Julianne Hough

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Julianne Hough
Background information
Birth name Julianne Hough
Born July 20, 1988 (1988-07-20) (age 19)
Origin Provo, Utah, USA
Genre(s) Country
Occupation(s) Singer
Professional dancer
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 2007 – present
Label(s) Frontline
Mercury Nashville
Associated acts Brad Paisley
Website Official Site

Julianne Hough (born July 20, 1988) is an American professional country music singer, ballroom dancer, and television celebrity. The television newsmagazine 20/20 describes as one of the "very best dancers on the planet."[1] She has won several international titles, and is the youngest professional dancer ever to have competed on the televised competition Dancing with the Stars. She won the overall title in her first year on the show, as she coached her amateur dance partner, Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, to win the competition. She defended her championship on Dancing with the Stars in its very next season, this time paired with Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves, matching the back-to-back wins of fellow professional dancer Cheryl Burke. Hough appeared on the sixth season of Dancing With the Stars with actor/comedian Adam Carolla.

Hough was signed to Mercury Nashville Records as a recording artist. She has released her debut Mercury single "That Song in My Head" to country radio, and her self-titled debut album was released May 20, 2008. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country Album chart and #3 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums. According to Billboard Magazine, it was the largest debut by a new artist in country music since 2006.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Hough grew up one of five[2][3] children from an LDS (Mormon) family in Salt Lake City. All four of her grandparents were dancers, and her parents met while on a ballroom dancing team in college at Idaho. Though she has danced since the age of three,[4] she never partnered in competition with her brother Derek, who is three years older than she.[3] The siblings did dance together for exhibition on DWTS and the DWTS tour. Her formal training began at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah, where she danced with Justin Murillo, among others, in Latin Ballroom; she began dancing competitively at nine. Her parents sent her and her brother to London a year later to spare them the strife of divorce[5] and to live and study with their coaches, the world Latin Dance Champions Corky and Shirley Ballas. The Ballases helped tutor the two Hough children alongside their own son, Mark, while schooling them at the Italia Conti Performing Arts School. They received training in virtually every form of dance, from gymnastics to jazz, and ballet to tap.[6][5] The three children formed their own pop music trio 2B1G ("2 Boys, 1 Girl") when Julianne was twelve,[7] performed at Dance Competitions in the U.K. and the U.S., and showcased a UK television show.[8]

Hough's education in London with the Ballas family included training in song, dance, and theatre at Britain's oldest performing arts training school, the Italia Conti Academy. At fifteen, Julianne Hough became the youngest dancer, and only American, to win both the prestigious titles of Junior Blackpool World Latin Champion and International Latin Youth Champion.

After five years in London, Hough wanted a "normal" school experience and to pursue her desire to be a professional singer,[4] and returned to Utah to live with her family, but not before taking a year to live in Las Vegas and go to the performing arts high school, Las Vegas Academy. After graduating from Alta High, she moved on her own to Los Angeles to build her singing, songwriting, acting and dancing career. She was an assistant choreographer on Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" music video.

[edit] Dancing career

Hough began working almost immediately upon arriving in Los Angeles. She was featured in two television commercials and was a "dancing" extra in an episode of Cold Case. She was one of the "Million Dollar Dancers" in the short lived network television game show Show Me the Money starring William Shatner.

Hough appeared in the fourth season of Dancing with the Stars, a televised ballroom dance competition. In her first season, she won with her partner, Olympic gold medal-winning speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, making Hough the youngest professional dancer both to compete, and to win, on the program. She is also the third professional, after Alec Mazo and Cheryl Burke, to win a Dancing with the Stars championship in one's first season with the show. On November 27, 2007, Hough and her partner, two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves, became the winners of Season 5. She is the second professional dancer to win two consecutive seasons of Dancing with the Stars. Hough returned for season 6 with actor/radio host/comedian Adam Carolla. They were eliminated on Tuesday, April, 8, 2008.

She has also made guest appearances on other shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The View, Ellen, and Good Morning America. She participated in the taping of the 2007 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade inside the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

[edit] Music career

Hough released her first country music single "Will You Dance With Me" to iTunes and Wal-Mart in May 2007 to raise money for the American Red Cross. The song peaked at #100 on the Billboard Pop 100 chart despite never being released to country radio stations.[9] She later signed with Mercury Nashville Records, a division of the Universal Music Group.

Her self-titled debut album was recorded in Nashville and produced by David Malloy, who has worked with Reba McEntire, Eddie Rabbitt, and others. Hough's second single, and first released to country radio, is "That Song in My Head" which debuted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart the week of March 2, 2008 at #51. It has sinced reached the Top 30 on the Billboard Country Songs Chart and Top 25 on the Mediabase Country Singles Chart. It has been described by John Gerome of the Associated Press in his May 20, 2008 article as "in the vein of ... Faith Hill, Shania Twain and Martina McBride." In addition to the lead single, the album contains ten other songs, including "My Hallelujah Song" (that was featured as the iTunes single of the week) and "Dreaming Under the Same Moon" (a duet with brother Derek Hough).

Hough will tour with Brad Paisley starting June 11,2008 on Paisley's 2008 Tour, along with Jewel and Chuck Wicks. She sang the National Anthem at the 2008 Indy 500 race.

