Alesha Anjanette Dixon (born 7 October 1978 ) is an English singer, MC, songwriter and television personality. After finding fame in the all-girl trio Mis-Teeq, she is expected to release her debut solo album in 2008 after the initial UK release of the album Fired Up was cancelled. Fired Up will be released in Japan in February 2008 under Victor Records. Alesha was crowned Strictly Come Dancing Champion 2007, beating Matt Di Angelo.

Biography

Alesha is one of seven children born to an English mother and Jamaican father. She is the only child of both her parents - she has two half brothers on her mother's side and one half sister, and three half brothers on her father's side. She was educated at Monks Walk school, Welwyn Garden City, Herts and had planned to become a PE teacher after leaving college. After completing a diploma course she had planned to take up a place at Loughborough University when she was approached on a train by a record producer, who asked her if she could sing. She then decided to put her degree on hold.

Her career began in 1999 when she met Sabrina Washington when they both joined Dance Attic (a popular hip-hop/jazz dance academy in West London), and together they formed a duo and recorded a demo titled Inspiration. During an audition, they met with Su-Elise Nash, and then together they formed a trio. They were soon signed to Telstar Records with the addition of a new member, Zena McNally, and became the popular UK garage / R&B girl band, Mis-Teeq.

Music career

Mis-Teeq

Mis-Teeq released their debut single "Why?" in 2000, and it was not long before McNally left the band to pursue her own solo career. The band made a decision to remain a trio. In 2001, they released their debut album Lickin' On Both Sides, featuring hits "All I Want", "One Night Stand", "B With Me" and double A-side single "Roll On/This Is How We Do It". After the success of their debut album, 2003 saw Mis-Teeq becoming the faces of JD Sports stores nationwide.

In 2003, Mis-teeq released their second album Eye Candy, which included the singles "Scandalous", "Can't Get It Back" and "Style". In 2004, Mis-Teeq toured the United States and released their debut single Scandalous from their American self-titled debut, a compilation of the albums Lickin' On Both Sides and Eye Candy. They also released "One Night Stand" before coming back to Europe to start work with their third album. However, Telstar Records was shut down and the band was left with no choice but to have released a Greatest Hits compilation right under exclusive licenses with Universal Records.

The last song Alesha recorded with Mis-Teeq was "Shoo Shoo Baby" for the Disney film Valiant. In March 2005, their Greatest Hits compilation was released and it was announced that they were separating to pursue solo careers.

Solo career

Alesha announced that she was signed with a ₤500,000 contract deal with Polydor Records. She spent an entire year preparing for her solo debut album, 'Fired Up', working with a wide range of producers including Richard X, Xenomania, Johnny Douglas, Brian Higgins, Estelle and Paul Epworth.

In June 2005, she announced her first solo single to be "Superficial", however at last minute, the song "Lipstick" was chosen as the first single. "Lipstick" was released on August 14, 2006, and charted at #14 on the UK Single Charts. She released her second single "Knockdown" on October 30, 2006 which charted at #25 on the UK Download Chart. But, on the official UK Singles Charts, the single peaked to #45, on the second week, but falling down to #68 the third week.

On November 6, 2006, fansite AleshaDixon.Net revealed that Alesha had left Polydor Records. Polydor gave Alesha full rights to her unreleased debut album, Fired Up. Her first single from the album, Lipstick, got to number 1 in Japan's international ringtone chart and is currently number 2 in MTV Japan's hit list.

On 7 January 2008, Alesha confirmed in an interview on the television show Richard & Judy, that her first unreleased album Fired Up is now going to be released in Japan and Asia later this month. She will be going over to Japan to support the album and soon afterwards, will return to the UK to continue writing what she hopes will be her first UK solo album.

Fired Up was officially released in Japan on February 20, 2008.

Alesha recorded a song as part of a promotional drive for the new Ford Focus, '4 U I Will', using musical instruments made from genuine car parts. The song was made available for download on 4 February 2008.