DIXON
Alesha

• 1. Early life

Alesha Anjanette Dixon is a British singer, rapper, dancer, television personality, and author. She rose to fame in the early 2000s as a member of the R&B, garage and hip hop group Mis-Teeq. The group disbanded in 2005 and Dixon then pursued a music career as a solo artist, signing a recording contract with Polydor Records. She recorded her debut solo studio album, Fired Up in 2006, releasing her debut single "Lipstick", followed by "Knockdown", after which her popularity as a singer had declined and was subsequently dropped from Polydor.

In 2007, Dixon won the fifth series of the BBC One dancing competition show Strictly Come Dancing. Her television exposure led to a successful musical comeback, which included her signing to Asylum Records. In 2008, she released her second studio album, The Alesha Show, which received platinum certification in the UK and spawned the successful singles "The Boy Does Nothing" and "Breathe Slow", the latter of which became her highest charting single.

In 2009, Dixon became a judge on the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing, and the following year, she released her third studio album, The Entertainer. In 2012, shortly after judging on the ninth series of Strictly Come Dancing, Dixon quit to become a judge on the ITV talent show competition Britain's Got Talent. Her fourth studio album, Do It for Love, was released in 2015. In 2020, Dixon was a judge on America's Got Talent: The Champions, and in 2021, she was a judge on Walk the Line. In 2022, Dixon will judge the tenth season of Australia's Got Talent.

As a television presenter, Dixon has hosted Alesha's Street Dance Stars (2010), Your Face Sounds Familiar (2013), Text Santa (2014–2015), Dance Dance Dance (2017), The Greatest Dancer (2019–2020), and Comic Relief (2019-2022). She has also written a series of children's books titled Lightning Girl.

Early life

Alesha Anjanette Dixon was born on 7th October 1978 in Welwyn Garden City to a Jamaican father, Marvin, and English mother, Beverly Harris. Dixon has six half-siblings.

She was educated at Monk's Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Dixon's parents separated when she was four and her father moved away, resulting in her later describing her family life as "very dysfunctional". Between the ages of eight and ten, Dixon witnessed her mother suffer domestic violence from her partner; she only spoke publicly about the issue 21 years later, in 2010. Dixon created a documentary for the BBC, Don't Hit My Mum, regarding the issue of domestic abuse from a child's perspective, and remarked upon her own childhood: "When I think about that time, I don't remember living in harmony, I don't remember any fun times, I suppose because the negativity has clouded it. The negative times and the scary times have blocked anything that was good ... I believe that every child has the right to grow up in an environment where they feel secure and fearless going into the world, and I didn't really feel that".

Dixon's first job was at Ladbrokes, although she aspired to become a PE teacher after leaving college. After completing a diploma course in sports studies, she had planned to take up a place at Loughborough University, but at dance classes in London she was approached by a talent scout from a production company. While travelling back home on the train she was approached by another scout who was forming a group and asked if she was interested.