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Ashlee Simpson Information
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'Ashlee Nicole Simpson' (born October 3, 1984) is an American pop rock singer and an actress. Originally known for being the younger sister of pop singer Jessica Simpson, Simpson eventually rose to prominence in mid-2004 through her chart-topping debut album Autobiography and the accompanying MTV reality series The Ashlee Simpson Show. Simpson received widespread derision when she used pre-recorded tracks on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in October 2004. (Simpson claimed she needed a backing track because she was suffering from acid reflux.) Simpson's second number-one album, I Am Me, was released in October 2005.
Biography
Early life
Born and raised in Texas, Ashlee is the daughter of Joe Truett Simpson (a former Baptist youth minister who is now her manager) and Tina Ann Drew (a former Sunday School teacher who homeschooled Ashlee). An accomplished dancer, Simpson began studying classical ballet at the age of three, and was admitted to the School of American Ballet in New York City at the age of eleven. Also at this age, while in ballet school, she suffered from anorexia nervosa, the condition lasted about six months, and she dropped to about 70 pounds (at 5 feet, 2 inches). She credits her parents with stepping in and getting her to eat. After Simpson's sister Jessica signed a record deal, their family decided to move to Los Angeles, California, where Simpson began appearing in television commercials. When Jessica achieved fame through her first album, Simpson became a backup dancer for Jessica's concerts. Later, she began appearing in films and television series, including an episode of the TV sitcom Malcolm in the Middle in 2001, a minor role in the 2002 film The Hot Chick and a recurring role in the series 7th Heaven. In 2003, Simpson recorded a song called "Just Let Me Cry" for the soundtrack to the film Freaky Friday. Eventually, Simpson signed a record deal with Geffen Records.
Debut album and reality television
Simpson's first album, Autobiography, was released in the U.S. on July 20, 2004 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with sales in the first week numbering about 400,000 copies. The album was certified triple platinum on September 2004. Critical reviews were mixed, with the online review collection site Metacritic giving the album fifty-five out of one-hundred points. Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Relic described Autobiography as a "mundane melange of Avril-ish brat pop and Sheryl Crow cod rock" while "E! Online" wrote "Even if it doesn't wow you, Autobiography may surprise you." The single "Pieces of Me" that preceded the album was one of the most widely-played songs in the U.S. in mid-2004 and sold well internationally, but the next single, "Shadow", was less successful and not released in the U.K. However, the "La La" single was released in the UK in 2005.
Simpson also occasionally appeared on Newlyweds, a reality show about the married life of Jessica and her husband Nick Lachey; eventually, she got her own MTV reality show entitled The Ashlee Simpson Show, which aired in a time slot subsequent time to Newlyweds. It ran in the U.S. for eight weekly episodes over the summer of 2004, and a second season of ten episodes aired from January to March 2005. The show dealt with the process of writing, recording, and performing Simpson's music, and also dealt with aspects of her personal life.
When appearing for live performances, Simpson performs live with a backing band that consists of Ray Brady (guitar), Braxton Olita (guitar), Joey Kaimana (bass guitar-from 2004 to 2005 Zach Kennedy filled this role), Chris James (keyboards and vocals-from late 2004 to 2005 Lucy Walsh filled this role), and Chris Fox (drums). In September 2004, Simpson announced on her website that the band would be named "Ashlee Simpson and Submission," taking the name from the fact that they had received so many submissions of proposals for the name.
In addition to her own first album, Simpson sang "Christmas Past, Present, and Future" on the 2004 holiday album Radio Disney Jingle Jams and a duet of the Christmas song "Little Drummer Boy" with her sister Jessica for the album Rejoyce, which they sung together during the ABC variety hour special "Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas". In 2004 Simpson received the "Song of the Summer" Teen Choice Award for "Pieces of Me," as well as the "Fresh Face" award. In addition, she also won a Billboard Award for New Female Artist of the Year in December and was later named Entertainment Weekly's "Breakout Star of 2004" in January 2005. Simpson also co-hosted Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve along with Regis Philbin (in Dick Clark's absence) at the end of the year, hosting the West Coast portion of the show and performing three songs.
Saturday Night Live incident
Simpson appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest on October 24, 2004, and as is customary for the show's format, she was scheduled to perform two songs. The first song she performed, "Pieces of Me", went off without a hitch. However, when she began her second song, "Autobiography", the song "Pieces of Me" was heard again-including her vocals-before she had raised the microphone to her mouth. Simpson began to dance spasmodically and then left the stage. During the closing of the show Simpson appeared with the guest host Jude Law stating that her band performed the wrong song in the opening on the performance. Others, however, criticized her for what they saw as evidence that she was lip syncing.
On October 25, Simpson called in to the music video show Total Request Live and explained that due to complications arising from a "severe" variation of acid reflux (which had previously been seen in The Ashlee Simpson Show) she had completely lost her voice and that her doctor advised her not to sing. She continued that because of the acid reflux, her father required her to use a guide track for the performance. She said of the incident: "I made a complete fool of myself." According to her, the drummer hit the wrong button, which caused the wrong track to be played. During the October 25 Radio Music Awards broadcast, Simpson pretended, as a joke, to make the same mistake as she did in the SNL incident, but then began to perform "Autobiography", without using a pre-recorded vocal track as she had done during the prior SNL performance. On October 31, the CBS news program 60 Minutes aired footage from Simpson's rehearsals before the SNL performance, in which she was portrayed as having trouble with her voice and seemed visibly upset.
Almost a year later, Simpson was invited back as a guest performer, with a scheduled appearance on the October 8, 2005 episode of SNL. For her first of two songs, she performed the ballad "Catch Me When I Fall", which was written about her previous SNL experience. Her second and more energetic song of the show was the first single from I Am Me, "Boyfriend". The audience's enthusiastic reaction to this performance seemed more positive than its reaction to the first, and Simpson glowed, thanking the crowd before the broadcast went to commercial.
Early 2005
On January 4 2005, Simpson performed "La La" at the halftime show for the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida; when her performance finished, many of the 72,000-plus spectators booed. Representatives for the Orange Bowl stated that they were pleased with her performance and felt that it was a belated reaction to the SNL incident, while others have speculated that it may have been because the audience of the Orange Bowl was outside of Simpson's target age bracket. Still others disagree, however, and assert that her performance was poor and off-key.
Following her Orange Bowl performance, an Internet petition at PetitionOnline.com complaining about Simpson's singing was among the most active of the site's petitions. Simpson later said, "that's cool. You don't always have to be a fan of everybody's music," also citing the support she had received from her fans. Around the time of the petition, Cosmopolitan magazine chose Simpson to be on the cover of the February 2005 issue, naming her the "Fun Fearless Female of the Year".
Simpson's first U.S. headlining tour (with two dates in Canada as well) ran from mid-February to late April 2005. The opening acts for the tour were Pepper's Ghost and The Click Five. In addition to her usual Autobiography songs, Simpson also performed three cover songs; The Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket", Blondie's "Call Me", and Madonna's "Burning Up" along with Simpson's own unreleased song "Hollywood". She said that the tour would be "stripped down", without pyrotechnics, and that "it's going to be me and my band getting out there and having fun." In March 2005, Simpson stated that she would like to incorporate the feel of music from the 1980s on her second album, and that the album would focus less on relationships and more on herself. She also said that she wanted to do another television show, but that The Ashlee Simpson Show would conclude at the end of its second season, the last episode of which aired at the end of March.
