Gina G

Gina G (born Gina Mary Gardiner on 3 August 1970, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian Dance-pop/House and Eurodance singer/songwriter based in the United Kingdom. Gina is also a Grammy Award Nominee.

Career

Gina G's music career began back in 1990, as a DJ in Melbourne. However, her profile would begin to grow in 1992 as the lead singer in the Australian Dance music group Bass Culture, which scored a Top 20 hit on the dance charts in her native country with Love the Life, a song that she also wrote. But she would leave the act in 1993 to pursue a solo career in the United Kingdom, where she would find her biggest success.

Her profile grew overnight when she won the Great British Song Contest to become the United Kingdom's entry in the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest. Although she came eighth with her song Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit, the single went to number one on the UK singles chart in the week of the contest. It also had continued success across the world. At the time there was much speculation as to whether the Ooh Aah part of the song's title was dedicated to the football star Eric Cantona, who was at the height of his cult status among Manchester United fans at this time. But Gina G denied that the words of her song had any links whatsoever with Cantona.

It was followed by another top ten hit, "I Belong To You". The success of Ooh Aah.. Just A Little Bit crossed the Atlantic to the United States, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 (one of the highest positions any song from the Eurovision Song Contest has charted on the Hot 100), #13 on the Rhythmic Top 40, #5 on the Mainstream Top 40, #25 on the Adult Top 40 and #11 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart.

In the late 1997, she released the songs "Ti Amo", "Gimme Some Love", "Everytime I Fall", and the album's title track, Fresh!, all of which charted and were included on her best-selling debut album, whose cover art featured her whole body covered in chocolate. Ooh Aah...Just A Little Bit was also nominated in the United States for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in 1998. The follow up single, Gimme Some Love saw similar success, peaking at #46 on the Billboard Hot 100, #18 on both the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales charts, and #22 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart. All the other singles from her debut album became minor Stateside hits.

After the successful singles, she disappeared from the big stage for several years. A long lawsuit against a former manager took all her energy, and despite the fact that a lot of new music was recorded, she did not make any releases for a while.

2000-2003

By 2000 she recorded a number of songs with Swedish producers Lagoona, including a new version of her major hit "Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit"; and a cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking". "Boots" was released as a CD single through a small independent label, but the release did not attract any major attention.

After this quiet period, Gina G returned to the spotlight in March 2003, when she took part in the reality television show Reborn in the USA, alongside the likes of Sonia, Michelle Gayle, Tony Hadley, Peter Cox and Elkie Brooks. Even though she received the most votes from the American audience and won the first show, she got the least votes in the next show, and went up for the British public's vote. She lost, and was eliminated from the show in the third programme.

2005-Present

In early 2005, Gina once again tried to represent United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest, however she finished 5th out of 5 entries on the preselection program, with her song "Flashback". She fought against acts like Javine and Katie Price.

In August 2005, Gina released the follow up to her debut album Get Up & Dance to good reviews. However the album was only available through her website with the majority of first orders being personally signed by Gina herself.

On 5 June 2006, Gina's Fresh! album became available for download on iTunes. Gina has now set up her own record label called Stuntgirl with her future releases being distributed through Universal Records. Based in LA, she now records in her own studio in LA as well as London. 2006 sees Gina setting up a comeback of sorts with her new dance tune Tonight's the Night doing the rounds in the clubs and scoring pretty well on the club charts too (it went straight into the commercial dance chart at number 2). It was released on 2 October 2006 through download and larger music stores.

The latest single charted at #57 in the UK singles chart on 8 October 2006. "Just A Little Bit 2007 (12" Spit And Polish Mix) is the latest released version of the song currently available on a compilation CD. iTunes has added "Just A Little Bit" single as a download.

Gina now has an official 'Facebook' page for fans to join. On 3 March 2009 her second album Get Up & Dance, previously only available through her website, was released on iTunes. The album also has a brand new cover design. Gina is reportedly working on new material for 2009.

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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina G