Billy Crawford
Billy Crawford |
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Billy Crawford (born Billy Joe Crawford on May 16, 1982)[1] is a Filipino American musician and actor with musical influences from R&B, Pop, and Soul. Billy Crawford became known around Europe and Asia with song titles such as "When You Think About Me", "Never My Love", "Steamy Nights"[2] and "Bright Lights". Billy is also known for being multilingual, speaking in his native language Tagalog and fluent English, and is conversational in European French. Billy has been living in New York City since 1998 until this present time.
Biography
Early life
Billy Crawford was born in Manila, Philippines to a Filipina mother named Mayette and an American father named Jack and he has two half-brothers. Billy was discovered at an early age of 3 years, singing at a bowling alley that his mother visited often. He would become a series regular on an afternoon GMA Network television show called That's Entertainment under the name Billy Joe. He acted in a few movies, moved to the United States at age 11 years, and started a music career, performing mostly in the United Kingdom and France, as well as in Asia. His pre-career started in Dallas, Texas where he lived and performed his singing and then moved to New York City. During this time he legally changed his name to Billy Crawford, giving an alias name for himself. He went to school where lots of other famous children also attended. Just a few names: Mandy Moore, Macauley Culkin (the main character from the movie "Home Alone"), Nina Sky and with many other famous people. In 1996 Billy danced with Michael Jackson on-stage when he was 14 years old and appeared as one of his backup dancers at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. He previously dated Mandy Moore for about several months (a year almost) when he was 17 and she was 15.
Billy Crawford (1998)
He recorded his first album called Billy Crawford when he was 15 years old and it went straight into the charts at the Philippines. Unfortunately, his foreign career didn't last too long. After a year, everyone began to forget who he was at that time. He took a small break at first. Billy had a few physical accidents during that time and he was in the hospital. When he was released from it, he fainted and fell off the stairs in front of it, and got back in the hospital the same day with a broken jaw (which healed successfully). His quiet break already lasted more than 3 years.
Debut single "Trackin'"
Billy was a success as a singer in France with his first single of his album "Ride" called "Trackin'". In 2001, it jumped Billy to the top of the French charts. The song "Trackin'" has sold 750,000 copies and was certified platinum; it reached a #1 position on sales charts and was #1 in the club charts. The song also made #1 in the Netherlands, #2 in Belgium, #3 in Switzerland, #20 in Germany. It had a great success in Germany and became #1 on radio and club chart. His second single "When You Think About Me", was also a huge success, and many other successes followed.
Ride (2001)
By April 2002, Billy was back on the scene with his second album, Ride. "Ride" was certified gold in France (making 100,000 copies) within just a few weeks and shipped gold in Switzerland. The album went on to achieve platinum status in the French market (making 300,000 copies) and a total of 600,000 copies have been sold to date. As for singles, following the success of the second track, "When You Think About Me" (over 250,000 copies sold in France), Billy was back again in September 2002 with his third single from the "Ride" album, "You Didn't Expect That", which went directly into the Top 5 and was certified gold in December, having sold more than 250,000 copies in just a few weeks. After this grand success, he returned in 2003 with two versions of a previously unreleased track: the English version of "Someone Like You" and a special Franco-English version for France, "Me Passer de Toi", which stayed in the singles charts for about several weeks.
Big City (2004)
The album Big City was produced by some of the best producers in the American music industry such as Kovas (Ghettobeat Production), J Que (from "The Clutch"), Tricky Stewart and Laney Stewart (RedZone Entertainment), The CornaBoyz, Pale Face, Desmond Child, Stargate, and more. He left his old company, V2 records, wanting to expand his career into something bigger.
Big City Tour Live (2005)
"Big City Tour Live" is the live release DVD album from Billy. The DVD was released in year 2005 at France. Directed by Michel Jankielewicz and produced by Yves El-Baze. Distributed by UMG (2005) (worldwide) (DVD). The budget of this album was €150,000 (estimated).
S.T.A.T.U.S. (2007)
"S.T.A.T.U.S." is the fourth studio album of Billy. The album is confirmed to be released in the Fall of 2007. There are 6 new songs known so far.
Music career
He had major chart success in France and other parts of Europe, but did not repeat this success in the United Kingdom and the United States, although his single "You Didn't Expect That" did make the lower reaches of the UK Top 40, peaking at number 35. He also contributed a remix of the Pokémon animé theme song for Pokémon: The First Movie in the series. Billy has also appeared at a popular Filipino American event called "Fiesta Filipina" in 2001 held in San Francisco, California and American people have become more aware of his name.
Billy's latest album "Big City" was released in 2004 in France and Asia only. The single "Bright Lights" was unable to break into the any Top 10 charts. The second single "Steamy Nights", fared better making Top 40, and was featured on 7 compilations across Europe and was the first single in Germany. Billy's music video for "Steamy Nights" was shot in Los Angeles, California and was produced with the same people who worked on the Destiny's Child single "Loose My Breath". Actress Jenna Dewan who was one of the main characters in the popular 2006 movie Step Up was featured as one of Billy's main dance partners.
