Fact File
Full Name: Joanne O’Meara
Date Of Birth: 29th April 1979
Height: 5ft 4in – 163 cm.
Shoe Size: 4 UK – 36 EU
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Family: Mum Babs, dad Dave, sister Julie and brother Shane
Starsign: “I’m a Taurus but I’m not really into astrology. I just know that I’m like a bull in a china shop and quite clumsy.”
Describes herself as: “Dedicated, crazy and temperamental.”
Favourite S Club storyline: “The Blair Witch spoof we did in LA7, because we all got to run around these woods at three in the morning pretending to be scared.”
Favourite tour moment: “I didn’t think it at the time, but the anxiety just before we went on stage the first night. I think I went through just about every emotion – laughter, nerves, even tears.”
Life outside S Club: “I’m very quiet outside work. I don’t ever go to showbiz parties, they just aren’t my scene as I feel I’m being watched all the time.”
Favourite singer: “Michael Jackson. I’d probably faint if I ever met him.”
Biography
“Every group should have a peroxide blonde!” says Jo O’Meara. Especially if they come complete with a voice as stunning and crystal clear as hers.
As you’d expect though, Jo’s been singing since the word ‘go,’ with her family’s support and encouragement. By the age of 12 she was singing in clubs and no stranger to the charts, she even broke the Top 40 pre-S Club with a hit in Germany.
No wonder then that touring has been her favourite S Club moment to date. “It’s every band’s goal to get out and do it for real in front of their fans and we’d waited three years for the chance. So when the tour came round, we were all 100 per cent up for it.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that a feisty personality would come hand in hand with Jo’s powerful voice, but that’s certainly not the case. “I’ve got one of those faces that looks like I’m always miserable or narked off,” she admits, “but the truth is I’m a big softie at heart.” A big softie who sings down the phone to her ‘two boys’ – her dogs – while she’s away from home.
An Essex girl through and through – and proud of it – like the other S Clubbers, Jo has no pretence to pop superstardom and still finds it strange when asked for an autograph. “What’s so interesting about having ‘Luv Jo’ written on a piece of paper?” she asks. “I’ve been asked if I would sign this guy’s bum, but I just couldn’t. Absolutely not!”
