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Samantha Fox

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This article is about the English model and singer. For the American pornographic actress, see Samantha Fox (pornographic actress).

Samantha Fox
Fox live in Rescaldina, Italy, in 2009
Background information
Birth nameSamantha Karen Fox
Also known asSam Fox
Born (1966-04-15) 15 April 1966 (age 58)
Mile End, London, England
Origin United Kingdom
GenresPop, dance-pop, freestyle, Eurobeat
Occupation(s)Singer, former glamour model, actress, TV personality
Instrument(s)Vocals
Years active1983–1987 (model)
1986–present (singer)
LabelsLamborghini Records (1983)
Jive Records (1986–1998)
Ichiban Records (1998)
Websitewww.samfox.com

Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox (born 15 April 1966) is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at age 16, she began appearing on Page 3 of The Sun, and continued as a Page 3 girl until she was 20. During this time, she became the most popular pin-up girl of her era, as well as one of the most photographed British women of the 1980s.

In 1986, she launched her pop-music career with her debut single "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)", which hit Number 1 in 17 countries. She has since sold over 30 million albums worldwide.[1] She has also appeared in a number of films and reality television shows, and has occasionally worked as a television presenter.

Background

The eldest daughter of Carole Ann Wilken and the late John Patrick Fox, Samantha Karen Fox comes from a family of market traders from Chapel Market, Islington, London.

Fox attended St Thomas More Catholic School, Wood Green and took an interest in the theatre from an early age. She first appeared on a theatre stage at age 3, and was enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School from age 15.[2] The next year she got her first record deal,with Lamborghini Records.[3]

Glamour modelling

When Fox was 16, her mother submitted several photographs that she had taken of her daughter in lingerie to The Sunday People newspaper's Girl of the Year amateur modelling contest.[2][4] She came in second out of 20,000 entrants[5] and the photographs drew her to the attention of the newspaper The Sun, which invited her to pose for Page 3.[2][4] Her parents gave their consent for her to pose topless,[5] and her first Page 3 photograph appeared in the Sun on 22 February 1983.[6] She signed a four-year Page 3 modeling contract with the Sun,[5][7] and won its "Page 3 Girl of the Year" award for three consecutive years between 1984 and 1986.[8] She is recognized today as the most popular pin-up girl of her era, as well as one of the most-photographed British women of the 1980s.[9]

Fox retired from Page 3 modelling in 1986, at the age of 20, and transitioned into a career in pop music. In 1995, aged 29, she made a one-off appearance in the Sun to promote Page 3's 25th anniversary. After receiving an overwhelmingly positive reader response, she appeared in the slot every day of that week, with Friday's final topless picture given away as an A3-sized poster. The following year she appeared in the October issue of Playboy magazine.[10]

In 2008, Fox was voted the top Page 3 girl of all time. To mark the occasion, she appeared topless in the Sun at the age of 42.[5]

Music

1980s

Fox released her debut single, "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)", in March 1986. It made the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic (#3 in the UK; #4 in the US) and topped the charts in 17 countries, including Canada, South Africa, and Australia. Her debut live performance came at Peter Stringfellow's club Hippodrome. Her second single "Do Ya Do Ya (Wanna Please Me)" also made #10 in the UK though fared less well in the US.

Within a year, Fox had released her second album, Samantha Fox (1987), again on Jive Records. The first single released from the album, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now", enabled her to achieve her third (and final) top ten hit in the UK (#8), although it only managed to peak at #80 on the US Billboard charts. The track was produced by the production team Stock/Aitken/Waterman. The second single release, "I Surrender (To the Spirit of the Night)", failed to match the success of its predecessor in the UK and peaked at #23 in the UK. The next two releases, "I Promise You (Get Ready)" and "True Devotion", both failed altogether to make the UK Top 40 singles chart. The fifth and final single, "Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)", turned the fortunes of the album around and managed to secure a top ten placing on the US Billboard charts (#3), becoming her biggest hit to date in the US and scoring Fox another Top 40 hit on the UK singles chart (#31). The track was a different sound for Fox, being produced by the US hip-hop producers Full Force. They would continue to work with Samantha on subsequent albums and achieve similar success with her stateside, wherea

The following year, Fox released her third album, I Wanna Have Some Fun (1988), also on Jive Records. The album was produced by various producers covering the Euro-pop sound. Two tracks, "Next to Me" and the title track, reunited her for Full Force, where another reunion with Stock/Aitken/Waterman saw her record a cover of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be with You", and the SAW original "You Started Something". The first UK single released from the album was "Love House". The second single released in the UK, "I Only Wanna Be with You", managed to secure her biggest hit in over a year, peaking in the Top 20 at #16. The first single release in the US fared even better. The title selection, "I Wanna Have Some Fun", produced by Full Force, managed to peak in the US Top Ten at #8 (although when released as the third single in the UK it only managed a #63 placing). The American release, as the follow-up, of "I Only Wanna Be with You" peaked inside the US Billboard Top 40 at #31.

