James Fox (singer)
James Fox, real name James Mullett, (born April 6, 1976 in Cardiff, South Wales) is a pop music singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist.
Biography
Fox grew up in the village of Bargoed. Music was his passion from an early age inspired by Billy Joel. In 2003, he took part in the BBC Fame Academy reality television programme in the United Kingdom which offered a record contract to the winner. The students attempted to convince viewers to vote to keep them in each week — he didn't win the show, but in coming a respectable 5th it raised his profile and presented him with new career opportunities. He is a popular entertainer with the UK armed forces and has entertained the troops in Bosnia, Afghanistan and the Falkland Islands.
His first notable achievement as a musical artist was representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song Hold on to Our Love which reached number 13 in the UK charts. He did not win, finishing just 16th out of 24 finalists with 29 points. However, in contrast to Jemini's near-legendary meltdown on stage in the previous year's contest, James had in fact performed strongly. Familiar hackles were thus raised in the UK about apparent 'block voting' by certain countries, which this time seemed more blatant than ever. James himself alluded to this point in interviews after the contest, remarking that his own favourite example was Monaco's awarding of maximum points to France. He did not mention, however, that Ireland scored all of its points from its closest neighbour, the UK.
In 2004 James went on to play Judas in the Bill Kenwright touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar to good reviews. While in the show, Tim Rice saw him in the role and was so impressed by his performance he recommended him for the role of the 'Piano Player' in the Billy Joel musical Movin' Out in America. James was successful in his audition, his return flight cancelled as he went straight in to rehearsals with Billy Joel's band. James made his debut in the show on Broadway 6 April 2005, by coincidence his birthday, and received a vocal standing ovation at all three shows he did there. He joined the touring production in Houston to similar acclaim, before setting off to the Falklands to entertain the British troops. From July 2005 James re-joined the touring production of Movin' Out, to take up the role of the 'Piano Player' once more, before heading on with the show to Toronto, Canada in December 2005.
In March 2006, James returned to his native UK the take up the same role of the "Piano Man" in the European premiere of Movin' Out at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre. After taking a break from musical theatre to write and record his own new material, he rejoined the American tour in October 2006.