Another song from the album Candy Store was leaked from the album and received airplay on London radio. Thought to be a duet with Ginuwine, it is featured on the Big City album. After doing the first ever online reality show "the MSN Dance Show", his third single from Big City "3 Wishes" got cancelled by his label. Billy felt it was time for something new and decided not to re-sign his contract with V2 records. Right now he's writing and producing songs for other artists. One of his songs recently got bought by Britney Spears.
In 2006, Billy began recording a new album which was expected to be released in 2007. In 2006, he toured over the summer with the L5 in France and in November he was scheduled to return to his home country to shoot a film.
Recently, he came back to the Philippines for a new dance reality show M.O.V.E for GMA Network. This show is a reality search for Billy's back-up dancers. He is also guesting on different shows of local TV in the Philippines. His 2007 concert in the Philippines was arranged for August but has now been moved to October.
Personal life
Crawford did not receive significant media attention after the Big City Tour 2005, mostly being mentioned in a few magazines for his break-up with Lorie, and found a new relationship with Maryss (also known as Maryss from Paris), a dancer he met when she auditioned for the Big City tour. Recently, Maryss has only called Billy a good friend and Billy has admitted that he is too busy to find any relationships at the moment.
He is also close friends with singers Jay-R the "Filipino RnB Prince", the singers from Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake as well as *NSYNC, and Matt Pokora a popular French singer.
Amidst his looming career in the international music scene, most especially in Europe, he decided to reside in the Philippines. While his stay in the Philippines for his "Move" TV show Billy has found friendly connections with many other Filipino actors and singers such as Rochelle Pangilinan, Ruffa Mae Quinto, Gab Valenciano, Jay-R as well as with many other famous actors and singers.
Current Events
Concerts and Tours
- "It's Time" – Araneta Coliseum at Manila, Philippines - October 6, 2007 (8:00pm | Saturday).
Special guests include Jay-R, Karylle, Maryss from Paris, Kris Lawrence, The Maneouvres, and The Movers.
Announcements
- Billy's new album is confirmed to be titled S.T.A.T.U.S., which is scheduled to be released in late 2007.
Discography
Singles
Template:Sample box start variation 2 Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end
| Year | Title | Album | Chart Position | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | AT | CH | UK | FR | ||||||||||
| 1998 | Urgently In Love | Billy Crawford | 94 | — | — | — | 64 | |||||||
| 1999 | Supernatural (UK) | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| 1999 | Mary Lopez (UK/J) | Billy Crawford | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2001 | When You’re In Love With Someone (U.S.) | Ride | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2002 | Trackin' | Ride | 23 | 55 | 5 | 32 | 5 | |||||||
| 2002 | When You Think About Me | Ride | 48 | — | 24 | — | 14 | |||||||
| 2002 | You Didn’t Expect That | Ride | 82 | — | 23 | 35 | 6 | |||||||
| 2003 | When You’re In Love With Someone | Ride | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2003 | Me Passer De Toi (Someone Like You) (F) | — | — | 28 | — | 11 | ||||||||
| 2004 | Bright Lights (F) | Big City | — | — | 46 | — | 12 | |||||||
| 2005 | Steamy Nights (F) | Big City | — | — | — | — | 42 | |||||||
- In Love (2007)
- Must Be That Body (2007)
- 9 to 5 (feat. INOJ) (2007)
- Shoulda Known (2007)
- So Cold (2007)
- Like That (2007)
"When You Think About Me"
Another popular Filipino American singing group named One Vo1ce has also made a song called "When You Think About Me" for their debut album released in 1999 which has similar lyrics to Billy Crawford's version.
Albums
| Publication | Title | Chart Position | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | AT | CH | FR | |||||||
| 1999 | Billy Crawford | — | — | — | — | |||||
| November 11, 2002 | Ride | 73 | — | 17 | 7 | |||||
| 2004 | Big City | — | — | 84 | 12 | |||||
- Big City Tour Live (2005)
- S.T.A.T.U.S. (2007)
Awards
- 2002: NRJ Music Awards - Best Newcomer of the Year
Billy was awarded for 2002 NRJ Music Awards for "Best Newcomer of the Year" at France.
- 2003: NRJ Music Awards - International Male Artist of the Year
Billy Crawford was given "International Male Artist of the Year" at the NRJ Music Awards 2003 in Cannes, France, on January 18, 2003. He beat Robbie Williams to win the award.
- 2007: Eastwood Walk of Fame - Billy Crawford
In January 15, 2007 he was given a star plaque at the Eastwood Walk of Fame in Philippines and was the first inductee that year.
Filmography
In Spring of 2004, his first "big" movie was released in many countries. The movie is called Exorcist 4: The Beginning, but he dropped his principal role in that movie due to his business with his album "Big City". He most recently appeared in Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
There is current news stating that Billy will appear in a movie with Whoopi Goldberg in a year or so [3].
Billy's life story has also been shown on the Philippine television drama show Maalaala Mo Kaya[4].
Autobiography
He wrote a book called "La Musique & Moi" (Music and Me) (Published: 2006)
References
- ^ Billy Crawford (II), Billy Crawford at the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ Billy Crawford in Steamy Nights, Billy Crawford's Channel on YouTube.
- ^ "Billy Crawford to do movie with Whoopi Goldberg". GMA Network. June 10 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "MMK: Billy's life". ABS-CBN. December 8 2004. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
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