Amelle Berrabah

Amelle Sousa Berrabah (born 22 April 1984), also known as Amelle, is an English singer and rapper. She is best known for being a former member of the girl group the Sugababes, replacing founding member Mutya Buena, who left the group in December 2005. She achieved a solo number one single in 2009 when she featured on Tinchy Stryder's single "Never Leave You", which made her the only member of the Sugababes to achieve a number-one single outside of the group.

Early life Amelle Sousa Berrabah was born on 22 April 1984 in Aldershot, Hampshire to Moroccan parents. She has four sisters, younger sister Samiya, older sisters Laila, Zakiya and Nora and a brother, Khaled. Her family owned a kebab shop in Aldershot. Berrabah's father died of cancer in 2002. Berrabah attended The Connaught School in Aldershot and the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, the latter on the merit of a scholarship. It was then that she met her managers and formed the group Boo2 with her sister, Samiya, and began looking for record contract opportunities. The first single to feature Berrabah's vocals, "Red Dress", entered the UK Singles Chart at number four. which went to number one. On 28 April 2007, Berrabah was arrested over allegations that she had assaulted a girl on the dancefloor in a club. The charges were quickly dropped when it was revealed that she was not even in town at the time. Around this time, Berrabah also featured on "Never Leave You" by Tinchy Stryder in 2009, the single debuted at number one in the UK. Following these events, Berrabah checked into a European health clinic for a three-week stay, citing "severe nervous exhaustion". Sweet 7 was released in early 2010 after multiple delays from late 2009. It charted at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart.

The Sugababes began recording a new studio album soon after, leaving Island Records for a distribution deal with RCA Records in 2011. The first single, was intended to be the song "Freedom" was released for free in August as a gift to fans. A few months after the release, Range explained that the Sugababes were taking a break while they pursued individual endeavours.

2011–present: Solo career

Berrabah began working on solo material in 2011 with producer Pete Kirtley, who had previously produced her co-writing contribution, "Now You're Gone" from Taller in More Ways and material by Boo2. In January 2012, Berrabah confirmed she had been working on a solo album. A clip of the song "God Won't Save You Now" was posted to the SoundCloud account of Kirtley and fellow producer Sacha , who are collectively known as D-B-X. The full song leaked a few weeks later. On 6 March 2012, it was reported Berrabah had gone to Los Angeles to record new material for the album. Berrabah was featured on the song "Ordinary Me" by rapper Mr. Bigz on the latter's mixtape The Bigz Bang Theory in late 2012.

In May 2013, Berrabah confirmed she had nearly completed work on her solo album, and was looking to release the collection some time in the summer. Berrabah had earlier stated that she had written every song on the album apart from two. Berrabah teamed up with British DJ Adam J for his single "Love (Is All We Need)", and featured production team The Nightcrashers. Berrabah released another single, "Summertime", on 21 September 2014. During this time, Berrabah also made a series of appearances on reality competitions, competing in the BBC celebrity gymnastics show Tumble (with professional partner Douglas Fordyce) in mid-2014, and Celebrity Masterchef in 2016. She made her theatre debut in 2019, with the jukebox musical Club Tropicana.

In January 2022, Berrabah was announced as the presenter of the late show on Milton Keynes radio station MKFM.

Personal life Berrabah married Marcio Sousa Rosa on 17 October 2014 and the couple filed for divorce in 2020. They share a daughter, Amirah Hope.

Discography

Singles

Other appearances

Music videos + List of featured music videos, showing year released and director Title Year Director(s) "Never Leave You"(with Tinchy Stryder) 2009 Emil Nava "Love Is All We Need"(with Adam J and Nightcrashers) 2013 N/A

Songwriting credits SongYearArtistAlbumNotes "Now You're Gone" 2006 Sugababes Taller in More Ways Co-writer"Easy" Overloaded: The Singles Collection "Good to be Gone" 2007 Sugababes Change Co-writer "Change" 2008 Sugababes Catfights and Spotlights Co-writer "Beware"