Crystal Barker

Crystal Nadine Barker (born June 13, 1987) is a pop singer/songwriter born in Adelaide, Australia. Crystal began her career back in 2008 in Australia, picking up 3 Top 10s, in March 2009, she began her UK singing career and has since achieved ten UK number 1 singles, becoming one of the biggest stars of the decade. As of the second series in 2013, she is also the host of The Uraps Factor.

Early life
Crystal Nadine Barker, is the youngest of 2 children in the Barker family, was born in Adelaide, Australia at just 3 years old. Her older sister, Anjelica, aged 26, is also in the showbiz industry, working as a dancer on Dancing With The Stars in Australia. Anjelica, however, has never shown any interest in music, unlike her sister.

Barker went to school at Porter Enterprise School, in which she studied Performing Arts, Business Studies, Physics, Biology & Chemistry. Originally, Crystal wanted to follow her mum's footsteps by becoming a vet, but when Crystals' performing arts teacher told her she had a superb talent in singing, Crystal knew immediately that this was the path she wanted to take. Despite her ambitions, she had to put them on hold whilst studying at college. It is reported that Barker wrote her first song at just 15 years old.

Early 2008, it was reported in an Australian newspaper that her father had died of a heart attack when Crystal was just 5.

Australian Career
In early 2008, Crystal Barker released her first track, "Not That Kind Of Girl" in Australia. It became a huge hit with Australian radio stations and the track debuted at #7 on March 23rd. Crystal quickly became a household name, when it was found out she was in a few episodes of Neighbours. Crystal was credited at Nadine Barker, therefore she was unrecognised until Australian Today reported late April 2008.

Following the success of Crystals' first single, she released Top Of The Pack in June. Crystal made several appearances on Australian TV to promote the single, making appearances on breakfast show Sunrise and talk show, Susie. This resulted in Top Of The Pack entering at #4.

The breaking point in her career was when her 3rd single from her debut Australian album, 'My Crystal Ball', What Was I Thinking shot straight to #1, in September 2008, provoking Crystal to start releasing in the UK.

Crystal Clear era (2009)
Crystal's debut single, What Was I Thinking? was released on March 23rd, and debuted at #26 on March 29th, due to a lack of promotion. However, the following week, the song climbed to #23, and on the singles' 3rd week in the charts, it reached its' peak of #19. The track sold just under 75,000, which was not a promising start to the singers' UK career.

The album was released on April 13th, and also failed to pick up many fans, and limped in #18. However, Crystal decided to release a 2nd single from Crystal Clear and went for Top Of The Pack. Despite the first single not doing too well, throughout the promotion of the single, Crystal began picking up fans and started receiving praise from fellow singers. The song debuted just outside the Top 10 at #12 on May 17th, despite predictions that the single could go Top 10. But, due to a huge sales spike the next week, Top Of The Pack rose 9 places to get #3. The huge climb for the single resulted in the album reaching a new peak of #6. This was a huge turning point in UK career for Crystal, and she really began to get noticed. Because of the success of Top Of The Pack, Crystal and her brand new record label, Wired Records opted to release another single from Crystal Clear, it was chosen that she would release the Logan Cross penned track, Compute. During the promotion of the single, Crystal announced this would be the last track of the era. However, after a discussion with Wired Records bosses Arwyn Knight & Ryan Dawson, who had seen the very high predictions for the songs' charting, said that they would release another single if Compute reached either #1 or #2. Crystal had really became a well known name amongst everyone on Urapopstar, and the track reached #1 on the airplay charts, becoming her 2nd single to top the airplay charts, after Top Of The Pack went to the top just after it's climb to #3. On 26th July, Compute entered the charts at #1, with big sales of 82,323, which were down approximately 6,000 on the previous #1's sales, which were for Ana Simpson's Love Is A Game/Your Guardian. The entry of Compute, helped the album reach a brand new peak of #2, therefore, Crystal Clear was certified Platinum after selling over 500,000 copies. In Crystal Clears' 16th week in the charts, it finally climbed to #1 on 2nd August 2009.

