Birth name: Lemar Obika
Date of birth: 4 April 1978
Place of birth: Tottenham, London
Labels: BMG/Sony
Career highlights: Six Top Ten singles, two Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards, two Brit Awards for Best Urban Artist Highest Charting Singles: Dance (With U), number two, 2003, If There’s Any Justice, number three, 2004 

Lemar is best known for his stint on BBC One’s talent show Fame Academy in 2003, winning the hearts and minds of urban music and soul fans across the land.

Unbeknown to most folks at the time, Lemar had already released a single for BMG, but the road to fame was not smooth for the north London boy.

Born to Nigerian parents, Lemar grew up listening to R&B and used to sing at home with his brother, pretending to be The Jacksons! At 18 he performed his first concert supporting Usher in Tottenham.

Spurred on by the experience he gave up his place at Cardiff University to study pharmacy, and landed a deal with BMG. He was later dropped as his first single failed to chart and the firm merged with Sony.

A stint at NatWest Bank as an accounts manager followed, before he bagged another deal with Sony, and the rest, as the say, is history.

Following the success of his Time to Grow (2004) and The Truth About Love (2006) albums, he has penned tunes for other artists too, including boyband V’s Walk On single.

Expect a lot more from this dedicated British pop icon.