Jamelia’s accidental role as a teen pop star has developed into a long and varied career that keeps her excited and pays the bills. Thrust into the spotlight aged just 15, the girl from Handsworth found herself touring the globe with the likes of Usher and Destiny’s Child, but she managed to keep her cool, handling the pressure and the significant hype brilliantly and emerged from those crazy years unscathed.

With seven top 10 singles, two gold albums and one double platinum in the UK alone, Jamelia is one of the country’s most successful black artists as well as a regular on our TV screens. And now, probably most exciting of all, Jamelia was awarded her very own star on Broad Street’s Walk of Stars which was presented to her last month at a ceremony at Symphony Hall.

IMMORTALISED

Of being immortalised in her home town – the fortieth person to be given the honour – the 37-year-old said: “I am absolutely chuffed to be receiving this. I am and have always been a very proud Brummie, so to be immortalised in this way in the very heart of my hometown has to be one of the highlights of my career so far! Thank you so much. It’s like Birmingham’s answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.”

Launched in 2007, Birmingham’s Walk of Stars was developed to recognise high profile people either born or having lived in the city who have put Birmingham on the map nationally and internationally. The mother-of-three daughters – her ‘Magic Girlz’ as she refers to them – is in good company with other high-profile figures immortalised through the scheme including Lenny Henry, Beverly Knight, Ozzy Osbourne and Julie Walters among scores of other big names.

Comedian Jasper Carrott who is also the chair of Walk of Stars tells us why Jamelia deserves the honour: “Jamelia is a shining example of how to come through from difficult beginnings and succeed in such a spectacular way. Her musical honesty and dedication hits the nerve, leads the way and that is why she so deserves her Walk of Stars award. Birmingham is rightly proud to call her one of our own.”

HOMEMADE ALBUMS

Full name Jamelia Niela Davis, the superstar came from humble beginnings in Handsworth and was always singing. She remembers: “If my family and friends were seated that was my cue for a show. Under duress they listened and applauded.” Jamelia started recording homemade albums and listening back to them on her Walkman.

One of the albums was taken to EMI by one of Jamelia’s cousins and they liked what they heard. Fiercely protective, her mother who was in on the initial meeting with the record label, let the music executives know fairly forcefully that her daughter wouldn’t be signing anything until she’d passed her exams. This was the incentive Jamelia needed to get her head down at school. She got the grades and clinched the deal.

SHOWING OFF

During the Noughties, Jamelia’s catchy R&B tracks stormed the charts. Top 10 spots became the norm and singles like Superstar and Thank You still feel fresh well over a decade on. A clutch of MOBO awards, nine BRIT nominations, a Q Award and a meeting with Nelson Mandela followed. The stuff of dreams and yet the down to earth Brummie took it all in her stride.

She says: “Don’t get me wrong. I love the glitzy side of my life, but it’s not the way I live day-to-day.” Many of Jamelia’s ‘inner circle’ is made up of old friends she went to school with and she is immensely proud of her home town. “Showing the city off to friends from the South is one of my favourite past times. They arrive with misconceptions about what Birmingham is like, but leave thinking it’s cool and can’t wait to come back.”

MISS VERSATILITY

After 10 years in the music industry, Jamelia tried her hand at television and the versatile star has become a regular panellist and TV presenter as well as making documentaries and judging talent shows. She’s also enjoyed acting roles alongside the likes of Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones and Daniel Mays and her successful modelling career has seen her fronting campaigns for brands such as Reebok, Pretty Polly, Toni and Guy and Boux Avenue. She’s also graced the covers of Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harpers & Queen and more illustriously, our very own Birmingham Living magazine!

Jamelia must pinch herself at times. Her accidental role as a teen pop star has morphed into a long and varied career that keeps her excited and pays the bills. Thrust into the spotlight at age fifteen, she was soon touring the world with the likes of Usher and Destiny’s Child. Jamelia could have believed the hype and overindulged, but she didn’t, and has maintained her likeable down to earth nature as a result. She isn’t ‘papped’ falling out of nightclubs, or checking into rehab. And when asked if she has ever been tempted to search for a more showbiz life, her trademark hearty laugh ensues: “It’s never crossed my mind to leave Birmingham let alone Britain. I’m lucky enough to be able to travel wherever and whenever I like, but there’s no place like home.”