1990s

In 1991, Fox released her fourth album, Just One Night, on Jive Records. The first single, "(Hurt Me! Hurt Me!) But the Pants Stay On", was another Full Force production, but it failed to make an impression on either the UK or the US charts. The second single, "Another Woman", originally produced by Ralf-Rene Maue, was remixed by PWL stablemate Phil Harding and performed moderately on some European charts. A third single, the album's title track, was also released.

In 1992, Jive released Samantha's first official compilation, Greatest Hits, which featured three new tracks. Fox co-wrote and performed the track "Go for the Heart" for UK submission in the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest as Sox, featuring Cris Bonacci and Lorraine McIntosh. The song placed 4th in preliminary public voting, so it wasn't selected as the representative track.

In 1998, Fox released a new album, 21st Century Fox. It performed moderately throughout Europe and Scandinavia; without a worldwide-distribution deal the album suffered from little promotion and a staggered release schedule.

In 1998, Fox released a single with DJ Milano, "Santa Maria", which charted at #31 in the UK chart and was a Top 10 hit in Austria, Scandinavia, and the Czech Republic.

2000s

Fox performing in 2005 in Quebec

Fox co-wrote the song "Dreams" for girl group All Saints's 2000 album, Saints & Sinners, but was credited as "Karen Wilkin" because the group refused to record the song if Fox's real name was used.[11]

In 2004, Fox teamed up with Mats Söderlund (alias Günther) in order to do a remake of "Touch Me", which charted #1 in Sweden and Top 10 in other Scandinavian countries. In November 2005, Fox released the album, Angel with an Attitude produced by Joe Barrucco, in Canada. It was reissued in Australia to coincide with the Countdown Tour and included a new version of "Touch Me". 2008 saw the release of "Midnight Lover", a Euro-dance collaboration with Greek production team Zante Dilemma.

In October 2009 Fox's first three albums were reissued in the US with bonus tracks. In December 2009, her latest compilation was issued, Greatest Hits, both in single CD and double CD formats.[12]

2010s

In 2010, Fox teamed up with trance superstar 4 Strings to release a new single, "Forever". Summer 2010 saw the release of a duet with Italian singer Sabrina in which they performed a cover version of Blondie's hit "Call Me". Released in Italy on 15 June 2010, the single peaked at #4 in the Italian Dance Singles Sales Chart on the first week of July.[13]

On 10 August 2010, The Beatles Complete On Ukulele released her reimagining of The Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better" featuring ukulele.[14]

In 2012, Samantha Fox re-released her first four albums as 2-CD "deluxe edition" sets with unreleased bonus tracks and remixes of all the singles from all four albums.

Film and television

Fox was invited to star in a Bollywood film Rock Dancer.[15]

In the late 1980s, she appeared in television adverts for Leicestershire-based car dealership network with the slogan "Follow the Fox to Swithland Motors".[16]

In 1989, she co-presented the BRIT Awards with Mick Fleetwood, which became notorious for turning into a shambles; Fox has asserted in interviews since that the autocue did not work properly that night. She spent a year in New York presenting pop promo videos for MTV, and she made other attempts at TV presenting, including an interview with Rolf Harris, which was ill-fated even before it started as Fox referred to her interviewee as "Ralph" on several occasions, annoying the normally genial Harris.

In 1990 she appeared on the sitcom Charles in Charge as Samantha Steele, a fictional rock star whose agent pushes her to romance Charles (Scott Baio) so the paparazzi will print it in the tabloids. She featured in the ITV programme An Audience with... Ken Dodd (1994). She also featured in 2 movies: It's Been Real, written and directed by Steve Varnom and starring John Altman; and The Match, written and directed by Mick Davis and starring Pierce Brosnan, Ian Holm, Tom Sizemore, Neil Morrissey, David Hayman and Ilar Blair.

In 2008, Fox and her partner Myra took part in Celebrity Wife Swap, exchanging with Freddie Starr and his wife Donna. In November 2009, she took part in ITV's I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here; she was voted out on Day 16. In July 2010, she appeared in a celebrity episode of Come Dine With Me with Calum Best, Janice Dickinson, and Jeff Brazier.

