Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American pop singer and actress who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, and has three gold and two multi-platinum RIAA-certified albums. Jessica Simpson starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. She has also begun working as an actress, and is the older sister of Ashlee Simpson, a pop rock singer.
Career
1999-2001: Rise to fame
1999 saw the arrival of pop princesses Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who each received multi-platinum certificates. Simpson's label hoped for the same with her. As 1999 came to a close, Simpson released her first single, "I Wanna Love You Forever," which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Soon afterward her album Sweet Kisses was released. Simpson toured with boy band 98 Degrees to promote her new album. She was given a role in the music video for 98 Degrees' hit song "My Everything," playing Nick Lachey's love interest. At that time she and Lachey began dating. After dating for two years the couple cooled their relationship, stating that the "break" allowed them to concentrate on their music careers. Then on September 11, 2001, Lachey was supposed to be flying out of New York City with his group 98 Degrees. When Simpson heard of the attacks on the nation coming from the airport she immediately phoned Lachey to learn his whereabouts. After this scare the couple rekindled the relationship.
Meanwhile, Simpson's album Sweet Kisses had gone double platinum thanks to the success of her follow-up singles "Where You Are", 1999, and "I Think I'm In Love With You, 2001." The latter became Simpson's biggest radio hit at that point and was her first release of an uptempo single. But although her debut album sold 2 million copies, sales fell far short of those achieved by Spears and Aguilera, and unlike the two pop princesses, Simpson was not a worldwide household name. Columbia Records officials reportedly decided Simpson needed a change for her second album.
In 2001, Simpson recorded a follow-up album with what Columbia considered more radio-friendly, up-tempo tracks; the studio also encouraged her to lose weight in order to fit in with her competitors. The result in that was Irresistible, released in mid-2001 on the heels of the title-track first single. The new sound and image helped make "Irresistible" one of the biggest hits of her career; it peaked at #15 on the Hot 100. "Irresistible" debuted at #6 in June 2001 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, and has sold 825,000 copies to date.
2002: Marriage to Nick Lachey and TV success
During the summer of 2003, the reality show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, starring Simpson and her new husband Nick Lachey began airing on MTV. Simpson's third album, In This Skin, was released in August of 2003 to coincide with the series premiere of Newlyweds.
The show quickly became a pop culture phenomenon and is credited with making her a household name, even among those who did not follow pop music or MTV. “I never knew that just doing the show would give me that pedestal to step on,” Simpson told Blender magazine in a March 2004 feature.
On May 30, 2004, Simpson was chosen to sing the National Anthem at the Indianapolis 500.
Later that summer, Simpson won three Teen Choice Awards: Female Fashion Icon, Choice Hottie Female, and Female Reality/Variety TV Star for Newlyweds.
Throughout the run of four seasons, Simpson epitomized the stereotypical dumb blonde, most notably when she asked Lachey whether the Chicken of the Sea tuna she was eating was in fact chicken or fish. She also indicated that she believed that buffalo wings were made from actual buffalo. She thought that platypus was pronounced as platymapus and then wondered whether the correct pronunciation was always platypus or platymapus as well. Her Hollywood brat behavior helped turn the show into a huge hit, with an average rating of roughly 1.4 million viewers, while reaching a series peak of approximately 4 million viewers.
The associated album, In This Skin, debuted at #10 on The Billboard 200 album chart, with sales of 64,000 in its first week. It rebounded after a special collectors' edition was released in April 2004 and subsequently reached a peak of #2. It was eventually certified quadruple platinum. It contained the hits "With You" and a cover of the Berlin song "Take My Breath Away", and a lesser hit, a cover of the Robbie Williams song "Angels", which charted just outside the Billboard Hot 100.
The couple starred in the television special The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour, which aired in 2004 and was compared to the Sonny and Cher show. Simpson released ReJoyce: The Christmas Album in late 2004, which peaked at #14 on the album chart and was later certified gold.
In 2005, Newlyweds won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show before wrapping shortly after.
Move to film
In the summer of 2005, at age 25, Simpson made her first appearance in a motion picture as Daisy Duke in the movie remake of The Dukes of Hazzard. The film was #1 at the box office its opening weekend, although it had little or no competition (the only other new film opening that weekend was a low-budget independent film), and grossed $30.7 million on 3,785 screens. It also had an adjusted-dollar rank of #14 all-time for August releases. The film eventually collected $110.5 million world-wide, although it was much less financially successful outside the U.S.
Simpson also appeared on the film's soundtrack, releasing "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", a cover of the 1966 Nancy Sinatra hit. The song peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Song from a Movie in 2006. The song's video featured Simpson as Daisy Duke. It contains scenes of her flirting and singing in a bar and then later washing her car in a pink string bikini. In some countries the video was banned for its overtly sexual content.
