Jo O'Meara
Jo O'Meara
Birthdate:	29 April 1979 (1979-04-29) (age 28)
Birth location:	Romford,
Shoe size:	6 (UK size)
Eye colour:	blue
Hair colour:	Blonde
Skin colour:	White
Orientation:	straight
Ethnicity:	English
[IMDB Profile Official web site]

Joanne Valda O'Meara (born 29 April 1979) in Romford, London Borough of Havering is an English singer and actress. Formerly a key singer with the group S Club (7), she launched a solo career after the group's split in 2003 which was cut short following a disastrous appearance on Celebrity Big Brother where she was embroiled in a racial bullying controversy.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 2-4 Family 1.2 S Club 7 1.3 Solo career 2 Celebrity Big Brother 2007 2.1 Accusations of Racial Bullying 2.2 Reaction and Aftermath 2.3 Ofcom Report confirms Racism in Celebrity Big Brother 2007 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Singles 3.3 Unreleased Material 4 Also see 5 Selected filmography 5.1 Films 5.2 Television 6 References 7 External links

Biography

O'Meara was born in Romford, London Borough of Havering in east London to parents Dave and Barbara. She grew up in Collier Row, a suburban housing estate in the north of Romford in the London Borough of Havering. She was educated at Clockhouse Junior School and Bower Park School.

2-4 Family

In 1998, Jo started off her music career in the hip hop/rap group, 2-4 Family. She was however, only a part of the group for the duration of one track release, before deciding to leave to pursue other projects.

S Club 7

Main article: S Club

In her teenage years, Jo O'Meara would serve food at her local pub in Ilford. It was there that someone from 19 Entertainment spotted her on stage and recruited her to join a new pop group S Club 7. She was a prominent member of the British group, singing most of the group's lead vocals, as well as acting with the group in TV series such as Miami 7, LA 7, Hollywood 7 and Viva S Club, as well as S Club's own movie, "Seeing Double".

During the filming of the movie, Jo hurt her back, limiting S Club's dance routines and leaving her out of the group for a brief period. Jo's voice remained, however, her vocals were re-recorded by Rachel Stevens for use during live television performances. Jo eventually returned to continue performing with S Club and to promote the movie. She remained with the band until their ultimate split in 2003.

Solo career

Many speculated as to when Jo would make her comeback, having been the most prominent vocalist in S Club 7, but it was Rachel Stevens who was the first member of the band to release solo material. Jo surprised many of her fans by taking a long hiatus from pop music, and it was speculated that she was healing her back injury. According to reports in a tabloid newspaper Jo, who was estimated to be worth £500,000 when she left S Club, became addicted to gambling when she was unable to perform in the band due to her back problems.

In July 2005, Jo announced that she had signed a new solo recording deal with Sanctuary Records, the label behind acts such as Morrissey, KISS and Megadeth.

Her debut single, "What Hurts the Most", was released on 26 September, 2005, followed a week later by her album, Relentless. This, however, quickly fell out of the chart and sold poorly peaking at #47. It also charted and sold poorly throughout Europe reaching #82 in the Republic of Ireland. Jo abruptly left the record label while they were still planning to release a second single.

In 2006 she took part in the BBC gameshow Just the Two of Us. Her singing partner was Chris Fountain, an actor in Hollyoaks, a British Soap opera. The pair came 3rd in the competition, failing to attract enough votes to make the final after their performance of "Never Had a Dream Come True".

In March 2006, "What Hurts The Most" was recorded and released by country group Rascal Flatts. It reached #1 on the US Billboard Country Chart, and peaked on the Hot 100 at #6.

Celebrity Big Brother 2007

Main article: Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK)

O'Meara was the 4th person to enter the Celebrity Big Brother house on 3 January 2007. According to the Daily Mirror, Jo entered the show to pay off her £34,000 debt and relaunch her singing career, with a plan to launch her new single shortly after her exit from the house.

She received a positive reaction from the crowd and admitted live that she had no idea what she was doing on the show. When betting opened, she was favourite to win.

Accusations of Racial Bullying

More than 50,000 complaints were received by broadcasting regulator Ofcom about racial bullying directed towards Indian housemate Shilpa Shetty by Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd, Jack Tweed and Jo O'Meara.

