Claire Kitten

Claire Kitten
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Years active	2003-2006
Labels	Klassy (2003-2004) Baa.Inc (2004) Ensemble (late 2004-March 2006)

Claire Kitten was an English pop singer who rose to superstardom with the record-shattering singles "Never Coming Home" and "Glorified Porn Star" and the blockbuster album Poisoned Paradise.

Early life

Claire was born in London, and was put up for adoption by her biological parents. She was adopted by Jennifer and Rupert Slaven, who broke up not long after Claire's 5th birthday. Claire lived with Rupert for a further two years before he died in a tragic accident involving a tie and a skateboard. Claire went back to live with her adoptive mother, and years of arguments and tears followed. At 18, Claire left home and spent the next 4 years of her life working as a bar maid and doing karaoke competitions in and around central London. She also had various part time jobs in strip clubs and as an extra in adult films.

The La La La Era

By the time she was 22, a talent scout for Klassy Records, run by megastar Hailey Klass, spotted Claire in her local bar giving a rendition of "Stick Your Finger In It" by Lucreacia, and her life was changed forever. She decided to change her surname to Kitten. Claire gave an exclusive interview explaining her reasoning behind the choice:

"The reason I changed my surname to Kitten was because I can't bear the thought of sharing part of my life with my biological parents - why should I have to live with their name after they abandoned me? I decided not to call myself by Slaven either, although I feel I owe it somewhat to Rupert, who has honestly been the only person in my life who was always there for me, but after the divorce, Jennifer kept the name Slaven and I don't want to be continually reminded of all the years that she treated me like dirt. I chose on Kitten because that's how I like to see myself - fun loving and playful, but a sex symbol at the same time."

Her debut single "Still Be Loving You/Right Now" was a smash hit and entered the charts at #5. Just weeks after her initial success, Claire's sister was found dead, and Claire took several months off to grieve. When she arrived back on the music scene, critics said she was lacking some of her original sparkle that she had initially, and this was proved after her second single "Send Me Flowers" only got to #10 in the charts.

Around this time, it was claimed that Claire had been having an affair with a legendary pop stars husband. Kate Given sensationally ditched Shay Given after Shay and Claire were seen together various times in public and incriminating text messages were found. The pair stayed together for four months, until Claire left him for a member of now defunct boy band D-Zone. Claire and Shane became a very high profile couple, and it was a rarity for the pair not to be in the tabloids, often pictured on wild and drunken nights out. Claire was also was pursued by a stalker who turned out to be Shay's jilted lover Kate Given. It was around this time that Claire released her debut album - La La La - which was your typical sugar sweet pop album, which featured covers of many popular songs of the time. This entered the charts at #6, but quickly was forgotten by Claire after she released the final single from the album, "Beautiful", which gave Claire her first taste of real chart success. Amidst rumours of Claire getting hitched, getting pregnant, getting divorced and of her plans to leave the music scene to become a singer on a cruise ship, "Beautiful" entered the charts at #3. Claire was brought down to earth with a bang after her long term boyfriend left the UK to breed frogs in Australia. Faced with the choice of becoming a frog farmer's wife or continuing with her chart success, Claire rightfully chose the latter, and she took time out to start work on her second album.

The Never Coming Home Era

Three months later, Claire released her next single. "Inside/Silk", was Claire's fourth single. Although "Inside" was singled out by Claire as one of her favourites on the album, it didn't do as well as her previous single and it only reached #5 in the charts. The following week, her second album was released. Never Coming Home was the title of Claire's second album, and this time around, Claire had more input into it creatively. She designed all of the artwork, and wrote 6 of the 15 songs herself. However, she still succumbed to covers of songs, and some say this was what brought the album down. Claire's new found interest in creating the album was down to her label change, as Klassy Records went bankrupt and left Claire without a record deal. Not one to let things get in her way, Claire found herself a new home at Baa Records, where she signed a one album deal. Claire also found herself nominated for Best Pop Act in the URAPS awards.

Claire's second single from the album was the title track, namely "Never Coming Home". Claire announced this was to be her last single, but after intensive promotion, it became a firm favourite with the general public, and re-ignited Claire's love for the music industry, and she decided against leaving. This was the right choice as "Never Coming Home" reached #2 in the charts, and stayed in the top 3 for three weeks. It went on to stay in the charts for a record breaking 19 weeks. "Never Coming Home" also got nominated for the prestigious Record Of The Year competition. After it became nominated for the top 25, Claire was sure that would be its highest achievement, so she was stunned when it got to the top 10. After a nail-biting finale, it came third to Heaven and Lucreacia - both huge #1 artists. If it couldn't get any better, Claire was again nominated for two URAPS awards - best single (for "Never Coming Home"), and best pop act.

