So what has Yorkshire lass Ellie been up to since she last took up residence in the UK charts at the end of 1999 with 'So Many Ways'? "I've been spending a lot of time in Asia and Australia," says the popstrelle, "and I've had so much fun over there. I recently performed at Sydney's Mardi Gras festival in front of 250,000 people, which was one of the most amazing experiences of my life."
She's also found time to all but finish her debut album 'Ellie', which is due for UK release in May. "It's a mixture of upbeat dance-pop and a few slower songs so you can have a bit of a smooch," says Ellie. "J from Five appears on one track, but apart from that, it's 100% Ellie!"
There is definitely more to Yorkshire than just its puddings, there's Ellie Campbell for a start. The 20-year-old singer is set to reinforce her status as one of the brightest new pop talents of the millennium. Ellie, the sixth in a family of 10 children, positively sizzles with personality and this coupled with her extraordinary singing voice makes her an exciting addition to planet pop.
Ellie was nicknamed Shirley Temple as a child because she loved to perform, whether in front of a mirror or her entire family. She even had a suitcase which she would take to family parties to use as a stage - "I'd jump on top and perform routines that I had seen on Top Of The Pops". In 1997 one of Ellie's sisters sent her picture to a national newspaper which was planning a feature on 100-unknown beautiful woman. After seeing the picture the paper invited Ellie down to be part of the article. "In the end, the piece got scrapped but six months later I got a call from the paper and they invited me down to be part of another photo-spread. I was the only non-model and I had a brilliant time."
While in London, one of the newspaper editors told Ellie that she should try professional modelling and gave her some telephone numbers to help start her off "I went to one of the agencies and they sent me to a casting immediately. The photographer was very nice, but he wanted me to do a glamour shoot, so I told him that I didn't want that kind of job. He said to me, 'Can you do anything else?' and I told him I could sing." The photographer happened to have a friend, Ben Bates, who was looking for a girl singer and had auditioned 200 young women without success. "He made the call and I sang down the phone to this guy - it was a Whitney Houston song called 'Run To You'. He thought my voice was perfect and the next week he came up to Huddersfield to see me." Ellie hooked up with Ben who knew instantly that Ellie had the potential to succeed so he set to work spreading the word. Ben, armed with a demo tape, went to see pop legend Pete Waterman - "when he heard my voice, he was intrigued and wanted to see me imme diately".
Waterman, whose credentials for finding pop stars is unrivalled in the UK, met up with her and Ellie signed to Jive Records that year. Ellie, who has had no formal singing or dance training, has had to learn the tricks of the trade on the job. Her debut single 'Sweet Lies' enabled her to ease gently into her new role as pop diva securing the foundations for a long-term career. Her second single 'So Many Ways' was released in August '99 and debuted at number 26. Since 'So Many Ways' Ellie has visited practically every country in Europe, performed in front of 65,000 people and sang alongside Gabrielle at a charity bash in Amsterdam, Not bad for a Yorkshire lass.
Source: http://www.jive-records.co.uk/elliecampbell/ec-biog.htm