ALBUMS

Jamelia didn’t envisage a career in music. She was just a girl with a good voice who loved singing. “If my family and friends were seated that was my cue for a show. Under duress they listened and applauded,” she says. When her estranged father gave her a karaoke machine, she started recording homemade albums and listening to them on her Walkman. Thanks to Jamelia’s cousin, one of her ‘albums’ made it into the hands of EMI who spotted her potential right away. Jamelia remembers sitting next to her mum discussing terms with EMI executives when her mother put the brakes on and declared, “she’s not signing anything until she’s passed her exams.” A determined Jamelia had been disinterested in class until then, but she returned to school, knuckled down, got the grades and returned to EMI to clinch the deal.

CATCHY

Jamelia’s catchy R&B tracks stormed the charts throughout the noughties. Top ten spots became the norm and singles like ‘Superstar’ and ‘Thank You’ still feel fresh over a decade on. A fistful of MOBOs, nine BRIT nominations, a Q Award and a tete-a-tete with Nelson Mandela followed. This was the stuff of teenage dreams and yet against the odds, Jamelia managed to avoid the trappings of fame and has carved out a successful and varied career. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the glitzy side of my life, but it’s not the way I live day-to-day.” She was rubbing shoulders with Denzel Washington on the red carpet a few days before our interview, but Jamelia is able to hop on and off the showbiz treadmill, mainly because of her determination to stay in Brum. Most of her ‘inner circle’ is made up of old friends she went to school with and she is immensely proud of her home town. “Showing the city off to friends from the South is one of my favourite past times. They arrive with misconceptions about what Birmingham is like, but leave thinking it’s cool and can’t wait to come back.”

SINGLE MUM

The only clichéd part of Jamelia’s pop star life was her marriage to premiership footballer Darren Byfield. The marriage ended in 2009 and despite being brought up by her single mum, Jamelia was consumed by shame at finding herself on her own with two daughters. “If people I met assumed I had a husband I wouldn’t correct them,” she admits. “When the opportunity arose to get involved with the BBC3 documentary Shame About Single Mums I jumped at the chance.” The programme had a profound effect on Jamelia; she spent half of filming in tears as she encountered brave women and listed to their shocking stories of suffering and stigmatisation. “It changed my life,” she says. “Although single parenting is not ideal, it’s perfectly possible to have a loving relationship with your children, be a good parent and absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.” Jamelia seems to have inherited her mother’s protective streak, choosing to home school her children, however when her oldest daughter asked if she could go to school aged ten Jamelia didn’t hesitate. “My girls are everything. I’d do anything for them. The fact they passed the entrance exam reassured me I did a good job at home.”

ACTING

Although music is her first love, Jamelia is relishing all of the other projects that have come her way. “Acting has been a revelation. I had no idea I could act or that the leap was possible,” she says. In BBC1 series Death in Paradise alongside Ben Miller, Jamelia managed to combine both acting and singing by playing a singer who was poisoned mid-performance. She ditched her Brummie twang in favour of a Basian lilt and put in a really convincing performance. I’m intrigued to know if there’s a man on the horizon, but Jamelia says she might wait until her girls have left home before she looks for love again. Given they’re seven and 11 I hope she’s joking and anyway aren’t their fellas queuing round the block? “Where would I find a suitable man?” she laughs. “Every man I meet knows everything about me, or thinks he does which makes dating odd.”

DAYDREAMS

While there is a well documented darker side to Jamelia’s extended family, it’s hard to reconcile with the person before me. It makes Jamelia’s charming nature even more remarkable. The lyrics to Thank You hint at Jamelia’s own experience of domestic violence with an old flame. Perhaps knowing such horrors explains her strength and determination to be the best she can be and to protect her girls to the utmost. She feels lucky to have escaped the more difficult periods of her past and to have cultivated such a lovely life. “I daydreamed about this sort of life growing up, but I didn’t really believe it would happen. I’m able to give my girls what they need which makes me happy. They are everything to me.”