Joss Stone, is an English soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and occasional actress. She has been a recipient of a Brit Award and a nominee of a Grammy Award; has sold over 7.5 million albums worldwide.
Stone was born in Dover, Kent, England, and spent her teenage years in Ashill, Devon. She is the third of four children born to Richard and Wendy Stoker: Daniel, Lucy, and Harry. She grew up listening to a wide variety of music including R&B and soul music performed by such artists as Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin; as a result, she developed a soulful style of singing like her idols. In 2001, at the age of fourteen, she appeared on the BBC Television's talent show Star for a Night singing Donna Summer's 1979 "On the Radio".
In 2002, she decided to back her ability by flying out from England for an audition in New York City with S-Curve CEO Steve Greenberg. She also signed a global music publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing in the UK.
Since then, she has performed with such artists as Blondie and Gladys Knight. She was named as the spokesperson for the megastore Gap, although she was reportedly dropped because of rumours of her living with then-twenty-five-year-old Beau Dozier (son of record producer Lamont Dozier), while she was only seventeen (thus making him eight years older than her).
