Personality of the Week - 13th to 19th June 2011

LEMAR

Lemar Obika, born 4 April 1978 in London, England, professionally known simply as Lemar, is an English soul and R&B singer-songwriter and vocal producer who has had a run of chart success in the UK, Europe and Australia. He rose to fame after finishing in third place on the first series of British talent show Fame Academy.

Since then Lemar has had 7 top ten UK singles and sold over 2 million albums. He is seen as one of the most successful artists to come out of a reality T.V show. Lemar has won two Brit Awards and three Mobo Awards.

Lemar Obika was born in London, England to south eastern Nigerian parents, and grew up listening to R&B and soul music. He used to sing at home with his brothers and sister, pretending to be The Jacksons. He was17 when he had his first concert at the Junior Jam at the Temple in Tottenham supporting Usher.

Lemar went to St. Paul's Primary School. Later on he gave up an opportunity to study pharmacy at the Cardiff University to pursue a musical career. Lemar had good success supporting various artists such as Destiny's Child, Total, Uncle Sam and Usher Raymond on their UK club tours and after some years, managed to secure a recording contract with BMG. Following this, he released his debut single "Got Me Saying Ooh". Unfortunately his record deal with BMG fell through in less than a year due to restructuring at the record label. He had to eventually take a job working as an accounts manager at NatWest in Enfield, north London.

Before appearing on Fame Academy, Lemar got his big showbiz break by appearing on Brainiac as an assistant scientist. In one notable episode, Lemar took part in a spaghetti eating contest in which it was proven that sucking spaghetti is the least efficient way of eating it.

Lemar was most notably brought to public attention on the BBC's Fame Academy in 2002, a combination of a talent quest and reality television show. He made the finals of the show winning plaudits for his version of "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green and singing a duet with Lionel Richie on "Easy". While he ended up finishing third in the show, which was won by David Sneddon, he caught the eye of fellow British soul singer Beverley Knight, who invited him to sing a duet with her during her concert at the Hammersmith Apollo. His first influence was boy band and solo singer Dom Kimberley (currently of DY8 and formally of Five and big fun). Dom Kimberley was Lemar's mentor for over 12 months however the success of DY8 meant the two had to go their separate ways even though they still remain best of friends.

Sony Music was so impressed with his potential that they signed him to a five year record deal worth ?1 million. He was also chosen to represent the UK in Eurobest, coming fifth (the eventual winner being Chenoa from Spain).

Recording career

Lemar's second single "Dance (With U)" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart in early 2003. His first album Dedicated was released late in 2003 with additional singles "50/50" and "Another Day" also achieving chart success in the UK. Following the success of the album, he commenced his first headlining tour of the UK. After completing his UK tour, Lemar was the opening act for Justin Timberlake's UK tour dates.

On 12 November 2004 Lemar guested on Radio 1's Live Lounge and performed a cover of U2's song "Vertigo". He has also performed for Prince Charles' Prince's Trust. In early November 2004, Lemar released his first single from the album "Time to Grow". "If There's Any Justice" reached number three on the UK Singles Chart, and has become one of Lemar's most recognised songs. "Time to Grow" was released following the single and peaked at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart, and to date, the album has been certificated 2x Platinum by the BPI. Two other singles were released from the album, "Time to Grow" and "Don't Give It Up".

He is also one of the artists included on Band Aid 20's single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

4 September 2006 saw Lemar return with his eighth single, entitled "It's Not That Easy", which became his sixth UK top ten hit. A week later his new album The Truth About Love was released, which saw guest appearances from Styles P from The L.O.X., Mica Paris and Joss Stone. The album became Lemar's highest charting album to date, peaking at number three on the UK Albums Chart, outpeaking Time to Grow(number eight) and Dedicated (number sixteen). Two more singles were released from the album, "Someone Should Tell You" and "Tick Tock".

He featured on Sway's first single "Saturday Night Hustle" from the album The Signature LP. Lemar's fourth studio album "The Reason" was released on 24 November 2008, entering the UK Albums Chart at No. 41. Lead single "If She Knew" was released on 10 November 2008, and peaked on the UK Singles Chart at No. 14. On the 2ndMarch 2010, Lemar released his second single from the album, "Weight of the World", the song peaked at number 31 on the UK Singles Chart. He performed both singles on GMTV.

Lemar performed his new single "The Way Love Goes" on the BBC1 show So You Think You Can Dance (UK) on 9 January 2010. He also performed the single on GMTV in February. The single was released on Valentine's Day and peaked at number eight on the UK Singles Chart. On the 8th March, the single was followed by his much anticipated album, The Hits which - as well as including 10 hit singles from his four studio albums - also features four new tracks. In addition to "The Way Love Goes", these include a duet with Britain's charttopping pop/R&B boy-band JLS on a rerecording of Lemar's own 2003 ballad "What About Love". On the 19th March, Lemar and JLS performed the song together on Sport Relief.

On 11 March 2010 Lemar's album The Hits hit number one on the R&B download charts on iTunes, along with 9 of Lemar's songs in the top100downloads. It peaked at number eighteen on the UK Albums Chart. Near the end of March 2010 Lemar performed a Radio 1's Live Lounge version of "Empire State of Mind". He also recorded cover versions of Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams" and Alicia Key's "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart".

Lemar will be appearing as a special guest on the U.K Dates of Mary J Blidge's World Tour. It has been announced that Lemar will be the special guest on the U.K. Dates of Enrique Iglesias' Tour in 2011.

Lemar has got two kids, a boy and a girl, with his long term partner, Charmaine Powell.

Awards & Nominations

Brit Awards:

Winner 2006 - British Urban Act
Winner 2004 - British Urban Act
Nominee 2007 - British Male Solo Artist
Nominee 2006 - British Urban Act
Nominee 2005 - British Male Solo Artist
Nominee 2005 - British Urban Act
Nominee 2004 - Best British Breakthrough Act

Sources include Wikipedia, contactmusic.com and news.bbc.co.uk