Amelle Berrabah Profile

Amelle Berrabah

Amelle Berrabah

Amelle Berrabah

Amelle Berrabah (born 22 April 1984) is a British singer and member of the girl group Sugababes. Since replacing Mutya Buena in December 2005, as a Sugababe Berrabah has attained two UK number one singles, "About You Now" and "Walk This Way", and a number one album, Change. Berrabah also achieved a solo number one in 2009 after featuring on Tinchy Stryder's single "Never Leave You".

Amelle Berrabah

Amelle Berrabah

Childhood and youth

Berrabah was born in Aldershot, Hampshire to Moroccan parents. She has four sisters, younger sisters Samiya and Laila, older sisters Zakiya and Nora and a brother Khaled. Her family owned a kebab shop in Aldershot.[5] She attended Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford on the merit of a scholarship. It was then that she met her managers and formed the band Boo2, with her sister, Samiya and began looking for record contract opportunities.[6] Berrabah's father died of cancer in 2002.[7] She won Top of the Pops magazine’s Star Search in 2003 that gave her the chance to be the lead singer of a new band and had performed at Party in the Park as well.

2005–present: Sugababes
Main article: Sugababes

Following Mutya Buena's departure, Berrabah was roped in as a replacement by the Sugababes' management. Their manager had seen Boo2 perform at an American showcase a few years prior and Amelle had impressed him. As soon as Buena left, he gave Berrabah a call about the opportunity and got her to record three songs to audition for remaining members Keisha Buchanan and Heidi Range. They liked the demos and Berrabah was then announced as the newest member of the band.[1][6] The first single to feature Berrabah's vocals, "Red Dress", entered the UK Singles Chart at number four.[2]

Taller in More Ways was re-released in early 2006 with re-recorded vocals by Berrabah. Because of the hastiness of the replacement, she could only re-record vocals for half the album.[6] The Sugababes' greatest hits collection, Overloaded: The Singles Collection was released later that year. They were also involved in the 2007 Comic Relief single with fellow girlband, Girls Aloud, "Walk This Way",[8] which went to number one.[9] With the release of first single from their album Change, "About You Now", the Sugababes became the first girl group to top the UK Singles Chart on downloads alone,[10] the song remained at number one for four weeks. In October 2007, Change became the group's second UK Albums Chart number one, giving the group the top positions on the singles and albums charts simultaneously.[3] Catfights and Spotlights was released in late 2008.

Berrabah was featured on "Never Leave You" by Tinchy Stryder in 2009, the single debuted at number one.[11] Prior to shooting the video for the second single off album Sweet 7, "About a Girl", Berrabah was rumoured to have left the group. She had missed two engagements promoting the album. It was later revealed that in fact Keisha Buchanan had been booted and replaced by Britain's Eurovision entry that year, Jade Ewen. Berrabah and Heidi Range had earlier quit the band claiming that they could not work with Buchanan anymore, their management then retained them and removed Buchanan instead.[12][13] Following these events, Berrabah checked into a European health clinic for a three week stay, citing "severe nervous exhaustion".[14] Sweet 7 was released in early 2010 after multiple delays from late 2009.

Berrabah features on "Til' the End" from Tinchy Stryder's upcoming album, Third Strike.[15]

Personal life

Berrabah is dating Tom Benn, a former model.[16]

On 28 April 2007, Berrabah was arrested over allegations that she had assaulted an eighteen year-old girl on the dancefloor in the Bar Med club in Surrey.[2][3] No charges were brought.[5] Berrabah was arrested again on 10 January 2008 on suspicion of causing criminal damage and a public order offence. The arrest was made in connection with an alleged attack on a car in her hometown of Aldershot on 9 January 2008.[3] The charges were quickly dropped when it was revealed that she was not even in town at the time.[5]

On September 23, 2010, Berrabah was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after neighbours alerted the police. After pleading guilty in court, she received a 14 month driving ban and a £2000 fine.