Samantha Fox
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Samantha Fox on the cover of her Watching You Watching Me album. |
This article is about the English model and singer; for the American actress, see Samantha Fox (American).Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox (born
April 15,
1966 in Mile End,
London,
England) is a former
English glamour model and
singer.
Sam Fox came from a family of market traders. She had a keen interest in the theatre from an early age, and first appeared on a theatre stage at the age of three, and was enrolled in the
Anna Scher Theatre School from the age of 5. Her first television appearance came at the age of 10, in a
BBC play entitled
No Way Out. Following on from this, she started at the
Judy Dench Mountview Theatre School at the age of 11.
However, she was also interested in music from early on, and formed her first band at the age of 14. Her first record deal came a year later, with
Lamborghini records. However, both her theatre and music careers went on hold when the modelling took off.
As an unknown 16 year old, Fox came second in a
topless photograph competition organised by
The Sunday People in
1983. This resulted in a four-year modelling contract. She soon became nationally famous and became a regular "
page three girl" in the
Sun newspaper, subsequently appearing as a
nude model in
girlie magazines.
In
1991, Fox returned in a one-off appearance in The Sun newspaper for the 25th Anniversary week of Page3. After being voted its number one choice by readers, she appeared in the slot all week, with Monday's picture given away as an A3 sized poster. In
1996, she appeared in the UK edition of
Playboy magazine.
In the mid-1980s, she started a successful singing career, working with notable music producers such as
Stock Aitken Waterman and
Full Force. Her debut single, "
Touch Me (I Want Your Body)", released when she was just 20 years old, made the Top 10 in England and topped the charts in many countries. It was one of the biggest selling singles of the 1980s in Australia. Her debut live performance came at
Peter Stringfellow's club
Hippodrome. Fox had three Top 10 hits in both the
United States and Britain. In
Canada and the U.S., "Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)" and "I Wanna Have Some Fun" made the Top 10; whereas British audiences put "Do Ya Do Ya (Wanna Please Me)" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now" into the Top 10. Her successful singing career resulted in Fox touring the world, including unusual countries such as
Bosnia,
Russia, the
Ukraine and
Siberia.
She made a come-back in 1991, releasing her fourth and final album for
Jive Records, entitled,
Just One Night. The album didn't garner much attention since it sounded very similar to other popular songs at the time. Fox was keen to move towards a rock-oriented direction, which is evident from such songs as "What You See Is What You Get", "Spirit Of America" and the Rock/Dance single, "Pleasure Zone." The record label, however, wanted a more
Dance-Pop heavy album like
I Wanna Have Some Fun. This led to an inconsistent album. The only singles from the set that flirted with radio airplay were "Another Woman (Too Many People)", "Just One Night", and "Hurt Me! Hurt Me! (But The Pants Stay On)." In 1992, Jive released Samantha's first official compilation,
Greatest Hits. It also features songs such as "Even In The Darkest Hour", the Pop-Metal song, "Giving Me A Hard Time" and a rock song called, "Hot Lovin".
In
1995, Fox attempted to revive her singing career again by participating in the "Song for Europe', the competition to select the UK's entry for the annual
Eurovision Song Contest. She performed
Go for the Heart as lead singer of the group
Sox, but failed to reach Eurovision after finishing 4th in the public vote. In 1997, she released a new album
21st Century Fox. The album featured
Eurodance &
Hi-NRG music. The album was released in the U.S. a year later with the lead single, "Let Me Be Free."
21st. Century Fox became her first indie release. She also co-wrote and produced many of its tracks. Other singles from the album are
Deeper and
The Reason Is You. This is the album that made her a bigger favourite with her gay fanbase. In November
2005 Fox released her latest album,
Angel with an Attitude, in Canada. For the album, she chose to work together with the award-winning producer
Joe Barrucco.She has sold 30 million albums.
Her pictures gained her such fandom in India that she was invited to star in a
Bollywood film (
Rock Dancer). This was written and directed by V
Menon, starring
Kamal Sadanah,
Ronit Roy,
Sharon Prabhakar,
Javid Jafri,
Anood Kumar and
Johnny Lever. It also featured guest appearances from
Govinda, and was produced by
Shubir Mukerji.
She also featured in
It's Been Real written and directed by
Steve Varnom, and starring
John Altman, and
The Match written and directed by
Michael Davis, starring
Piers Brosnan Ian Holm,
Tom Sizemore,
Neil Morrissey,
David Hayman and
Ilar Blair.
In
1986 she was featured in a
strip poker game (
Samantha Fox Strip Poker) for
Commodore 64,
Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and
Amstrad CPC.
In
1989, she co-presented
The Brit Awards with
Mick Fleetwood. 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. She also appeared in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. for
Spring Break, where she sang her then various current hits to thousands of College students.
Her career went quiet as she grew older and she was not commercially successful in her singing. However, this has not stopped her working, and in August
2004, Fox was featured in a music video with Swedish music artist
Günther, in the song "Touch Me" (a
remix of her earlier version). The album,
Pleasureman on which this version of "Touch Me" is featured was released in the U.S. on Rhino Records in 2006.
Fox was twice linked to Australian
Peter Foster. They dated in 1986-87 and then, after a seven year separation, they reunited in 1994 for a year. They were at one time reportedly engaged to be married. Fox described Foster as "the love of my life". She has also been in relationships with
Paul Stanley, the singer and rhythm guitarist for the band
KISS.
In
1994, it was reported that she had become a
born-again Christian and she was invited to play at Christian music festival
Greenbelt. When queried about how she could reconcile topless modelling with her Christian beliefs, she said:
Rumours regarding Fox's sexual preference began to surface in
1999 when she judged a
lesbian beauty pageant, and many people said they believed that the woman she lived with at the time, Australian
Cris Bonacci, was more than just her manager. In February
2003, she finally revealed the truth:
Including details and chart positions
Touch Me (1986)
Samantha Fox (1987)
I Wanna Have Some Fun (1988)
Just One Night (1991)
Greatest Hits (1992)
21st Century Fox (1998)
Watching You, Watching Me (2002)
Angel with an Attitude (2005)
*
Official website*
Official Sam Fox Fan Club*
alt.fan.samantha-fox Frequently Asked Questions*
Günther's "Touch Me" - music video featuring Samantha Fox
*
Samantha Fox lyrics*
Your Sinclair Review of Samantha Fox Strip Poker* of "
The Winner Takes It All" from
RTL Television
