Iris

Iris is a British rock/pop recording artist. She came to prominence in 2011, trying out for URAPS Idol 12. She immedietly progressed on to the live shows as one of the 12 finalists, however after starting out as an early favourite, she was eliminated in Week 7, finishing in 6th place. In September 2011, Iris's debut single "Against The Wall" charted in the top 10 at #6 and her debut album "In The Realms Of Reality" peaked at #1. On August 30th 2011, she became the wife of pop singer Jason Adams, despite the fact he is gay. The marriage lasted around one year. On 23 June 2012 the couple became parents to twins Lambert and Butler. Iris also featured as a housemate on URAPS Big Brother 2011, where she eventually went on to win the entire show.

Iris released the first of a trilogy of albums to be released over the course of 2014 titled "The Asylum Pt. 1", in January of that year. A follow-up album, "The Asylum Pt. 2", was released in June, and the final album of the trilogy, "The Asylum Pt. 3", was released in November and charted at #1 in the UK. In March 2015, Iris released "The Asylum: Collection", a greatest hits of 'The Asylum' era.

Overall Iris has released five top five albums including two #1 albums and six top ten singles, including the top three singles "Poison Ivy" and "Ghost on Sailor's Peak". Iris has sold over 3 million records in the UK.

Early life
Raised in Essex, Iris was the second child of Robert Henderson, a psychologist, and Mary Howey, an artist. It is known that Iris had a troubled childhood, where at the age of nine she witnessed her younger brother Niall being hit by a car, and dying in her arms. This death led to a breakdown of her mother, causing constant fighting in Iris' household, until she reached twelve years old, where she watched her own mother murder her father with a kitchen knife. Iris' mother was then sentenced to life in prison, and Iris was sent to live in a childrens home. At the age of 18, Iris had to leave the home, and ended up living on the streets, where she busked for money. Almost two years later, Iris started to get discovered and recievied several gig slots. Around the time of her 22nd birthday, she had earned enough money to get a train to London, and travelled there to audition for URAPS Idol 12, after seeing an advert in a shop window.

Uraps Idol 12
Iris successfully auditioned for URAPS Idol, getting into the live heats. She appeared on the second heat, and flew through to the live shows following her performance of "Untouched" by The Veronicaas. Noted for her strong and unique vocals and her 'quirky and fresh' personality. In her first week, Iris received criticsm, when she attempted to tackle the rock genre. However from week 2 she reverted back to her original pop/rock stylings and found universal acclaim from the judges and critics, becoming one of the early favorite for the competition. According to critics, Iris has a unique ability to tell the story of a song, and shows a songs emotions better than most successful popstars. In her second week, Iris was the top voted contestant, and continued to easily progress through the competition. By week 5, with eight contestants left, Iris was one of only two contestants to never find themselves in the bottom 3. However the following week she found hersef second bottom with the public vote. In week 7, Iris performed two songs, the first of which received heavy criticsm, however the second receieved overwhelming compliments, being described as the "highlight of the series". Despite this, she finished in sixth place, following a very close elimination.

Post-Idol: In The Realms Of Reality, Marriage & Big Brother (2011-2012)
Following her elimination from the show, Iris suffered a mental break down and locked herself in her Idol dressing room with a can of petrol, matches, knife and pack of Haribo. At 4.15am the morning following her elimination, Iris's close friend Aurora Reed talked her out of suicide, and Iris was sectioned and sent to the City of London Lunatic Asylum. It was in here that Iris had a lot of time to reflect on life and become inspired. Iris was granted an hour a day to record music, with her carers stating that "music granted Iris with the closest to sanity we've seen from her". After roughly six weeks in the asylum, Iris was allowed out for a day, to perform on the season's grand finale. It was during this time that Iris revealed a lot of music had been done for her solo offering. Several more weeks in the asylum led to Iris making positive improvements in her state of mind, leading to her allowed out into the public more often. She has revealed that her debut single shall be released in early October.

On 15 August, 2011 Iris confirmed that her debut single was titled "Against The Wall", with a release date of September 19. The single will be preceeded by the mini-album In The Realms Of Reality, released on September 12. The album features a duet with fellow Idol contestant Regina Harper. Upon their release, both releases were a success with the album peaking at #1 and the single at #6.

