Life Story

Early life and beginning: Simpson was born in Abilene, Texas and raised in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. She is the daughter of Joe Truett Simpson (a former Baptist youth minister) and Tina Ann Drew (a former Sunday School teacher). She has a younger sister, Ashlee, who launched her own music career in mid-2004. Jessica started singing at the age of twelve as a part of her Baptist church choir. At the same age, she made an unsuccessful application for The New Mickey Mouse Club, which starred fellow pop singers Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, among other future stars.

Simpson attended J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. She was discovered singing at a church camp by a head of a small contemporary Christian record label and recorded an album over the next three years; however, the label folded before the record could be released. She dropped out in her senior year in order to tour and promote her demo album, which was funded by her grandmother, Joyce (thus the reason for the name of her 2004 holiday album, Rejoyce: The Christmas Album); she later earned her GED. During this time, she toured with the Christian Youth Conference circuit performing with Kirk Franklin, God's Property and CeCe Winans. She and her father sold copies of the album after her performances.

Tommy Mottola of Columbia Records obtained a copy of the album and, thinking she had potential as a pop singer, signed her as such. Christian influences can still be found in much of her music.

1999–2002: Pop music beginnings: In late 1999, Simpson released her debut album Sweet Kisses, which reached a peak of number twenty-five on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and also made the top forty of the UK charts. The album proved to be a success, selling two million copies in the U.S. Her first single, the platinum-selling "I Wanna Love You Forever," reached the top five of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and the top ten in Canada and the UK. 

Her second single, a duet with then-boyfriend, now estranged husband Nick Lachey of boyband 98 Degrees, "Where You Are", was a modest radio hit. The last single from the album, "I Think I'm in Love with You", was a top forty hit in the U.S. and a top twenty hit in Canada and the UK. In 2000, Simpson won two Teen Choice Awards for Choice Breakout Artist and Love Song of the Year ("Where You Are").

Released during the summer of 2001, Simpson's second effort Irresistible reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and top twenty of the Canadian album chart. Despite this improvement over her debut, the album's sales were less than satisfactory; to-date, it has only managed to be certified gold in the U.S. for selling 500,000 copies. 

The title track lead single, "Irresistible", reached the top twenty in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, as well as the top forty in Australia. A follow-up single entitled "A Little Bit" was also released, but failed to achieve substantial success. In 2002, Columbia Records released a EP remix album titled This Is the Remix containing electro-dance remixes of Jessica's biggest hits.

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