Diamond In The Rough era (2009-2011)
After ending the last era with her first #1 single, Crystal moved onto her second studio album. In late 2009, she released the planned lead single "Wind Me Up", however the single failed to do as well as hoped, charting at #6 and led to Crystal scrapping plans for the album and going on a temperary hiatus, as she went back to work on her album.

She returned in 2010, with a brand new lead single, "Andy Warhol". The song was much more successful, and charted at #2, marking the begginings of Crystal's launch into stardom. It also became Crystal's first single to sell over 300,000 copies and unbeknown at the time, her last single to date, to miss #1. After the release of Crystal's second studio album "Diamond In The Rough" it also charted at #2. The second single from the album, "Jukebox", gave Crystal her second ever #1 single. The #1 streak continued with the album's third single, "Asylum Of The Heart EP". The fourth single wasn't originally on "Diamond In The Rough", however it gave Crystal another #1 single, through the duet with Ben Johnston titled "Someone I Don't Know". Despite already having produced 3 chart toppers, the album's peak was still #2, so in a final attempt to get the album to #1, the album was re-released under the title "Diamonds II". This released included "Someone I Don't Know", and a brand new single, "The Revival". The track was a lot darker than previous Crystal releases, and got to #1, giving Crystal her second highest single at the time, only behind "Andy Warhol". It also finally took the album to the top of the charts.

Heat era (2012-2013)
Three weeks before the release of Crystal's third album, she appeared on a cover of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" for her boyfriend Chase Elite's christmas album re-release. Crystal's third studio album "Heat" was released the week before the album's lead single, "Animal". Heat smashed straight in at #1. The next week, it remained at #1, as the new single "Animal" hit the #1 spot with massive first week sales of 165,330 copies sold. It remained at #1 for the two weeks and to date has sold an enormous 622,377, almost selling double the sales of her prior best seller. It is also the eighth best selling single of all time. The album also managed to sell over 1,000,000 copies and achieve Diamond status before the second single, "How Pretty We Are" was even released. Upon it's release, it managed to give Crystal her seventh #1 single. The third single from the album is known to be the track "Summer Nights", however it is a new version of the track released, as a duet with Crystal's best friend Candi. After much hype, the single charted at #1, despite fierce competition, giving Crystal her eighth #1, and seventh consecutive chart topper. "The Revolution" will serve as the album's fourth and final single and once again gave Crystal a #1 hit. In January 2013, Crystal (along with her partner Chase Elite) became the new hosts of The Uraps Factor for the show's second series.

Fourth studio album (2013-present)
In May 2013, Crystal confirmed she had completed her fourth studio album, and that new music would be arriving within the next few weeks. Later in the month, Barker revealed the title of the album's first single as "Sugar". However the release was cancelled not long after. In December, Crystal stated the reason behind the cancellation, stating:

"People keep asking me this question, why did you cancel? It's got to feel right - after I'd had such a successful era, I couldn't bring myself to go flying into a new one. I thought I could, but as soon as I started, I just knew it wasn't right. The album didn't feel strong enough, I didn't feel hyped up enough. It disappointed fans but I know for sure that what they're going to get now is going to be 10x better and absolutely worth the wait."

On 07 December 2013, Crystal once again returned, with a brand new single "Toxic" due for release on 06 January 2014. Upon it's release, the song became Barker's tenth number one single, and ninth consecutive chart topper.

On 25 November 2015, it was revealed a new single titled "Trouble" would be released on 30 November 2015. The song was released on air on sale, premièring as it was released. Despite it's positive critical reception, the song only charted at #7, becoming Crystal's lowest charting single since 2009, and second lowest position ever. It also ended her run of nine consecutive #1 singles.

Personal Life
Crystal has been in a relationship with Chase Elite since May 2011.