Lynden David Hall

Lynden David Hall rose to prominence within Britain's nu-soul scene through the 1998 success of his single "Sexy Cinderella." Born in London on May 7, 1974, he first encountered classic soul music during his teenage years after expulsion from school for fighting led to a move in with his record-collector father. He soon mastered guitar on his own, began writing original material, and cut his earliest demo recordings while studying at the British School for Performing Arts in Croydon. Veteran manager Tony Hall, who shared no family connection, placed those demos in front of BBC Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson, resulting in a signing to EMI's new urban imprint Cooltempo. The debut album Medicine 4 My Pain appeared in autumn 1997, drawing strong critical notices yet moving few copies until a remixed version of "Sexy Cinderella" entered the U.K. Top 20 the next year. The project ultimately exceeded 100,000 units sold and brought Hall the Mobo Award for Best Newcomer of 1998. His 2000 follow-up The Other Side, however, struggled commercially, prompting EMI to drop him amid roster changes. Hall played a wedding singer in the 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually and returned two years later with the independent release In Between Jobs on Random. By the time that album surfaced he was already contending with Hodgkin's lymphoma, which took his life on February 14, 2006, when he was 31.