Shaznay is generally regarded as the chief talent behind the popular girl group All Saints. Her musical influences include Rap and Missy Elliott; In addition, she grew up listening to Bob Marley and Johnny Mathis. It was the music of Alanis Morissette who encouraged Shaznay to take her music one step further. Singing came naturally to Shaznay who had been entering singing contests since the age of thirteen. At a party she was introduced to Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot of Curiosity Killed the Cat by her friends who took her to the Metamorphisis recording studios on All Saints Road, London and started doing backing vocals. It was at the Metamorphisis recording studios where Shaznay met Melanie Blatt in 1993 and proceeded to record together. Together with Simone Rainford they formed the band All Saints 1.9.7.5 which was later renamed to All Saints when Simone left and Nicole and Natalie Appleton joined Melanie and Shaznay. Shaznay has been the most active songwriter of the All Saints and was responsible for writing most of the songs including many hits. In 2001 Shaznay won the Ivor Novello Award for best songwriting. After the group broke up, Shaznay was the last All Saint to pursue a solo career, releasing her debut single “Never Felt Like This Before” in July 2004. It reached #8 and is taken from the Top 30 album Open. The next single released was “You” which failed to chart, but which featured a romantic video with an image of her husband in the clouds. Shaznay also played in several films. In Bend it like Beckham (2001) Shaznay played Mel and also played a minor role in Hideous Man (2002). On November 14, 2004 Shaznay was involved in the Band Aid 20 re-recording of “Do They Know It’s Christmas”. On August 21th 2004 Shaznay married dancer Christian “Storm” Horsfall. Shaznay had her first child, a son named Tyler Xane, in February 2006. On January 24, 2006 it was announced that All Saints have reformed with a new record contract and will release a new album, Studio 1 on November 13th 2006.[3] She performed with All Saints on live television for the first time since reforming on the UK light entertainment program, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway on October 21st 2006. All Saints started their comeback off with a bang as their single Rock Steady went to ~3 in the UK. They quickly followed with their comeback album Studio 1 and things went downhill, the album flopped at a peak of #40 in the UK and not charting in many other countries. Polydor then decided to take one last chance with All Saints and let them release their second single Chick Fit. The single failed to make the slightest impact not even hitting the top 200. All Saints were then dropped by record label Parlophone. The group say they will remain together and search for a new record company. |
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