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Alexandra Rebecca Parks (born 26 July 1984) is an English singer-songwriter. Parks was entered into the BBC Television programme, Fame Academy by her father. It was a show that she went on to win. Soon after winning Fame Academy, she released her first album entitled Introduction, which went double platinum in the United Kingdom and gold in several other European countries. In 2005 she released her second album, Honesty. Parks was dropped by her label, Polydor, on 8 February 2006. Parks stated that the move was a mutual decision and that things had not worked out.[1]

Alex Parks
Birth name	Alexandra Rebecca Parks
Born	(1984-07-26) 26 July 1984 (age 38)
Origin	Mount Hawke, Cornwall, England
Genres	Folk-pop, alternative, indie rock
Years active	2003–2006
Labels	Polydor (2003–2006)

Biography

Alex Parks was born in July 1984 and was raised in the village of Mount Hawke, Cornwall. She is the youngest of four siblings.[2] Parks attended college at The Hub in St Austell.

Parks began fronting a local band, One Trick Pony, which performed mostly cover songs by artists such as Joni Mitchell, Ani Di Franco and Michelle Branch. For two years they played in bars around Cornwall, but the momentum of the band gradually ran down, leaving Parks in her bedroom with a four-track tape machine and a bunch of her own songs-in-progress.

Parks initially planned to move to Amsterdam to learn the art of clowning, but her career path changed when her father submitted an application for the second season of the BBC Television series, Fame Academy.

Parks is gay and before entering Fame Academy had a long-term girlfriend from Newquay. [2][3][4][5]

Fame Academy

Having been prompted by her father to take part in auditions for the show, which threw her in amongst 12,000 hopefuls, the 18-year-old Alex found herself the youngest student chosen for the two-month stay at Witanhurst House in north London.^{[citation needed]}

The final showdown between Parks and Alistair Griffin was screened live and generated so many angry messages from viewers after Daniel Bedingfield who duetted with both finalists, made his feelings clear by urging viewers that they should "just vote for Alex". This outburst by Bedingfield led to claims of favouritism. The BBC was forced to close down the Points of View message boards as negative messages flooded the board. Bedingfield made a public apology to Griffin for his behaviour and outburst. The actual voting figures have never been publicly released. Parks went on to win the show.^{[citation needed]}

Recording career

Her song "Maybe That's What It Takes" was released on 17 November 2003 and peaked at number 3 in the UK Singles Chart the following week.[6] Her debut album Introduction was subsequently released and sold over 500,000 copies. She expressed an interest in a recording career.[7]

Honesty was eventually released in October 2005, preceded by the lead single, "Looking For Water", in October 2005. The album peaked at No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart.[6]

After being dropped by her label, Polydor, Parks wrote a statement to her fans on her official website stating that she had almost no support from the media – hardly any coverage on the radio, TV or in the press and that she was disappointed in how things had turned out. She was not sure whether she was not promoted well enough because they did not like her music, her personally or the fact she had become famous via a reality TV programme.[1]

In 2013, she told her fans she would like to be known as Lexi and said she hoped to be recording again by the end of the year. In 2014, she was spotted at Music Sales Film & TV Songwriters Week in London with Joe McElderry from The X Factor.

Parks has been inactive in music since 2006.[8][9][10]

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	Chart positions		Sales and certification
		UK[6]	Ireland
2003	Introduction Released: 24 November 2003 Label: Polydor Formats: CD	5	54	BPI sales: 600,000+ BPI certification: 2× Platinum Also went Gold in Italy, Germany, Greece and Australia among others.
2005	Honesty Released: 24 October 2005 Label: Polydor Formats: CD	24	—	BPI sales: 50,000+
" — " denotes albums that were released but did not chart.

Singles

Year	Title	Album	Chart positions
			UK[6]	Ireland
2003	"Maybe That's What It Takes"	Introduction	3	26
2004	"Cry"		13	32
2005	"Looking for Water"1	Honesty	—	—
2006	"Honesty"		56	—

¹ On downloads only

See also

• List of singer-songwriters
• List of people from Cornwall
• List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people: P-Q
• List of Polydor Records artists
• List of performers on Top of the Pops

References

External links

Feature articles

• Guardian interview, November 2003
• Scotsman interview, November 2003

Reviews

• Shakenstir – Introduction review
• Guardian Unlimited – Introduction review
• Playlouder – Introduction review
• Shakenstir – Honesty review
• musicOHM.com – Honesty review
• BBC Pop/Chart Reviews – Honesty review
• Shakenstir – Shepherds Bush Empire gig review, February 2006
• Shakenstir – Special Awards for 2006, December 2006

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