Simpson's second film, Employee of the Month, was released October 6, 2006. Despite poor reviews, the film took in nearly $12 million in its opening weekend, debuting at #4 just behind "Open Season." The movie was made on a $12 million budget, and it finished with a little over $28 million in the United States.
Simpson's third film, Blonde Ambition, is set to be released in 2008. Filming for the movie "The Witness", a spy comedy, had been scheduled for the same time but has been postponed.
2006-2007: Music and movies
November 2005 brought confirmation of rumors that Simpson and Lachey were breaking up. On June 30, 2006, their divorce was finalized. Simpson hosted the Teen Choice Awards in August 2006, and appeared on The View in September 2006 as the first choice of new co-host Rosie O'Donnell.
Simpson then returned to the recording studio, switching labels from Columbia to Epic Records. Her fourth album, A Public Affair, was released on August 29, 2006 via Epic Records. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 with 101,000 copies sold in its first week. The first single, "A Public Affair", reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100 but quickly fell off the charts. The music video for "A Public Affair" featured Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Christina Milian, Maria Menounos, Andy Dick and Ryan Seacrest. A second single, "I Belong To Me," was also released through her website and is now included on the CD itself. The single's video appeared on TRL countdowns, but quickly fell off.
In December 2006, while performing a tribute to Dolly Parton at the Kennedy Center Awards, she botched the lyrics, getting flustered in front of a crowd that included prominent persons such as Steven Spielberg, Shania Twain, and President George W. Bush). Afterward, during the final tribute to Parton, Parton's "biggest fan" Reese Witherspoon and her second cousin Jessica Savelli gave a tearful Simpson a comforting hug. Though Simpson was given the chance to redo the song for cameras, ultimately her portion was edited out of the CBS broadcast.
Luke Wilson co-starred with Simpson in her third film, Blonde Ambition, due out in 2008.
Simpson recently said she is due back in front of the cameras filming her next movie role in "The Witness." She also said she will be publishing a book containing selections from her personal journal and photographs, titled "Look Up To the Sky." Simpson has also been confirmed to be in studio recording with Eddie Galan and Drew Lane.
Jessica's father Joe Simpson stated to People Magazine on September 11, 2007 that Jessica is considering doing a country album. Joe told People that Jessica is "talking about doing a country record and going back to her roots, being from Texas."
Career
1999-2001: Rise to fame
1999 saw the arrival of pop princesses Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who each received multi-platinum certificates. Simpson's label hoped for the same with her. As 1999 came to a close, Simpson released her first single, "I Wanna Love You Forever," which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Soon afterward her album Sweet Kisses was released. Simpson toured with boy band 98 Degrees to promote her new album. She was given a role in the music video for 98 Degrees' hit song "My Everything," playing Nick Lachey's love interest. At that time she and Lachey began dating. After dating for two years the couple cooled their relationship, stating that the "break" allowed them to concentrate on their music careers. Then on September 11, 2001, Lachey was supposed to be flying out of New York City with his group 98 Degrees. When Simpson heard of the attacks on the nation coming from the airport she immediately phoned Lachey to learn his whereabouts. After this scare the couple rekindled the relationship.
Meanwhile, Simpson's album Sweet Kisses had gone double platinum thanks to the success of her follow-up singles "Where You Are", 1999, and "I Think I'm In Love With You, 2001." The latter became Simpson's biggest radio hit at that point and was her first release of an uptempo single. But although her debut album sold 2 million copies, sales fell far short of those achieved by Spears and Aguilera, and unlike the two pop princesses, Simpson was not a worldwide household name. Columbia Records officials reportedly decided Simpson needed a change for her second album.
In 2001, Simpson recorded a follow-up album with what Columbia considered more radio-friendly, up-tempo tracks; the studio also encouraged her to lose weight in order to fit in with her competitors. The result in that was Irresistible, released in mid-2001 on the heels of the title-track first single. The new sound and image helped make "Irresistible" one of the biggest hits of her career; it peaked at #15 on the Hot 100. "Irresistible" debuted at #6 in June 2001 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, and has sold 825,000 copies to date.
2002: Marriage to Nick Lachey and TV success
During the summer of 2003, the reality show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, starring Simpson and her new husband Nick Lachey began airing on MTV. Simpson's third album, In This Skin, was released in August of 2003 to coincide with the series premiere of Newlyweds.
The show quickly became a pop culture phenomenon and is credited with making her a household name, even among those who did not follow pop music or MTV. “I never knew that just doing the show would give me that pedestal to step on,” Simpson told Blender magazine in a March 2004 feature.
