stretch,” followed in September by the fourth studio album Heavy Love, featuring contributions from Clean Bandit, RAYE, and Sinead Harnett.