Louise Gabrielle Bobb (born April 16, 1970, Hackney) is a multi-platinum selling, Brit Award winning English singer who records under the name Gabrielle.
Her debut single Dreams topped the UK charts in June 1993. The single entered the British charts at #2, which was the highest chart entry a debut act ever scored in the UK at that time. The following week it climbed to the top spot and spent the next three weeks there.
Gabrielle has won two BRIT Awards, the first in 1994 for British Breakthrough Act, and the second in 1997 for Best British Female.—
Other notable singles include "Going Nowhere", "Give Me A Little More Time", "Walk on By" (a cover of the Burt Bacharach/Dionne Warwick classic) and "If You Ever" - a duet with East 17.
She met Anthony Antoniou, the owner of a chain of chip shops in Sheffield. She had a son (Jordan) with him, but never saw him again from the day after her son's birth. On February 2 1996, Gabrielle was arrested by Chesterfield CID in connection with the death of Walter McCarthy, a chip shop owner from Sheffield, whose decapitated body was found near Cutthroat Bridge on the A57 on December 22 1995. Her former boyfriend, Anthony Antoniou, had already been charged with Mr McCarthy's (his stepfather) murder. He was jailed for life in March 1997 at Nottingham Crown Court. He had murdered him with a samurai sword, after arguing on a car journey. The head was buried in a wood near Luton.
After a bad few years, seeing her life being splashed across the tabloids Gabrielle made a stunning comeback. Using a sample from Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "Rise" became Gabrielle's second UK number one in 2000. The album of the same name also reached the top spot, where it stayed for three weeks. It spent 87 weeks in the charts.
The successful Out of Reach from the soundtrack to Bridget Jones's Diary, reached number 4 in the UK singles chart and remains one of her most famous singles to date.
In 2004 Gabrielle's fourth studio album Play To Win reached number 10 in the UK and it's maiden single Stay the Same debuted at number 20 in the official UK singles chart. A supporting UK tour followed.
(Lemme add one of my favourites - Sunshine)
In 2007 she released a new single, "Why", which she performed on The National Lottery show on September 19 as well as many other TV slots. "Why" did not chart in the Top 40. On October 1, her new album Always was released. It peaked at a respectable number 11, but quickly fell off the charts. It included a version of "Why" that featured Paul Weller.
Gabrielle set off on a sell out UK tour of 14 dates through February. Critics gave very positive reviews on her performances. Following the relative disappointment regarding the singles "Why" and "Every Little Teardrop" Gabrielle stated: “If people don’t like that song then I’ll find one that they do like because I have done it before and I’ll do it again. That old saying ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again’, well that’s me, because I’m a fighter not a quitter.”
Gabrielle headlined the "Zermatt Unplugged" festival April 2008 along with Alanis Morrisette.
In addition she Headlined "Birmingham Pride" 2008.
In May 2008, Gabrielle won an Ivor Novello award for Best Song Collection. The annual awards ceremony is described as the 'Oscars of the music industry'. Other winners included Amy Winehouse and Radiohead.
