Craig Ashley David (born May 5 1981) is an English R&B singer. He has released four studio albums; Born to Do It, Slicker Than Your Average, The Story Goes... and Trust Me.

Life and career

Craig David was born in Holyrood, Southampton, Hampshire The A to Z of Craig David to a Grenadian father and an English mother. His maternal grandfather is Jewish. He attended Bellemoor School.

His earliest exposure to recording came when he worked on a b-side to British R&B group Damage's cover of the Eric Clapton song "Wonderful Tonight". He then started doing vocals for a few tracks with garage act Artful Dodger, of which the song "Rewind", released off the Artful Dodger album It's All About the Stragglers, hit #2 on the UK charts in 2000, thus paving the way for a solo career. His first single, "Fill Me In", made him the youngest solo male artist ever to reach #1 in the UK (he was 19 at the time).

The success of his debut, which was written almost entirely by David himself and Mark Hill of Artful Dodger, led to the U.S. release of "Fill Me In" in May 2001. It proved a success, reaching #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Born to Do It was released in the U.S. on July 17 2001, peaking at #11 on the Billboard 200 and sold over one million copies. The single "7 Days" hit the Top 10 in the U.S., although "Walking Away"?which had reached #3 in the UK and #5 in Australia?missed the Top 40 in the U.S. and was the last of his singles to chart there.

The follow-up album, Slicker Than Your Average, was released in 2002 and fared considerably less well than his debut. None of the six singles released from the album charted in the U.S. Although "What's Your Flava" and "Rise and Fall" (David's duet with Sting) received airplay on the Urban contemporary and Soft AC formats, they did not make the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Tracks chart or the Adult Contemporary chart. However, "What's Your Flava" made the Rhythmic Top 40 (#32), Top 40 Mainstream (#24) and the Top 40 Tracks (#37). The albums' first four singles continued his streak of Top 10 hits in the UK, bringing David a total of nine consecutive Top 10 hits until "World Filled With Love" peaked at #15 in 2003. According to the RIAA Slicker Than Your Average reached Gold Status in the USA.

David signed on with Warner Music and put together his third album, The Story Goes..., released worldwide in August 2005 (excluding the U.S. where it was never released). The first single, "All the Way", returned him to the Top 3, and the second single, "Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)", tied with "7 Days" as his longest running single in the charts since "Rewind", spending 15 weeks inside the UK Top 75. The album's third single, "Unbelievable", debuted at #18 in March 2006.

In 2007 Craig came back into the limelight with a revamped image and a brand new song to get people hyped up for his new album. He collaborated with UK rapper Kano on his upcoming album London Town, for the single "This is the Girl". The track was released on August 27 2007 and debuted at #18 on the UK charts.

Craig's new single, "Hot Stuff", was released on November 5 2007 and is the first single from the upcoming album "Trust Me", which is available to buy now. The single has already been a top ten hit and has been hailed Craig's comeback, whilst the album charted at #18 in it's first week.

Discography

Albums

• 2000 Born to Do It
• 2002 Slicker Than Your Average
• 2005 The Story Goes...
• 2007 Trust Me

Singles

Guest appearances

• 2007 "Bad Boy" (Kano feat. Craig David)

Trivia

• It is widely known that Craig David is a Southampton FC fan.

• Born To Do It, Craig David's first solo album, was released in the UK on August 14 2000, and instantly made it to the No. 1 spot. The often misinterpreted title owes to his favourite film as a kid, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where a man in a candy store is asked how Wonka makes such great candy. But rather than explain, he just replies that, you wouldn't ask a fish how it swims or a bird how it flies, because they were "born to just do it"

• The music video for "What's Your Flava?" is a parody of the children's movie classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where Craig sponsors a "lottery", four females discover "golden CD's" (similar to the "Golden Tickets" in the movie), during the tour, three of the four females misbehave and disappear from the tour (similar to the children, other than Charlie Bucket, in the movie), and Craig and the winner end the video in a glass elevator.

• Famous singer/songwriter Elton John once said "If there is a better singer in England than Craig David, then I am Margaret Thatcher."[1]

Awards and nominations

• BET Awards
• 2002, Best R&B Male Artist (nominated)
• 2002, Best New Artist (nominated)

• MOBO Awards
• 2001: Best UK Act
• 2001: Best R&B Act (Nominated)
• 2001: Best Album: Born to Do It (nominated)
• 2000: Best R&B Act
• 2000: Best UK Newcomer
• 2000: Best UK Single of the Year: "Fill Me In"
• 2000: Best Video: "7 Days" (nominated)
• 2000: Best UK Single of the Year: "Woman Trouble" (nominated) shared with Robbie Craig and Artful Dodger

• MTV Europe Awards
• 2001: Best R&B Act

• MTV Video Music Awards
• 2002: Best Male Video: "Walking Away" (nominated)
• 2001: MTV2 Award: "Fill Me In" (nominated)