Film and second album
Simpson had a supporting role as an aspiring actress and short-haired "tomboy" named Clea in the romantic comedy film Undiscovered (originally titled Wannabe), an independent film that was released in theaters on August 26, 2005. Simpson, who filmed her scenes in late 2004, said that for her first significant film role she decided to play a secondary character rather than taking on a leading role so soon. Film critic Michael Rechtstaffen of the Hollywood Reporter said Simpson's performance was "subdued" and "unadorned", and Robert K. Elder felt that Simpson was "aware of her own overexposure and underplaying her part fittingly". The film itself met with mostly negative reviews, and placed outside of the top ten, earning $676,048 in its opening weekend.
Simpson's second album, I Am Me, was released on October 18, 2005 in the U.S. and debuted at number one with sales around 220,000 copies sold; the first single, "Boyfriend", hit radio in early September 2005 and quickly became Simpson's fastest rising hit (the song peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100). Simpson began touring on September 21 in Portland, Oregon, to promote the new album and single (with the main tour beginning in November), and she has appeared on several television programs to promote the album. Most notably, Simpson returned to SNL on October 8/9, performing two new songs, "Catch Me When I Fall" and "Boyfriend". "Catch Me When I Fall" was written by Simpson after her unsuccessful first appearance, a fact she noted before starting the song. In contrast to her SNL debut in October of 2004, her second appearance on the show went on without any problems. On October 14, MTV aired a show about Simpson's 21st birthday earlier in the month, Ashlee Simpson Live and Legal.
Simpson plans to continue touring into 2006, and the second single from I Am Me is "L.O.V.E." In late October, "L.O.V.E." charted at number 78 on the Hot 100 even before its official release, and it has also been remixed by Missy Elliott. Simpson appeared on the cover of Teen People with her sister Jessica for the December 2005/January 2006 issue, and is also on the cover of Blender for the December 2005 issue. She will be on the cover of Cosmopolitan for the second time for the January 2006 issue. On December 6, she performed "L.O.V.E." as part of a performance with Pretty Ricky at the Billboard Music Awards.
Image and personal life
Simpson has a decidedly different image from that of her sister. Previously blonde like Jessica, she dyed her hair dark during the recording of the MTV reality show after she finished filming for the 7th Heaven television series, although after a year with dark hair she returned to blonde in 2005. Simpson's songs also have rock elements absent from her sister's music, and Simpson often wears shirts with "punk"-style designs, sometimes displaying band names, and typically has her fingernails and toenails painted black. She has three tattoos: a star on one wrist, two cherries on her ankle, and the word "love" on her other wrist.
Her vocals, while generally not thought to equal her sister's range, have been praised by some as fitting the style of her music, and are sometimes described as raspy. Simpson and her sister Jessica were tied for third on oft-quoted celebrity-fashion critic Mr. Blackwell's list of the worst-dressed celebrities of 2004. Blackwell wrote that "from gaudy to grim to downright frenetic these two prove that bad taste is positively genetic."
She has refused to discuss her sex life, in contrast with her sister Jessica, who openly stated her intention to practice sexual abstinence until marriage. "I decided that I didn't want to talk about that because it's super personal," she said of the situation. Simpson's relationship with Josh Henderson lasted about two years and ended during the first episode of The Ashlee Simpson Show. Soon she began her relationship with musician Ryan Cabrera, a relationship that was also featured in the reality show, and Simpson appeared as Cabrera's love interest in the music video for Cabrera's song "On the Way Down". The two were reported to have split up in August 2004 due to their busy schedules, but they were sometimes seen together in the months that followed.
At the beginning of the second season of The Ashlee Simpson Show Simpson indicated that they had resumed their relationship, although the two broke up again in early 2005. Simpson says the single "Boyfriend" from her upcoming album I Am Me "is about [how] every girl out there sometimes thinks you stole her boyfriend. It's just making fun of that"; she says it is not about Lindsay Lohan and Wilmer Valderrama, although there have been rumors that Simpson stole Valderrama from Lohan.