Just over a week after the album topped the charts, Iris entered the URAPS Big Brother 2011 house (on October 06) as one of the original 14 housemates. Her husband, Jason Adams was also a housemate, however he was the third housemate evicted. While in the house (Day 13, October 18 2011) Iris revealed that she was pregnant with a child she concieved with Jason Adams, while the pair were in the Big Brother House. She managed to remain in the house until the live final, and with a massive 32% of the public vote, she became the winner of Big Brother. Following her win, Iris took around 3 months away from the public eye, allowing her body to adopt to her pregnancy, however it is expected that she will be releasing the second single from her album in Australia, in early 2012.

Her second single was originally due for release February 6, 2012, five months after her debut. It was announced that it would be revealed which track would serve as the second single on New Years Eve, however that the release date had also been brought forward to January 30th. On New Years Eve, "Hearts On The Radio" was announced as the new single. She has also been listed as "one to watch" in 2012, with many expecting her to experience a large amount of success. Despite this, "Hearts On The Radio" charted at #8, and Iris revealed she had no further plans to release music, and would instead leave behind her life and start afresh in another country, enjoying her pregnancy.

Comeback: Kaleidoscope, Motherhood & Divorce (2012)
Despite revealing very early in the year that she had given up on her music, a statement released on 14 May 2012 revealed Iris would be releasing a brand new single in June. It was originally planned to serve as the first release from her second studio album, with the album following roughly eight months later. However on 23 May, 2012 it was revealed Iris shall be releasing a 5 track EP alongside the new single, with a new studio album following in 2013. The following day, the title of the single was revealed to be "You Can't Lose Me", with a release date of 25 June 2012. On 28 May, it was revealed this would be Iris' first single released on a label, as she had signed a deal with Next Generation Records. On the same day, it was revealed the EP would be called "Kaleidoscope", representing the fusion of different emotions put into each individual track. On 03 May, Iris' husband Jason Adams informed the world he was planning on divorcing Iris via an interview. Iris was unaware of this and was rushed into hospital after an attempted suicide after learning of the news, despite being 35 weeks pregnant at the time. Iris also appeared on a track called "Checkmate" for Anna Jones second studio album, "Pleasure Island". Upon it's release, "You Can't Lose Me" charted at #5, giving Iris her highest charting single at the time, and also her first top 5 hit. On 23 June, Iris gave birth to her twins, naming them Lambert and Butler. "Kaleidoscope" was released the week after, and charted at #4, however it failed to match the success of her prior album, although it did achieve Platinum status before dropping off the charts. After the release, Iris decided to take time off and enjoy life as a mother.

Hiatus: The Asylum trilogy (2012-present)
Iris' label boss, Coral Harris confirmed in early August 2012 that work had begun on the third album by Iris, which is expected to be released in 2014. It was later revealed that Iris would be returning in 2014 with three mini-albums released throughout the year, with the first arriving in January 2014. In November 2013, the upcoming single and album were revealed to have a release date of 16 January 2014 and on 04 December, Iris' comeback was officially announced. In regards to her decision to release three albums in one year, Iris stated:

"I feel as though by splitting my releases into three separate albums, I'm representing how music works in the modern day. People want new music the moment it's out. My albums have always been an emotional output for me, and I didn't want to limit myself to just one album, I had a lot of creativity pouring out of me and wanted to share it all. For me, this is not an EP or lesser version of an album. It's three slightly shorter albums that allow me to keep fresh while I return to the music and work on the next output. It's a musical evolution for me."

On 12 December, the title of the era was revealed as The Asylum. The first album released will be "The Asylum Pt. 1", and will be released alongside the album's single, "Poison Ivy", on 20 January 2014. Both the single and album debuted at #3 on their respective charts, meaning "Poison Ivy" became Iris' highest charting single to date in the UK.

On 14 January 2014, it was confirmed that Iris' next single would be titled "War Paint". Iris revealed she would be releasing several tracks from "The Asylum Pt. 1" to the Download Chart. On 10 February, she released "Earth At Night" which charted at #07. "Paper Woman" was released on 17 March and charted at #08. "War Paint" received an On Air / On Sale release on 02 June 2014 with "The Asylum Pt. 2" following two weeks later on 16 June 2014. With no promotion, "War Paint" charted at #10, giving Iris her lowest charting single. The album faired better, debuting at #4. Iris also released three Download exclusive tracks from the album. The first, "Run To You" was released on 4 August 2014 and charted at #18 on the download chart. "The Other Woman" featuring Chelsea Flowers was released the week after and charted at #12.

On 28 June, Iris performed at Glastonbury for the first time, describing it as a "career highlight". On 11 August, Iris confirmed that the lead single from "The Asylum Pt. 3" was titled "Ghost on Sailor's Peak" and was a 'poetic ballad'. The single is due for release on 27 October 2014 with the album following the week after on 03 November 2014. "Ghost on Sailor's Peak" debuted at #3 on the singles chart, becoming Iris' joint highest charting single. "The Asylum Pt. 3" charted at #1, giving Iris her second #1 album, and first since her 2011 debut "In The Realms Of Reality". On 12 January 2015, "Remember Who He Lies Beside" was released as the albums first Download exclusive release.

Throughout March 2015, Iris will headline her first worldwide tour The Asylum Tour. Tickets went on sale 9am on Saturday 22 November 2014. A collection of songs from the three Asylum albums is expected to be released alongside the tour. The first of these, "Remember Who He Lies Beside" was released to the Digital Chart on 12 January 2015 and charted at #2 becoming Iris' highest charting single on the chart to date. In January, Iris received two Brit Award Nominations for "Best British Album" and "Best British Female".

In early 2015, Iris appeared on the Uraps United charity single "Who I Am (Golden)" and charted at #1 giving Iris her first appearance at the top of the charts in the UK. The single was released on 26 January 2015. Iris will release a brand new single on 30 March 2015 to coincide with her tour. The single will be taken from a brand new album, "The Asylum: Collection" a Greatest Hits collection of all three "The Asylum" albums along with several new tracks. On 31 January, "The King" was revealed as the title of the album's lead single. Iris officially premiered the single on 14 February 2015 as a Valentines Day gift to her fans.

In February 2015, Iris launched "The Asylum Appeal" a charity dedicated to helping individuals with mental health issues. On 25 February, Iris won her first ever Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist. In March 2015 Iris received 6 nominations for the 26th Urapopstar Awards. "Ghost on Sailor's Peak" was nominated for Best Female Video and Best Rock/Alternative single, "The Asylum Pt. 3" was nominated for Best Rock/Alternative album. Iris was also nominated for Best Rock/Alternative artist and Best Breakthrough and "Remember Who He Lies Beside" was nominated for Best Digital Release. Iris opened the award ceremony with a live performance of her singles "Ghost on Sailors Peak" and "Poison Ivy".

Personal Life
Due to her troubled childhood, Iris has grown up to become a very mentally troubled individual. She claims to have had a very brief romance with MIDNIGHT, however she admits this may have just been a dream she had. MIDNIGHT has on several occasions denied these rumours. Rumours also suggest that Iris may have had some sort of relationship with singer Aurora Reed, as the pair are known to be very close, however Aurora has yet to comment on this.

On 28 August, Iris attended the Urapopstar Awards 20, however after the ceremony, she ran away to Vegas, where she married popstar Jason Adams. On 18 October, while on URAPS Big Brother 2011 Iris revealed that she was pregnant with the couple's first child (which they concieved on the first night of the show). On 03 December, Iris revealed she was expecting triplets. Late on 08 January 2012, Iris was involved in a hit and run in Australia, where she was severely hurt by a drunk driver whilst she walked home. She left hospital on 14 January and immedietly flew home, however the incident killed one of the babies, leaving just twins. It also broke her left leg.

On 06 February 2012, one day after the charting of "Hearts On The Radio", Iris held a press confrence where she revealed that she was moving abroad with just her bump to enjoy her pregnancy and start a new life due to the lonliness she felt in Britain. She also announced her husband Jason Adams would remain in the UK, and that if he wanted to be with her, his heart would lead him to her. On 25 April, gossip site "Showbiz Scoop" revealed Iris has been living in Canada since early February, and is now a Radio DJ, owner of several nail salons, and lives on a farm, which she runs with Jason.

On 03 May 2012, Jason Adams revealed he was planning on divorcing Iris in an online interview, something Iris was unaware of. The news came as such a shock that she overdosed and cut her wrists. She was instantly rushed into hosptial where she remained for over a week before she escaped. The divorce was finalised on 28 January 2013.

On 23 June 2012, Iris was once again admitted to hospital, however this time it was to give birth. Her daughter (Lambert Aurora Henderson) was born at 11.30pm on the same day. The second baby, a boy (Butler Caymon Henderson) was born around 15 minutes later, at 11:47pm.

Discography
Main article: Iris Discography

Albums
2011: In The Realms Of Reality (#1) 2012: Kaleidoscope (#4) 2014: The Asylum Pt. 1 (#3) 2014: The Asylum Pt. 2 (#4) 2014: The Asylum Pt. 3 (#1) 2015: The Asylum: Collection (#TBR)