Biography
Martine McCutcheon, a British pop singer and actress, entered the world as Martine Kimberley Sherri Ponting in London during 1976. An abusive father made her childhood turbulent, forcing her and her young mother to spend much of those early years concealed from him. Sponsorship from a neighborhood church trust allowed her to enroll at the Italia Conti Stage School. At twelve she landed her initial screen credit in a Kool-Aid commercial. Additional minor television appearances across Britain followed in the ensuing years, and she surfaced as a fairy in the clip for Enya’s “Caribbean Blue.” While still fifteen she assembled the girl group Milan alongside two fellow Italia Conti pupils; the trio secured a recording contract and opened for East 17, yet disbanded without achieving broad popularity. She also supplied vocals to Uno Clio’s dance track “Are You Man Enough?,” which appeared on the U.K. charts in 1995. That same year she was cast as Tiffany Raymond on the long-running soap EastEnders. Audiences quickly embraced the character, and when McCutcheon departed in 1998 to launch a pop career, twenty-two million viewers watched the figure perish in a car crash.
Her debut solo single, “Perfect Moment,” arrived in 1999 and debuted at number one on the U.K. chart. The accompanying album You, Me & Us followed shortly thereafter and earned double-platinum status in Britain. Two more releases, “I’ve Got You” and “Talking in Your Sleep,” both reached the U.K. Top Ten. A second album timed for the 2000 holiday season benefited from the single “I’m Over You,” which peaked at number two, yet overall sales proved weaker than those of her first record; nonetheless it attained gold certification after surpassing two hundred thousand units in the U.K. During a temporary break from the studio she portrayed Eliza Doolittle in the West End production of My Fair Lady and received the Laurence Olivier Award for best actress in a stage musical. That stage success prompted her third album, Musicality, a collection of Broadway standards. Despite a prime-time television special tied to its release, the project became her lowest-selling effort, moving fewer than sixty thousand copies domestically and leaving her without a label. In 2003 she appeared opposite Hugh Grant in the global success Love Actually. Subsequent television roles included parts in Spooks, The English Harem, Agatha Christie’s Marple, and the short-lived serial Echo Beach, after which she joined the daytime panel Loose Women as a presenter. Amid these activities she wed singer Jack McManus, welcomed a child, and issued the novel The Mistress. In 2017, after a fifteen-year absence from recording, she returned with the single “Say I’m Not Alone” and the album Lost and Found. Eschewing the dance-pop of her earlier work, the mature collection favored a polished ’90s-inspired pop/rock style.
Her debut solo single, “Perfect Moment,” arrived in 1999 and debuted at number one on the U.K. chart. The accompanying album You, Me & Us followed shortly thereafter and earned double-platinum status in Britain. Two more releases, “I’ve Got You” and “Talking in Your Sleep,” both reached the U.K. Top Ten. A second album timed for the 2000 holiday season benefited from the single “I’m Over You,” which peaked at number two, yet overall sales proved weaker than those of her first record; nonetheless it attained gold certification after surpassing two hundred thousand units in the U.K. During a temporary break from the studio she portrayed Eliza Doolittle in the West End production of My Fair Lady and received the Laurence Olivier Award for best actress in a stage musical. That stage success prompted her third album, Musicality, a collection of Broadway standards. Despite a prime-time television special tied to its release, the project became her lowest-selling effort, moving fewer than sixty thousand copies domestically and leaving her without a label. In 2003 she appeared opposite Hugh Grant in the global success Love Actually. Subsequent television roles included parts in Spooks, The English Harem, Agatha Christie’s Marple, and the short-lived serial Echo Beach, after which she joined the daytime panel Loose Women as a presenter. Amid these activities she wed singer Jack McManus, welcomed a child, and issued the novel The Mistress. In 2017, after a fifteen-year absence from recording, she returned with the single “Say I’m Not Alone” and the album Lost and Found. Eschewing the dance-pop of her earlier work, the mature collection favored a polished ’90s-inspired pop/rock style.
Albums
Singles