On May 30, 2004, Simpson was chosen to sing the National Anthem at the Indianapolis 500.
Later that summer, Simpson won three Teen Choice Awards: Female Fashion Icon, Choice Hottie Female, and Female Reality/Variety TV Star for Newlyweds.
Throughout the run of four seasons, Simpson epitomized the stereotypical dumb blonde, most notably when she asked Lachey whether the Chicken of the Sea tuna she was eating was in fact chicken or fish. She also indicated that she believed that buffalo wings were made from actual buffalo. She thought that platypus was pronounced as platymapus and then wondered whether the correct pronunciation was always platypus or platymapus as well. Her Hollywood brat behavior helped turn the show into a huge hit, with an average rating of roughly 1.4 million viewers, while reaching a series peak of approximately 4 million viewers.
The associated album, In This Skin, debuted at #10 on The Billboard 200 album chart, with sales of 64,000 in its first week. It rebounded after a special collectors' edition was released in April 2004 and subsequently reached a peak of #2. It was eventually certified quadruple platinum. It contained the hits "With You" and a cover of the Berlin song "Take My Breath Away", and a lesser hit, a cover of the Robbie Williams song "Angels", which charted just outside the Billboard Hot 100.
The couple starred in the television special The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour, which aired in 2004 and was compared to the Sonny and Cher show. Simpson released ReJoyce: The Christmas Album in late 2004, which peaked at #14 on the album chart and was later certified gold.
In 2005, Newlyweds won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show before wrapping shortly after.
Move to film
In the summer of 2005, at age 25, Simpson made her first appearance in a motion picture as Daisy Duke in the movie remake of The Dukes of Hazzard. The film was #1 at the box office its opening weekend, although it had little or no competition (the only other new film opening that weekend was a low-budget independent film), and grossed $30.7 million on 3,785 screens. It also had an adjusted-dollar rank of #14 all-time for August releases. The film eventually collected $110.5 million world-wide, although it was much less financially successful outside the U.S.
Simpson also appeared on the film's soundtrack, releasing "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", a cover of the 1966 Nancy Sinatra hit. The song peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Song from a Movie in 2006. The song's video featured Simpson as Daisy Duke. It contains scenes of her flirting and singing in a bar and then later washing her car in a pink string bikini. In some countries the video was banned for its overtly sexual content.
Simpson's second film, Employee of the Month, was released October 6, 2006. Despite poor reviews, the film took in nearly $12 million in its opening weekend, debuting at #4 just behind "Open Season." The movie was made on a $12 million budget, and it finished with a little over $28 million in the United States.
Simpson's third film, Blonde Ambition, is set to be released in 2008. Filming for the movie "The Witness", a spy comedy, had been scheduled for the same time but has been postponed.
2006-2007: Music and movies
November 2005 brought confirmation of rumors that Simpson and Lachey were breaking up. On June 30, 2006, their divorce was finalized. Simpson hosted the Teen Choice Awards in August 2006, and appeared on The View in September 2006 as the first choice of new co-host Rosie O'Donnell.
Simpson then returned to the recording studio, switching labels from Columbia to Epic Records. Her fourth album, A Public Affair, was released on August 29, 2006 via Epic Records. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 with 101,000 copies sold in its first week. The first single, "A Public Affair", reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100 but quickly fell off the charts. The music video for "A Public Affair" featured Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Christina Milian, Maria Menounos, Andy Dick and Ryan Seacrest. A second single, "I Belong To Me," was also released through her website and is now included on the CD itself. The single's video appeared on TRL countdowns, but quickly fell off.
In December 2006, while performing a tribute to Dolly Parton at the Kennedy Center Awards, she botched the lyrics, getting flustered in front of a crowd that included prominent persons such as Steven Spielberg, Shania Twain, and President George W. Bush). Afterward, during the final tribute to Parton, Parton's "biggest fan" Reese Witherspoon and her second cousin Jessica Savelli gave a tearful Simpson a comforting hug. Though Simpson was given the chance to redo the song for cameras, ultimately her portion was edited out of the CBS broadcast.
Luke Wilson co-starred with Simpson in her third film, Blonde Ambition, due out in 2008.
Simpson recently said she is due back in front of the cameras filming her next movie role in "The Witness." She also said she will be publishing a book containing selections from her personal journal and photographs, titled "Look Up To the Sky." Simpson has also been confirmed to be in studio recording with Eddie Galan and Drew Lane.
Jessica's father Joe Simpson stated to People Magazine on September 11, 2007 that Jessica is considering doing a country album. Joe told People that Jessica is "talking about doing a country record and going back to her roots, being from Texas."