Beverley Knight has come long way since her early teens when she would write her own songs and slowly hone her craft, eventually leading to a career that would see her rise in the charts and receive an MBE in 2007.
Born in 1973, Knight would begin to pen songs at the age of thirteen, before turning to her art in a serious fashion by the age of seventeen. The result was success at a relatively early age when she was discovered by a record executive at the age of nineteen singing in a nightclub. Whilst she still went on to University to maintain her education, the beginnings of her career were born and by the age of 21 she had a recording contract with a small independent record label. It was during this time that she began work on her debut album, which became the 1995 release “The B-Funk”, a critically acclaimed piece of work that was considered the greatest soul album for years.
However, it would be many years and a change of record company before she would return to the recording studio and emerge with her second album, which became 1998’s “Prodigal Sista”. More successful than her debut, “Prodigal Sista” marked a turning point in her career that would eventually lead to mainstream popularity.
Her third album, “Who I Am”, would be a huge success and her place in the limelight was secured. It was around this time that singles began to play regularly on the radio, from “Get Up!” to “Shoulda Woulda Coulda”, with later releases also including “Gold” and “Shape of You (Reshaped)”. It allowed her career to continue strong and she re-emerged in 2004 with her fourth album “Affirmation” and the hit single “Come As You Are”, which would be followed by her fifth album “Music City Soul” in 2007.
In September 2009, Beverley Knight released her sixth album “100%”, which came the same year that she won her most recent award nomination – a MOBO Award for Best Act. Whilst she did not win the award, her nomination showed that she was still a leading force in British urban music.
Over the years she has won MOBO Awards, EMMA Awards, Urban Music Awards and Black Music Awards and with her latest release marking a departure from her record label and operating under her own rules, her career is still going from strength to strength.
