Mary-Jess
When Mary-Jess was nine years old she began singing in the Gloucester Cathedral Youth Choir, and this was just the start of her 12 years in the spot light. At the age of 15 Mary-Jess travelled to China for the first time and sang at the opening ceremony of a major school where she attracted a lot of local press coverage. She has been a member of the National Youth Southern Girls Choir of Great Britain and has taken part in many competitions and charity events.
In 2009 she flew to China as part of her degree in Music and Chinese Studies at the University of Sheffield. It was here that she entered 'Min Xing Chang Fan Tian' (I want to sing to the stars). With her unique voice and grasp of the Chinese language, Mary-Jess took the competition by storm and the 70 million viewers took her to their hearts. Being the only foreign entrant to the competition the odds were stacked against Mary-Jess, but from round one her tenacity in the face of a huge challenge soon turned the audience around.
By the time of the final she was being stopped in the streets and attracting huge amounts of attention in the Chinese media. Her performances of 'When You Believe' and 'Time to Say Goodbye' (both hugely popular songs in China) in the live, televised show stormed her to victory and her winner's speech in near-fluent Mandarin cemented her position as a serious singer in the Chinese community.
After returning home for Christmas, her story sparked a media frenzy leading Mary-Jess in to the centre of a bidding war from all the major record and management companies, she eventually signed a multi-album recording contract with Decca Records, Universal, and to ROAR Global Management.
2010 saw Mary-Jess record her debut album with filmic textures and a contemporary flare, working with some of China's most accomplished musicians to add a touch of the orient; all contributing to an amazing sound guaranteed to captivate audiences worldwide when it is released in summer 2011.