[edit] Personal life

Hough was engaged to Zack Wilson, who is a member of the champion team on Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, and originally planned to marry on August 8, 2007 in an LDS (Mormon) temple, but has postponed her marriage.[citation needed] She has been the subject of false rumors that she was romantically linked with Apolo Anton Ohno. Hough also denied rumors she is dating her Season 5 DWTS partner, Hélio Castroneves.[10]

She has also been romantically linked with Kevin Connolly of Entourage fame, who recently gave her a diamond ring and admitted that he is "actively pursuing" Hough, although Hough denies a romantic relationship.[11]

In an interview with CosmoGirl magazine, she shared her views about chastity and abstinence from sex until marriage:

"Yes. I want to be with that special person. I think the decision to have sex before marriage is an individual one, but if you're just with one person, it's only for one good reason, and (waiting to have sex) will strengthen the relationship."[12]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

Year Album Chart Positions Label
US Country US 200 CAN Country CAN
2008 Julianne Hough 1 3 4 41 Mercury Nashville

[edit] Singles

Year Single Chart Positions Album
US Country US Hot 100 US Pop 100 US Digital
2007 "Will You Dance with Me" 114 100 single only
2008 "That Song in My Head"A 26 88 84 70 Julianne Hough
  • A Current single.

[edit] Dancing with the Stars Performances

With celebrity partner Apolo Anton Ohno:

Week # Dance/Song Judges' score Result
Inaba Goodman Tonioli
1 Cha cha cha/ "Let's Hear It for the Boy" 7 7 7 Safe
2 Quickstep/ "Two Hearts" 8 9 9 Safe
3 Jive/ "You Never Can Tell" 7 8 8 Safe
4 Waltz/ "If You Don't Know Me By Now" 9 8 9 Safe
5 Samba/ "I Like to Move It" 10 10 10 Safe
6 Rumba/ "Cool" 9 9 10 Safe
7 Foxtrot/ "Steppin' Out With My Baby"
Mambo/ "Dr. Beat"
9
9
8
9
9
10
Safe
8 Tango/ "Jessie's Girl"
Paso Doble/ "Carnaval de Paris"
10
10
8
10
10
10
Safe
9
Semi-finals
Quickstep/ "Mr. Pinstripe Suit"
Cha cha cha/ "Push It"
10
10
10
9
10
10
Last to be Safe
10
Finals
Rumba/ "Midnight Train to Georgia"
Freestyle/ "Bust a Move"
Paso Doble/ "Carnaval de Paris"
9
10
10
9
10
10
10
10
10
WON


With celebrity partner Hélio Castroneves:

Week # Dance/Song Judges' score Result
Inaba Goodman Tonioli
1 Foxtrot/ "Bewitched theme" 8 9 8 Safe
2 Mambo/ "Para Los Rumberos" 9 9 9 Safe
3 Jive/ "Kids In America" 8 8 8 Safe
4 Viennese Waltz/ "Iris" 9 9 9 Safe
5 Rumba/ "Apologize" 8 7 8 Safe
6 Cha cha cha/ "Get Up Offa That Thing" 9 10 9 Safe
7 Tango/ "Jean Genie"
Samba/ Candela
9
9
8
9
8
9
Safe
8 Paso Doble/ "Amparito Roco"
Quickstep/ "Hey Pachuco"
9
10
9
10
9
10
Safe
9
Semi-finals
Foxtrot/ "Ain't That a Kick in the Head"
Cha cha "Love Rollercoaster"
10
10
10
10
10
10
Last to be Safe
10
Finals
Jive "Let's Twist Again"
Freestyle/ "Land of 1000 Dances"
Quickstep/ "Hey Pachuco"
8
9
10
8
10
10
9
10
10
WON


With celebrity partner Adam Carolla:

Week # Dance/Song Judges' score Result
Inaba Goodman Tonioli
1 Foxtrot/ "Mellow Yellow" 5 5 5 N/A
2 Mambo/ "House of Bamboo" 6 7 6 Safe
3 Tango/ "I Can't Tell A Waltz From A Tango" 7 7 7 Safe
4 Paso Doble/ "Plaza Of Execution" 6 7 6 Eliminated


[edit] References

  1. ^ 20/20, November 9, 2007, produced by Marc Dorian and Howie Masters
  2. ^ About. JulianneHough.com. Accessed 2008-05-19.
  3. ^ a b Dan Copp (May 25, 2007). Local woman's sister dances with the stars Advertiser News. Accessed 2008-05-19.
  4. ^ a b Dancing with the Stars Julianne and Derek Hough Keep Dancing in the Family (October 18, 2007) TVGuide. Accessed 2008-05-19.
  5. ^ a b Mark Shenton (April 17, 2006) Derek Hough. london.broadway.com. Accessed 2008-05-19.
  6. ^ Bio JulianneHough.net. Accessed 2008-05-19.
  7. ^ Expedition 4 a.m. Project Timepiece Films. Accessed 2008-05-19.
  8. ^ Entertainment Tonight interview, October 11, 2007
  9. ^ Christopher Rocchio (November 30, 2007). 'Dancing with the Stars' pro Julianne Hough signs country record deal RealityTVWorld. Accessed 2008-03-09.
  10. ^ Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough deny romance rumors. US magazine (November 28, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  11. ^ Monica Rizzo; Eunice Oh. "Kevin Connolly Gives a Ring to Julianne Hough", People, November 14, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-21. 
  12. ^ Interview (April 2008). CosmoGirl.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Emmitt Smith & Cheryl Burke
Dancing with the Stars (US) winner
Season 4 (Spring 2007 with Apolo Anton Ohno),
Season 5 (Autumn 2007 with Hélio Castroneves)
Succeeded by
Kristi Yamaguchi & Mark Ballas
Persondata
NAME Hough, Julianne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hough, Julianne Marie
SHORT DESCRIPTION Professional dancer, singer
DATE OF BIRTH 1988-7-20
PLACE OF BIRTH Provo, Utah, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH