| Steve Appleton | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Steve Appleton |
| Born | 1 May 1989 Surrey, England |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, record producer |
| Years active | 2008-present |
| Labels | Sony Music |
Steve Appleton (born 1 May 1989, Surrey, England) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer.[1]
At the age of fifteen, he began playing piano in a Soho restaurant performing his own material and covers from the likes of Elton John and Billy Joel. He was signed to RCA in mid 2007, after which he went travelling across Europe with friends before finishing his debut album.
Since then Appleton has furthered his travels with publicity shoots in Miami and Los Angeles, and a trip to Cape Town where the video for "Dirty Funk" was filmed with director Robert Hales. During 2009 he performed alongside John Legend, The Saturdays and The Pussycat Dolls, along with headlining his own gigs up throughout the UK.
Appleton was the face of a Smart (automobile) campaign during 2009/2010. He appeared in a TV commercial performing his single "Dirty Funk". The advertisement was shown in Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Japan. He is sponsored by Puma AG, X-Mini and Freshman Guitars.
The opening to Appleton's "Dirty Funk" was also used by the British telephone provider BT in their 2010 'Summer Deals' advertising campaign.
Appleton's debut single "Dirty Funk", written when Appleton was only 16, was released on 17 April 2009. In Japan it was number 1 on the airplay charts for 6 weeks, making it the biggest radio song in Japan during the summer of 2009.[2] A second single, "City Won't Sleep" was released in August 2009 in both the UK and Japan.[3] His first album, When the Sun Comes Up was written and produced by Appleton, performing every instrument on the album. It was released on 31 July 2009 in Japan, and on 31 August 2009 in the UK.
In August 2010, Appleton sang the theme song, "Everyone", at the opening of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore televised to an estimated 1.5 billion people, where he represented Europe alongside South African Jody Williams (Africa), Singaporean Tabitha Nauser (Asia) and Australian Jessica Mauboy (Oceania). American Sean Kingston (Americas) who was due as well did not perform due to a passport mix-up during immigration.[4] The song was written and produced by Ken Lim, a judge on Asian Idol as well as Singapore Idol and charted at #1 in Singapore for two weeks.
Contents |
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | JPN | GER | |||
| "Dirty Funk" | 2009 | 67 | 2 | 71 | When the Sun Comes Up |
| "City Won't Sleep" | — | — | — | ||
| "Sparks" | 2011 | — | 21 | — | Colours |
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