Tyler's Top Pop: The Career of Joss Stone

By Tyler Ody

Hey everybody, it’s Tyler here. I am doing a deep dive into the career of Joss Stone.

Jocelyn Eve Stoker better known as Joss Stone, was born on 11 April 1987 to Wendy and Richard Stoker in Dover, Kent, but spent her teenage years in Ashill a small village near Cullompton, Devon.

Joss grew up listening a wide variety of music such as 1960s/70s American R&B. One of her influences was the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Her greatest hits album was the first album Joss owned and hence where she got her beatiful soulful voice from.

In 2001, at the tender age of 13, Joss auditioned for the BBC talent show Star For A Night singing ‘(You make me feel like) A Natural Woman’ and Whitney Houston’s ‘It’s Not Right But It’s Ok’ after passing the audition. Sucessfully, she sang Donna Summer’s hit ‘On the Radio’ and went on to win the contest.

As well appearing on Star For A Night she went on and won CBBC’S Steps to the Stars.

In early 2002, Joss flew over to New York to record some backing vocals, and proved to be a success as she was instantly signed to S Curve Records.

On 16 September 2003, Joss released her debut album The Soul Sessions which consists of covers of soul songs from the 1960s and 1970s. Her two singles I Fell In Love With A Boy and Super Duper Love (Are you Diggin On Me) both peaked at Number 18 in the UK.

The Soul Sessions peaked at Number one in the UK, going three times platinum.

On 13 September 2004, Joss rided back into the charts with You Had Me which peaked at Number 9, giving her a top ten single.

On 27 September of the same year, Joss released her second album Mind Body & Soul which gave Joss her second number one album in the UK, making her the youngest female singer to top the chart.

Three more singles were released from the album, the second one being Right to Be Wrong peaking at Number 29 in the UK. Spoiled, which charted at Number 32, became the album’s lowest charting single and Dont Cha Wanna Ride peaked at Number 20 in both UK Chart positions.

Joss started 2007 by trading her trademark blonde hair to a cool mix of dark reds and purples with highlights and appeard on the Brit Awards that year.

On the 5 March 2007, Joss released her single Tell Me Bout It which peaked at number 28 in the UK.

On 12 March 2007, Joss released her third album Introducing Joss Stone which inlcudes duets with Common and Fugees lead singer Lauryn Hill. The intro for Change was also voiced by footballer Vinnie Jones.

Introducing Joss Stone Peaked at number 12 in the UK and earned her a gold disc.

Two more singles were released to promote the album Tell Me What We’re Gonna Do Now which peaked at number 84, and Baby Baby Baby which went to number 8 in the UK.

On 2 November 2009, her fourth album Colour Me Free was released in the UK, but sadly only charted at number 75. I think it should of charted higher than this.

After a couple years away to work on her fifth album, on July 25 2011, Joss released her fifth album LP 1 which gave the songstress number 36 on the UK album Charts.

In September of the same year, she released a Greatest Hits compilation called The Best of Joss Stone 2003-2009, which consisted of tracks from The Soul Sessions up to Colour Me Free.

Joss wasn’t to happy about the release of the album. She spoke about the title in a 2011 interview in the San Francisco Examiner. She said: “Ive never heard of such a cheesy title in all my life”.

On July 23 2012, Joss released her sixth album The Soul Sessions Vol 2 - a follow up to her debut of the same name, this album had three single releases: While Your Out Looking For Sugar, Pillow Talk and Teardrops.

The Soul Sessions Vol 2 peaked at number six in the UK Album Charts.

After a three-year hiatus, and being in the studio, Joss released Water For Your Soul in July 2015, which chalked three singles - Stuck on You, The Answer, and Molly Town. This album peaked at number 13 in the UK.

During the last few years, Joss has toured pretty much every country in the world, and worked with independent artists to create diffrent types music and performs the songs with them.

This is one of the things I quite like about Joss - she helps with different musical talents, and I think its lovely that she sings with them.

Joss started a Cooking With Joss social media show on Instagram and YouTube during the lockdowns of the covid 19 pandemic, which did quite well, as she had a cooking segment on Lorraine.

 As well as music, she now has her own podcast called A Cuppa Happy - it is one of my favourite podcasts as I like how ecstatic she sounds, and I think she would make a great presenter. 

In 2021, Joss paticipated on ITV’s The Masked Singer (filmed in 2020). I have to say she was phenomenal in this. She appeared as a Vegetarian Sausage, as Joss is a vegetarian. She won The Masked Singer and rightly was the best in my eyes. At the same time when participating in the show, Joss was also pregnant with her first child.

On 29 January 2021, Joss gave birth to her first child - a girl named Violet Melissa who has featured in a couple of her YouTube vlogs.

On 11 Febuary 2022, Joss released her latest album Never Forget My Love, chalking up three singles to promote the album peaking at number 27.

In April 2022, Joss announced via her Instagram that she was pregnant with her second child - a baby boy - and that she is due to give birth in October.

During September of this year, Joss announced she is working on a Christmas album called Merry Christmas Love, which is due to be released at the end of this month.

Tyler Ody’s other monthly column ‘The Autistic Journalist’ can be found at https://swindonlink.com/news/tyler-column-one/  https://swindonlink.com/news/tyler-column-two/  https://swindonlink.com/news/tyler-column-three/ https://swindonlink.com/news/education-and-autism/  https://swindonlink.com/news/tyler-column-five/ https://swindonlink.com/news/tyler-column-six/