Daniel Pearce

Daniel Pearce (born 29 May 1978) is an English musician who was a finalist on the reality TV show Popstars: The Rivals. He won a place in the boyband One True Voice, which subsequently released two top ten singles, "Sacred Trust"/"After You're Gone" and "Shakespeare's (Way With) Words. Pearce, an arranger and co-writer of some of their songs, left the group in summer 2003, shortly before the band split up.

In September 2009, he auditioned for the 2009 series of The X Factor, but failed to progress as far as the live finals.

In 2010, he returned with a hit entitled "Dirtee Disco", a UK No. 1 single by Dizzee Rascal featuring Pearce.

Since 2011, he has provided vocals and percussion for funk, rock and soul band Shuffler.

2002: Popstars: The Rivals

Daniel Pearce took part in 2002 in Popstars The Rivals

• Week 1, he sang "Against All Odds". He progressed.
• Week 3, he sang "Celebration". He progressed.
• Week 5, he sang "For Once in My Life". He progressed.
• Week 7, in the boys' final, he sang "Candle in the Wind".

Host Davina McCall announced the names of the five contestants who had qualified. Matthew Johnson was the first member to be announced followed by Keith Semple. Third was Pearce and fourth Anton Gordon. The last available place went to Jamie Shaw whereas Chris Park was eliminated from the boys competition.

Pearce and the four other contestant winners (Anton Gordon, Matthew Johnson, Keith Semple and Jamie Shaw) went on to form the group One True Voice.

The show also produced the girl group Girls Aloud.

2002–2003: One True Voice

Pearce became a member of One True Voice, a British boy band created on the ITV television series Popstars: The Rivals. The band was created by the public, who voted for their favourite hopefuls each week. The group, whose name was later shortened to OTV, was made up of Pearce, Anton Gordon, Matt Johnson, Keith Semple and Jamie Shaw.

Their debut single, Sacred Trust/After You're Gone, went head-to-head with Girls Aloud on 16 December 2002, for the Christmas number one spot. One True Voice lost out to the girls and had to settle for the Number 2 position. One more Top 10 hit followed, in the form of Shakespeare's (Way With) Words, which reached Number 10 in the UK, in June 2003. A few weeks later, it was announced that Daniel Pearce, who as arranger and co-writer of some of their songs had quit the group to pursue a solo career. The next day the group disbanded. The group also appeared at number 32 in Chantelle's Top 50 Reality TV Stars, ahead of both Phixx and Clea who also appeared in Popstars: The Rivals.

He appeared briefly in several roles mainly playing himself as member of One True Voice in TV Burp, Kelly, V Graham Norton (all in 2002) and Smile, Loose Women, Lose Lips (in 2003) and in Hell's Kitchen and The Weakest Link.

2003–2009: After the split-up of the band

After the split-up of the band, Pearce appeared as the lead in Jailhouse Rock, the West End musical in London, and provided back-up vocals for Craig David.^[1] He continued to perform as a gigging musician and singer for many years to support his wife and children.

2009: The X Factor

Pearce auditioned for the 2009 series of The X Factor,^[2] where he made it through the first round of auditions to the bootcamp stage.^[3] In the audition, he sang Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" and Prince's "Purple Rain" at the boot camp. He was selected one of the final 24 acts, in the "Over 25s" category, mentored by Simon Cowell. He sang George Michael's "Praying for Time", at the "judges' house" phase but he was not selected for the live finals, as Simon dropped him before the final 12 telling him about the reason behind his decision: "It was all about giving somebody a first shot. That's all it was".^[4]

Another former One True Voice band member Keith Semple attempted a similar comeback in 2010 on the ninth season of the American Idol. He was given a "golden ticket" to Hollywood but was disqualified because of his residency status in the United States.

Collaborations

Pearce sang with Dizzee Rascal on the 2009 Christmas and New Year editions of Top of The Pops, singing Rascal's song "Holiday".^[5] He also appeared with Dizzee Rascal on Later...with Jools Holland on 31 December 2009 as one of the back-up singers singing "Holiday". More recently he has been seen as a backing singer for Dizzee Rascal singing on the hit "Dance Wiv Me".

Pearce has collaborated with Dizzee Rascal on the latter's single "Dirtee Disco" appearing with him on 30 April 2010 on the Friday Night with Jonathan Ross show singing backing vocals and playing the drums on the song. He also performed "Dance Wiv Me" with Rascal at Reading and Leeds Festival 2010.

In May and June 2013 Pearce sang with Dizzee Rascal as support on Muse's UK dates for their Unsustainable Tour. In June 2013 Daniel again supported Dizzee Rascal, on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

Personal life

Pearce was born in Kent, England. He is married to fellow singer Charlotte Hodson, with whom he has two children. His birth mother, Mary-Ann Morgan, is a songwriter who has penned songs for bands such as Sugababes.^[3] He is also a massive fan of Crystal Palace FC.

Discography

Singles

With One True Voice

• 2002: "Sacred Trust/After You're Gone"^[6][7] (reached No. 2 in the British Singles Chart)
• 2003: "Shakespeare's (Way With) Words"^[8] (reached No. 10 in the British Singles Chart)

With Dizzee Rascal

• 2010: "Dirtee Disco" (credited as Dizzee Rascal featuring Daniel Pearce, reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart)

Albums

With Shuffler

• 2013: Shuffler

References

External links

• Daniel Pearce on Myspace
• Daniel Pearce at the Internet Movie Database