David Grant | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | David Beresford Grant |
| Born | 8 August 1956 Kingston, Colony of Jamaica |
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | Chrysalis, Polydor, Fourth & Broadway |
| Website | carrieanddavidgrant |
David Beresford Grant MBE (born 8 August 1956)[1][2] is an English singer, comedian and vocal coach.
Grant became famous in the early 1980s as a member of UK soul/funk duo Linx,[3] whose biggest hit was "Intuition" in 1981.[4] He began a solo career in 1983 with the top 40 hit "Stop and Go". Further hits included "Watching You Watching Me" and two duets with Jaki Graham – "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love", which reached number five in 1985, and the Todd Rundgren-penned "Mated", which made number 20 later that year.[3] He has also worked as a session singer for artists including Diana Ross, Rick Astley and Lighthouse Family.[citation needed]
David has become well known, along with his wife Carrie, as vocal coach on Pop Idol and judge/vocal coach on Fame Academy and its spin-off Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. In addition, he has worked with[clarification needed] some of the UK's top pop acts including the Spice Girls, Take That, S Club, and more recently Will Young, Atomic Kitten, Melanie C, Lemar, Charlotte Church, Joss Stone, Geri Halliwell and Julian Perretta.[citation needed]
He also appeared regularly as a panellist on the topical debate show The Wright Stuff. In 2006, he appeared in the four-part series The Sound of Musicals. In September 2006 he appeared on MasterChef. At the start of 2008 David Grant sat as a judge on The One and Only, where he again worked alongside Carrie.[citation needed]
Soon after, David starred as the celebrity 'hider' in an episode of the CBBC show Hider in the House. He is so far the only celebrity to have been 'discovered' in the first day's filming of the show. This appearance was a precursor to David and Carrie branching out into children's television later in the year, when they hosted their own CBeebies show Carrie and David's Popshop.[citation needed]
Grant often presented episodes of Songs of Praise and is a regular talking head expert for Channel 5 on a number of pop music-based chart countdowns.[5][6]
Grant was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and moved to London as a child in the late 1950s.[7][1] David and his wife Carrie have four children: Olive, Tylan, Arlo,[8] and an adopted son, Nathan.[9][10] All of their children are neurodivergent.[11] David and Carrie are both Christian, and run a church plant in their home.[12]
Grant was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours.[13]
| Year | Title | UK [14] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | David Grant | 32 | |||
| 1985 | Hopes and Dreams | 96 | |||
| 1987 | Change | — | |||
| 1990 | Anxious Edge | — | |||
| 1993 | The Best of David Grant & Linx | ― | |||
| 1997 | Watching and Waiting (with Carrie Grant) | — | |||
| 2004 | Best of Jaki Graham & David Grant & Linx | — | |||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE (FLA) [15] |
IRE [16] |
NL [17] |
NZ [18] |
UK [14][19] |
US Dance [20] |
US R&B [20] | ||
| 1982 | "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas" (with The Wallace Fields Middle School Choir) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1983 | "Stop and Go" | — | — | — | 38 | 19 | 40 | 75 |
| "Watching You, Watching Me" | — | 15 | — | — | 10 | — | — | |
| "Love Will Find a Way" | — | — | — | — | 24 | — | — | |
| "Rock the Midnight" | — | — | — | — | 46 | — | — | |
| 1984 | "Organise"/"Wrap Yourself Around Me" | — | — | — | — | 90 | — | — |
| 1985 | "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" (duet with Jaki Graham) | 23 | 8 | 17 | 48 | 5 | — | 60 |
| "Where Our Love Begins" | — | — | — | — | 80 | — | — | |
| "Mated" (duet with Graham) | 16 | 23 | 17 | — | 20 | — | — | |
| 1986 | "Close to You" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1987 | "Take Us Back" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "Change" | — | — | — | — | 55 | — | — | |
| "Before Too Long" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1988 | "Intuition '88" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1989 | "Life" (featuring Mike Stevens) | — | — | — | — | 86 | — | — |
| 1990 | "Keep It Together" | — | — | — | — | 56 | — | — |
| "Life '90" (featuring The Original Double Trouble) (Norman Cook remix) | — | — | — | — | 98 | — | — | |
| 1992 | "Hurt" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1999 | "Shake" (Foreal People featuring David Grant) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | ||||||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Birds of a Feather | Audience member | 1 episode |
| 2004 | Mysti | Himself | 1 episode |
| 2008 | Carrie and David's Popshop | Himself | 30 episodes |
| 2020 | Hollyoaks | Mal | 1 episode[21] |