"I'm incredibly proud of the success of Never Coming Home. It was disappointing to me when the second album didn't do as well as the first, but after all of the good fortune that the single has brought me I'm even happier than I was before. I'm especially proud of the face that I had so much to do with it all - I co wrote the song, I produced the song, and I directed the video. You feel amazing after all of the hard work pays off."

The Poisoned Paradise Era

After "Never Coming Home", Claire vowed to her fans that she was going to start again with a new album, and another label move - this time to ex.com, which later became Ensemble. She kept her promise and Poisoned Paradise was born. Claire wrote 10 of the 16 songs, with the remaining 6 being written by Emma Brown, Delta Nu, Kelly, Othello and Andrea Twain. She also duetted with Andrea on the song she wrote, "Tight Fittin' Jeans", and managed to tie rock star Antony Jones into singing with her on the title track "Poisoned Paradise". The next year, both collaborations would appear on the respective artists' forthcoming new albums.

Poisoned Paradise entered the album charts at #3 and was soon followed by the single "Glorified Porn Star". The single proved to be an immense hit with the Urapopstar public, debuting at #1 and going on to sell a total of 550,063, ranking as the #1 single of 2005. This helped the album reach #1, and the continuing hit streak helped it spend a total of 64 weeks in the top 40 of the album charts, a new record.

The follow-up single was a double A-side of "Obsession/Disco Dollies". "Obsession" was originally scheduled to be released on its own, before Claire doubled it with a cover of a song from Buffi's latest album The Difficult Kind. Unsurprisingly, it became a smash hit, another #1 for Claire. This was soon followed by a domination at Urapopstar Awards 10, where Claire won all five awards she was nominated for.

Not one to take a break, Claire released a one-off single, with it-songwriters of the moment Aloud. "Love Looks Kinda Real Tonight", not on the Poisoned Paradise album, would later be included on Aloud's next CD, Describe Yourself In Fifteen Songs. Despite Aloud singers Honey Simpson and Duncan Jones not showing up to some of the single's promotional events, the single was a #1 success, though sales did not match the high totals of Claire's previous two singles.

Claire released two more collaborations before the end of 2005, with two acts enjoying a similar level of success as Claire. "Front Page Baby EP", a collaborative EP with Emblaze featuring a duet version of "No Escape" from Claire's album, and "Poisoned Paradise" with Antony Jones were both strong #1 hits and topped off an excellent 2005 for Claire.

2006 and beyond

Claire's last single release was a cover of Tegan & Sara's "Superstar", which spent a week at #1 on the singles charts, but failed to save a three-month sales slump. Ironically, former collab partners Emblaze would save it three weeks later with their single "Love Fool".

The week of the release, Claire was reported missing in a helicopter accident after honeymooning with Emblaze's Paul Smith, presumed dead, for she was not seen after Paul and the pilot of the helicopter were rescued. She re-appeared in hologram form at Urapopstar Awards 12, performing a drunken cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" before streaking while Lisa Spears and Kantar were on stage presenting an award.

Claire finally resurfaced in December 2006, announcing she would collaborate with girlASKboy on their comeback single "Have A Word". But after differences between the two acts, the single was scrapped and girlASKboy went on to release the #1 "Molly Waits For Midnight".

In 2009 Kitten did a collaboration with pop singer Elice Claire called "Forget The Times" for Elice's second album Intimate Encounters. She also made a surprise appearance at Romo's SAVE URAPS telethon.

Discography

Albums

2003: La La La #6
2004: Never Coming Home #8
2004: Poisoned Paradise #1

Singles

2003: Still Be Loving You/Right Now #5
2003: Send Me Flowers #10
2003: Beautiful #3
2004: Inside/Silk #5
2004: Never Coming Home #2
2004: A Toast To Men (Candella, Claire Kitten, & Tara Milano feat. Angel-V) #9
2005: Glorified Porn Star #1
2005: Obsession/Disco Dollies #1
2005: Love Looks Kinda Real Tonight (with Aloud) #1
2005: Front Page Baby EP (with Emblaze) #1
2005: Poisoned Paradise (with Antony Jones) #1
2006: Superstar #1