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Connie Victoria Elizabeth Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is a British singer who was the runner-up of the first series of Britain's Got Talent in 2007. She then signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album Over the Rainbow on 26 November 2007, which has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and reached number one in three countries.
Talbot's second album, Connie Talbot's Christmas Album, was released on 24 November 2008, her third, Holiday Magic, was released on 20 October 2009 and her fourth, Beautiful World, was released on 26 November 2012. In 2019, she competed on and in 2020 competed on .
Cowell had preliminarily agreed to sign Talbot with his own record label, Sony BMG. After recording two songs in London with Talbot ("Over the Rainbow" and "Smile"), the label pulled out of the deal. Talbot's mother, Sharon, said she was told that her daughter "...was too young to be their sort of artist", adding "We have been told to look for a company which looks after children." In a statement, the label said "there was some deliberation over the possibility of recording with Connie ... However, the decision not to proceed was made with the best intentions for Connie, taking into consideration her age and that it would not be right to do so at this time." Cowell himself said that "when the time is right, he be delighted to see if they make it work".
The album was released on 26 November 2007 and was certified gold in early December, with Talbot being presented a gold disc by Phillip Schofield on This Morning. Initially, 50,000 copies of the album were pressed, but an additional 120,000 had to be made after the album sold out in days.
In late 2007, public appearances by Talbot included headlining the Great Bridge Christmas and Winter Festival, which local police threatened to cancel unless crowds clamouring to reach the tent in which Talbot was performing could be brought under control. At the event, on 7 December 2007, Talbot said "I love it here, it's brilliant, really fun", but had to be ushered off-stage by the police. Talbot performed publicly in Walsall's HMV store, and in Birmingham's Centenary Square. TV appearances included GMTV and Channel 5 news, both on 26 November 2007. According to her mother, Talbot has received offers for film roles. Sharon said "Talbot's been sent a script, I haven't had a good look at it yet but it's really exciting ... Connie's a singer, not an actress, so we'll see what happens. It's completely up to her whether or not she wants to do it. I can't believe it, though."
Sharon Mawer of Allmusic praised Over the Rainbow by saying "She can sing, for a seven-year old, and most of the notes (if not all of them) are in the right order and sung to the right pitch; the timing is fine too". However, she criticised the album, saying "there's no feeling, no emotion, no realisation of what each song is about; they're just pretty little songs", giving the album 2/5. Nick Levine, of Digital Spy, said in a review of the album that Talbot had a "sweet, pure voice", but that there is "no nuance or depth to her performance". However, he said that "There's something inherently wrong about awarding a star rating to a seven-year-old", and that "the decidedly adult concept of musical merit should have nothing to do with her", awarding the album 2/5.
The album was re-released on 16 June 2008, but was available for pre-order in May, with three new tracks to replace its Christmas-themed songs. The first single from the album, "Three Little Birds", was released in June 2008. In April and May 2008, Talbot toured Asia to promote Over the Rainbow. Asian press attributed her success to her videos on YouTube, with the Sun.Star mentioning that her most viewed video had been watched over 14 million times, and The Straits Times saying that videos of Talbot's performances have been watched over 30 million times. The tour made stops in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, and Talbot and her family returned to England in late May. Following the tour, it was reported that the album had reached number one on the charts in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as reaching number three in Singapore. After the tour, Talbot travelled to Poland, where she performed on television.
Over the Rainbow's release in the United States in September, resulted in attention from American press sources including Fox Business Network and MarketWatch. The US version was eventually released on 14 October, with Talbot appearing on American television shows including The Ellen DeGeneres Show to publicise the release.
In August 2008, it was announced that Talbot had signed a contract with Data Design Interactive for production of a video game on the Wii console. The game was to feature 15 songs from Over the Rainbow, allowing players to sing along with full-motion video footage of Talbot or against other players in a karaoke mode. Talbot re-recorded the album for the game. The game was scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, and was to be called Connie Talbot: Over the Rainbow, but was quietly cancelled due to licensing reasons over the songs to be used. A prototype build of the game surfaced in 2020 and was purchased by video game preservationist Forest of Illusion, who later uploaded a disk image of the game on the Internet Archive.
Connie Talbot's Christmas Album was difficult to obtain in Britain after the distributor, Pinnacle Entertainment, went into administration. Talbot's mother, Sharon, was quoted as saying "We don't really know what's going to happen at the moment ... We think they'll probably wait and promote the album later this year. It's a shame, but they can still get the album in Asia and the US." Reviewing the album for FemaleFirst magazine, Ruth Harrison gave it 4/5, saying that Talbot has "a great voice when it comes to swing music, but lets us down in parts".
