Maria Fans >> The FIRST Maria Lawson Fan Site!!!

A BIT MORE ABOUT MARIA

Maria Lawson - A 30 year old singer songwriter, born and raised in London as the youngest of 5, with 3 brothers and 1 sister. Maria has been singing since she was 13, and through her life has been inspired by musical legends like Tina Turner, Gabrielle and Diana Ross but only now has the world been able to see and appreciate Maria Lawson's talents.

Although a dedicated writer Maria was always looking for opportunities to showcase her singing abilities, and took the opportunity by entering 2004's ITV show The X-Factor. After originally making it past the first audition, she had to be placed into one of three categories: 16-24 year old soloists, groups and 25+ soloists. Being 29 at the time Maria was placed with the 25 and overs, but only 3 could make it to the live shows and her journey was cut short as she was eliminated from the competition as one of the top 10.

Undeterred, Maria came back for the second series in 2005, bigger, better and beaming with confidence! She battled her way through the rounds and even spent a weekend at Sharon Osbourne's mansion in L.A. and recorded in Ozzy's studio. Then after an agonising wait she was finally selected as one of the top 4 of the 25+ category, to compete with 11 other contestants on weekly live shows for a ?1 million recording contract with BMG. Maria won the public's support as she was voted through to the following rounds week after week, after raising the roof with soul classics like 'Another Piece Of My Heart' and more recent tracks including 'You're Beautiful' by James Blunt. Simon Cowell said 'it's very rare that we do find someone as talented as you in this country Maria' and even predicted she would have a hit record.

As the show went on Maria was tipped as a firm favourite to win the competition, but in a shock result show Maria was placed in the bottom two with Irish vocal harmony group The Conway Sisters at the final 8 stage, and was eventually sent packing by Louis Walsh. This decision provoked a media frenzy around Maria. Sharon Osbourne claimed that it was the 'Irish Mafia' and that Louis was voting with his passport and not on talent. However, the decision was made and Maria had taken defeat graciously and was simply pleased to have made the final 8 out of 75,000 people.

Maria later went on a UK tour with with Shayne Ward , Journey South, Brenda, Andy, Chico, The Conway Sisters and Nicholas from the show and wowed crowds of up to 15,000 people with her vocals, her looks and her stage presence for nearly 2 months before jetting off to Los Angeles to write and record her debut album under the SonyBMG subisdery label, Phonogenic. Her debut single is set for release in June, with her debut album in October. Keep checking back to the home page for regular updates...