Personal life

Fox (left) and her girlfriend Myra Stratton at the 2010 Fate Awards in Belfast

Fox's father Patrick, a former carpenter, managed her career until 1991, when she hired accountants to trace over £1 million that she believed he had embezzled from her accounts. She sued her father, who by then had divorced and remarried, and in May 1995 she was awarded a £363,000 court settlement.[17] Patrick Fox died in 2000, at which time they had not spoken for almost a decade.[18]

In 1994, it was reported that Fox had become a born again Christian.[19]; that year she played at the Christian arts festival Greenbelt.[20]

In the late 1980s Fox became romantically linked with Australian con man Peter Foster. They began dating but she turned down his marriage proposal.[21] She had also a relationship with Paul Stanley, guitarist and singer of the rock band Kiss.[22][23] Rumours regarding Fox's sexual orientation began to surface in 1999 when she judged a lesbian beauty pageant, and rumours circulated that the woman she resided with--Cris Bonacci, the Australian former guitarist for the rock band Girlschool--was her lover. Though the two women did reside together, neither stated publicly that they were lovers. The relationship, however, was later confirmed by Bonacci in an interview.[24] Prior to Bonacci, Fox shared her home with Debbie Connor, but again she herself never stated that they were romantically linked, only that they were "best mates".[25]

In February 2003, she made a statement about her personal life:[26][27] "I have slept with other women but I've not been in love before Myra Stratton. People say I'm gay....I don't know what I am. All I know is that I'm in love with Myra [Stratton, my manager]. I love her completely and want to spend the rest of my life with her."

Fox said that she was reluctant to come out because after having already dealt with obsessed fans and stalkers, she feared fans' possible reactions to her being in a relationship with a woman.[28] In August 2009, she announced her plans to have a civil partnership with Stratton.[29]

Charitable activity

Samantha Fox donated her favourite bra to a charity auction which allowed fans to buy a piece of celebrity clothing.[30]

In June 2011, she appeared as part of a campaign for LGBT charity The Albert Kennedy Trust.[31]

Discography

Main article: Samantha Fox discography

References

  1. ^ "Samantha Fox The Wife Swapping Experience". In2town.co.uk. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b c "Samantha Fox". thebiographychannel.co.uk. 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  3. ^ James, Gary (2009). "The Samantha Fox Interview". classicbands.com. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  4. ^ a b Tuber, Keith (May 1987). "On the Hunt with Samantha Fox". Orange Coast Magazine: 160–162. Archived from the original on 27 September 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d Ericson, Alanah (26 January 2012). "Beach babe at 45: Former Page 3 girl Sam Fox shows off her pin-up figure in holiday snaps". Daily Mail. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  6. ^ "Where Are They Now? Samantha Fox". Comedy Central (UK). Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  7. ^ Grinter, Alison. "Look who's talking: Samantha Fox Interview". tntmagazine.com. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  8. ^ Blair, Iain (19 April 1987). "Samantha's Fox Image Paying Off". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  9. ^ "Samantha Fox on new 80's-inspired album". BBC News. 18 August 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  10. ^ Gallery of various 1996 issues of Playboy featuring Fox at playboycoverarchive.com
  11. ^ "If I can put a live spider in my mouth on national telly, I can do anything" The Scottish Sun
  12. ^ "Sam Fox to release new 'Greatest Hits'". Digitalspy.com. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  13. ^ "Italian Dance Singles Sales Chart – Week 1 of July 2010". Dancedirectory.it. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  14. ^ Samantha Fox, I Should Have Known Better web site
  15. ^ "Samantha Fox - Bollywood 'Rock Dancer' 1995" on YouTube
  16. ^ "Central Adverts, c. 1987" at YouTube
  17. ^ Christa D'Souza, "The Curse of Page 3: Sam Fox on Her New Life—and Today's Topless Pretenders", The Express, 18 February 1997.
  18. ^ Sam Fox: I Love a Woman but I'm No Lesbian Daily Mirror
  19. ^ "Samantha Fox charged with DUI". BBC News. 28 October 1998. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  20. ^ Porter, Stanley E. (1996). The Nature of Religious Language: A Colloquium. Continuum International. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-85075-580-7.
  21. ^ The Guardian, 6 December 2002
  22. ^ Custodio, John (29 July 2004). "Sam I Am". Montreal Mirror. Archived from the original on 23 August 2004. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  23. ^ Samantha Fox Interview
  24. ^ "My 4-year affair with SAM". TheFreeLibrary.com. 8 February 2003. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  25. ^ "Sam Fox and her new partner | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. 3 September 2001. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  26. ^ The Mail on Sunday 2 February 2003, page 12, Rebecca Hardy. Retrieved from Infotrac Newspapers Online on 12 September 2006.
  27. ^ "Samantha Fox Needs Love Too". AfterEllen.com. 18 October 2005. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  28. ^ She's still up front, Harriet Lane, The Guardian, 2 February 2003, retrieved 27 May 2009.
  29. ^ "Fox wants Lemmy to give her away". Metro.co.uk. 11 August 2009. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  30. ^ "Buy Sam Fox's bra for charity". Charities Aid Foundation. 3 March 2008. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  31. ^ "Ian McKellen, Paul O'Grady and Samantha Fox star in gay awareness ad". guardian.co.uk. 9 June 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
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