In April 2009, Talbot again travelled to the US to publicise her new single, a cover of "I Will Always Love You". The single was released in the US on 7 April, along with a newly recorded "You Raise Me Up". Talbot then traveled to the US on 30 April, and returned on 2 May. Appearances included a performance on Good Day New York on Fox Broadcasting Company's WNYW.
Talbot's third album, Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic, was released on 20 October 2009 in the United States and on 30 November 2009 in the United Kingdom. The United States album is dedicated to the Toys for Tots campaign, of which Talbot has been named the child ambassador. In a statement, Bill Grein, Vice-President of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, said:
Along with Talbot's third album, a television special, entitled Holiday Magic, was produced by WVIA-TV. Holiday Magic featured performances of all of the songs from Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic, and was available to all PBS stations shown in November and December 2009. A 17-track DVD of the special, including two additional songs, "What a Wonderful World" and "Over the Rainbow", was released for sale.
During this time, Talbot continued to upload videos of her performances onto YouTube.
Maggie Coughlan praised her covers of Katy Perry's "Firework" and Bruno Mars's "Grenade", but was most impressed by her cover of Adele's "Someone Like You", which she said was performed "with such grace that she makes the entire performance look effortless".
The video was also picked up by PerezHilton.com. After the death of Whitney Houston, Talbot posted a cover version of "Run to You" as a tribute. The video received attention from around the world. In November 2011, she released "Beautiful World" as a single on iTunes. The song was written by Talbot when she was seven. A demo of the track was placed on YouTube, and became the 39th most watched video in the world on the day it was uploaded.
She was the youngest artist to make the UK album charts, and the youngest to release a gold-selling record. Others involved in the event included Randolph Matthews and The High Kings. Performances took place elsewhere in the United Kingdom, including Manchester and Birmingham.
Talbot toured with the Young Voices choir for a second year in early 2013, performing at venues across the UK. The African Children's Choir also took part in these events. Her song "Let's Get Along", written by Kipper, was featured on ONE Campaign's agit8 Spotify album that July. Talbot also featured in the song "Building Bridges", which also made the agit8 album, together with Jordan Jansen.
In October 2013, Talbot's vocals featured in the theme song of the newly-released video game Rain, and she appeared as a special guest at the African Children's Choir concert in Walsall, UK. It was announced that Talbot would be an ambassador for the African Children's Choir and have a school named after her.
In 2014, she performed two concerts in South Korea (Osan and Seoul) in late April, shortly after the Sewol ferry tragedy. She performed with yellow ribbons to show her respect for the families of the victims. The proceeds from at least one of the concerts were donated to the fundraising efforts in support of the families of the victims. In July, a DVD and Blu-ray was released of her concerts in Hong Kong and Taiwan during her Beautiful World tour in 2012. It features live performances of the songs from Beautiful World, and two additional songs, "I Will Always Love You" and "Over the Rainbow".
On 17 November 2014, Talbot released the five-song EP Gravity, containing the original songs "Gravity" and "Inner Beauty", with the latter also appearing as an instrumental acoustic version.
On 11 May 2017, Connie Talbot released a song called "Good to Me", which she stated is "about a person who I admired, respected and who taught me so much. That person sadly passed away and I wrote this song from my heart." On 13 October 2017, Connie released a video for the song "Rumours".
In April 2019 she collaborated with Boyce Avenue covering the Jonas Brothers song "Sucker". The following month she also covered "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King with the band.
On 31 August 2019 Talbot took part in with an original composition, "Never Give Up on Us". The song was released the same day. By the following day, the song had reached number eight on the U.K. iTunes chart.
On 27 January 2020 she competed on , where she performed her romantic original song "I Would" on the piano.
In January 2022 she went back to collaborating with Boyce Avenue and helped cover the Bryan Adams song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You". The following month they covered the Lionel Richie song "Endless Love".
On 1 June 2023, she released her new single "Easier Pretending You're Dead" from her then-upcoming EP Growing Pains.
On 14 July 2023, she released her new single "Growing Pains".
The EP Growing Pains was released on 25 August 2023, also featuring "Just a Broken Heart" and "Roses".
Talbot will play the main character, Ellie, in the upcoming movie The Key to the West.
| "β" denotes an album that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
| 2013 ! scope="row" | "Let's Get Along" | ONE Campaign's agit8 Spotify album |
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