In late 2005 Simpson has said on a number of occasions that she wants to date a normal person, and not another celebrity. There are rumors to the contrary, however; in November 2005, according to In Touch magazine, Ashlee has secretly been dating a celebrity, Jackass star Chris Raab, but she's allegedly been trying to keep the romance a secret from her father/manager.
Despite tabloid rumors, she is currently dating her guitarist, Braxton Olita, which she announced at the Billboard Awards, December 6, 2005.
In November 2005, Ashlee created controversy again while promoting her album I Am Me in Toronto, Canada. In early November, the Canadian entertainment news programme eTalk Daily broadcast a video of a late night visit made by a clearly intoxicated Simpson to a McDonald's fast food restaurant in Toronto. In the video, she refused to pose for a picture unless the person kissed her foot and then verbally abused him when he did not. She also verbally abused an employee, and was seen trying to climb onto the counter. Reaction to the incident was mixed, with some criticizing Simpson and others regarding it as merely an amusing consequence of excessive drinking, and not uncommon for someone her age. Simpson said of the incident that the person who had asked for a picture had first called her "gross", and then only asked for a picture when he found out who she was, and therefore she reacted negatively. She also said that she had learned a lesson from it, that people have camera phones and record her when she's in public, and in an interview on The View she lightheartedly said that she told herself to "grow up" after the incident.
Criticism
There have been arguments that Simpson is a "manufactured" artist and mediocre singer, and that her appearances on her MTV reality show were "phony" and aimed at promoting her album. Such critics cite incidents like the SNL episode and the Orange Bowl performance as proof of their claims, while others consider Simpson's carefully crafted image instead of her music to be the reason for her continued success.
Much of the media speculate that Simpson was pushed to fame through the aggressive management style and contacts of her father, Joe Simpson, who is her manager and was the executive producer of her reality show. Some think that Simpson has lip-synced on occasions other than the SNL episode, comparing the impact of the SNL incident to the incident Milli Vanilli had in 1990 in a live MTV performance in which the guide track skipped, revealing that they had lip-synced. However, Simpson's successful tour of February-April 2005 and the number one debut of I Am Me in October 2005 seem to have proved wrong predictions that the incident would have disastrous impact on her career.
Videos on TRL
The following Ashlee Simpson videos were ranked or featured on MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) program:
* 2004-"Pieces Of Me" 6 days @ '#1'
* 2004-"Shadow" Peak #2
* 2005-"La La" Peak #6
* 2005-"Boyfriend" 3 days @ '#1'
* 2005-"L.O.V.E" Currently #4 Peak #4
Discography
| Album information |
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| 'Autobiography' | *Released: July 20 2004 (U.S.)
*Chart positions: '#1' (debut) U.S. (3 weeks), #8 CAN, #31 U.K., #42 AUS
*U.S. sales: 2.9 million
*RIAA certification: 3x platinum (in September 2004)
*Singles:
**2004: "Pieces of Me" - #5 U.S. (Certification: Platinum), #4 U.K., #6 AUS (Certification: Gold)
**2004: "Shadow" - #57 U.S., #44 CAN, #31 AUS
**2005: "La La" - #86 U.S. (Certification: Gold), #11 U.K., #10 AUS (Certification: Gold)
| 'I Am Me' | *Released: October 18 2005 (U.S.)
*Chart positions: '#1' (debut) U.S. (1 week), #4 CAN, #35 AUS, #160 U.K.
*U.S. sales: 520,000
*RIAA certification: Gold
*Singles:
**2005: "Boyfriend" - #19 U.S., #15 CAN, #8 AUS, #5 U.S. Hot Digital Songs
**2005: "L.O.V.E." - #78 U.S.
Filmography
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Year | Title | Role | Other notes | | 2005 | Undiscovered | Clea | | | 2004 | The Ashlee Simpson Show | Herself | Television series, until 2005 | | 2002 | 7th Heaven | Cecilia Smith | Television series; until 2004 | | 2002 | The Hot Chick | Monique | Minor role |
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