Fefe Dobson

Felicia Lily Dobson (born February 28, 1985) is a Canadian singer.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, she began performing as a teenager, during which time she received and refused an offer from Jive Records for a recording contract.

Dobson was born on February 28, 1985, in Scarborough, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.

Dobson's mother is of English, Dutch, First Nations, and Irish ancestry and her father is of Jamaican heritage.

She went to high school at Wexford Collegiate Institute.

During her childhood, she took singing lessons at the New Conservatory of Music in Agincourt, Scarborough to improve her singing.

Fefe Dobson graduated from Heritage Park Public School.

Dobson began sending demo tapes – recorded on a home karaoke machine – to many recording companies in North America when she was 11 years old.

Then at the age of 13, she started playing the piano.

Before Dobson was signed, she said that she had been stereotyped as a contemporary R&B or popular music singer instead of a rock musician due to her race, often being compared to Brandy Norwood and Britney Spears.

Dobson started writing music at the age of 13 years, and the company Jive Records attempted to develop her as a popular musician, which she eventually refused.

After that experience, Dobson met Jay Levine and contracted with Nelly Furtado's manager Chris Smith.

Smith arranged showcases with several recording companies.

Universal Music Canada president Randy Lennox showed interest in her, and persuaded Island Def Jam CEO Lyor Cohen and his manager of A&R, Jeff Fenster, to fly to Toronto for another showcase.

Dobson played a showcase for Island/Def Jam; about 30 seconds into the first song – a punk thrash track about longing, titled "Stupid Little Love Song" – the executives contracted her.

Dobson signed with Island/Def Jam soon after and released her self-titled debut album (2003), which saw the success of the singles "Bye Bye Boyfriend" and "Don't Go (Girls and Boys)" on the Canadian Hot 100 chart and for which she received two Juno Award nominations.

Dobson's self-titled debut album was released December 9, 2003, by Island Records, and sold 307,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan as quoted by Billboard.

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart.

Four singles were released from the album: "Bye Bye Boyfriend", "Take Me Away", "Everything", and "Don't Go (Girls and Boys)".

Two of the album's tracks, "Everything" and "Unforgiven", were used in the film The Perfect Score.

The New York Times reviewer wrote: "The album's assiduous, ungrammatical crux is in 'Kiss Me Fool': 'Tell me whom I should be to make you love me. When in recording studios, Dobson hung up inspirational pictures of Kurt Cobain, Judy Garland, Coldplay, Jeff Buckley, and The Vines to help motivate her and to commemorate the artists who influenced her. Dobson was also heavily influenced by Jay Levine and James Bryan McCollum of the Canadian band Prozzäk, who co-wrote and helped produce her debut album. During much of 2004, Dobson promoted her debut album, performing live on the program Total Request Live and for numerous magazine covers and articles. She was also the opening act of Justin Timberlake's European tour. That July, she released a new single, "Don't Go (Girls and Boys)", which was also featured in a Tommy Hilfiger commercial featuring the singer.

The album was later reissued with that single added.

Dobson also had a new song, "If You Walk Away", on the soundtrack of Raising Helen.

Dobson was an endorser for the Got Milk? organization.

Dobson's second studio album Sunday Love was originally scheduled for release in 2005, but after complications during production, its mainstream release was cancelled and she left her record label due to creative differences (the album was released independently in 2006 and later made available for digital download in 2012).

Dobson released the record "Truth Anthem" on the Much Dance 2005 CD compilation, a benefit for the Canadian branch of War Child.

It was recorded at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario.

In April 2005, Dobson was nominated for two Juno Awards, Pop Album of the Year and New Artist of the Year; both but lost both categories.

During the summer of 2005, Dobson was in a public service ad: "Make Poverty History", which brings awareness to child poverty worldwide.

Writers she collaborated with during the recording process include Holly Knight, Nina Gordon, Kay Hanley, John 5, Billy Steinberg, Matthew Wilder, Cyndi Lauper, Courtney Love, Joan Jett, and Rancid's Tim Armstrong.

Sunday Love was not released at the time, due to Dobson being terminated by Island Records just days before the album was scheduled for release.

The album was reviewed favorably in both Spin and Vibe magazine.

"My real good fans, my hardcore fans, have it, so that's most important," Dobson says.

"At least it got out there to a few hands, and now it's time to make a record on my own terms."

"It was sad," says Dobson.

"But instead of sitting there and being depressed and begging people for the record, I went back to the studio, got people that I knew, friends that I knew, and I started again."

One song from the unreleased album, "Be Strong", featured on the soundtrack for the film It's a Boy Girl Thing.

In February 2006, Dobson sang "O Canada" at All-Star Saturday Night, part of the 2006 NBA All-Star Weekend in Houston, Texas.

During spring 2006, she performed several shows around the United States, and began promoting the record Sunday Love in anticipation of its release.

She was re-signed to Island Records during production of her third studio album Joy (2010), whose singles "Ghost" and "Stuttering" saw continued success in Canada.