The basis of racist accuations against O'Meara were as follows:

• On Days 11 and 12, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara poked fun at Shilpa's accent.

• Jo implied that all Indians were thin because they were always ill as a result of undercooking their food because she believed Shilpa undercooked a chicken meal.

• After a particularly nasty verbal attack on Shilpa by Jade, witnessed by a giggling Jo and Danielle, Jo said that the verbal attack had made her day and that she felt a lot better for it.

Reaction and Aftermath

Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, said "What we are seeing is a noxious brew of old-fashioned class conflict, straightforward bullying, ignorance and quite vicious racial bigotry. It is outrageous, and it is unpleasant".

Jo became the 4th housemate to be evicted from the show, leaving the house on Friday January 26 in a surprise double eviction, along with fellow contestant Cleo Rocos.

In her eviction interview with Davina McCall Jo did not apologise for her comments and behaviour towards Shilpa Shetty, claiming she had done nothing wrong, a stance which she would continue to take in subsequent interviews. O'Meara also claimed that imitating her accent wasn't necessarily racist as Shilpa herself had laughed at Jo's imitation of her accent.

Her former housemate, Jade, disagreed with Jo's statement that she had done nothing wrong: "She's done everything wrong. She's made big mistakes;" and Jo's sister Julie admitted: "Jo should be very disappointed with herself."

In a subsequent interview with GMTV which aired on Tuesday January 30, 2007 O'Meara apologised for her behaviour, but denied that she had been a bully or a racist while in the house, "I couldn't use those words. My cousins are actually of a different race and to use those sort of words, it would make me sick. I haven't got a racist bone in my body and I'm not a bully". She blamed poor editing by the show's producers (although this claim is undermined by the fact that the show was shown as a live feed on sister channel E4) and misquotation in interviews by national newspapers (especially the Mirror article) following the Celebrity Big Brother final, for contributing to her already-ruined image. She revealed she has not returned home due to unspecified death threats and concerns over her safety and was suffering from nervous exhaustion. She also revealed that her reason for entering the house was to help save her home, which had been threatened with repossession..

In February 2007, the News of the World reported that O'Meara attempted to commit suicide and was "rushed to hospital" by friends.. In an interview with Heat magazine (3-9 March 2007) she denied any intention to commit suicide as it would hurt her family but admitted some weight loss due to stress. She was also reported to be facing bankruptcy after her home was remortgaged for £200,000 without her knowledge and £200,000 went missing from her savings after apparently being a victim of a con scam. Media reports at the time suggested her house was in imminent danger of being repossessed.

Ofcom Report confirms Racism in Celebrity Big Brother 2007

In May 2007, Endemol released previously withheld material in which O'Meara, Tweed and Goody constructed a limerick which was based around, although it did not directly use, the word "paki", instead replacing the racist slur for the word "tacky". Ofcom published the report which confirmed that there had been racism towards Shetty.

Discography

Albums

• "Relentless", 3 October 2005

Singles

• "What Hurts the Most", September 26, 2005

Unreleased Material

• Blue Today, Blue tommarrow - a 13 second track leaked online in 2005 before "Relentless" was released.

• Amazed - Appeared on the original tracklistings for "[Relentless (Jo O'Meara album)|Relentless]]" - Removed at the last moment.

• Incureable - Appeared on the original tracklistings for "[Relentless (Jo O'Meara album)|Relentless]]" - Removed at the last moment.

• Don't Wanna Let You Down - The Mp3 of this track has been made available through various fansites, It's a duet with Lee Ryan, but Lee's managment were unhappy with the song and it was never released. The track was written by Jo herself

Also see

See- Celebrity Big Brother 2007 racism controversy (UK)

Selected filmography

Films

Television

References

External links

v • d • e S Club (7)
Tina Barrett - Paul Cattermole - Jon Lee - Bradley McIntosh - Jo O'Meara - Hannah Spearritt - Rachel Stevens
Discography
Studio albums: S Club - 7 - Sunshine - Seeing Double - Don't Stop Movin' (US) - Best - The Greatest Hits
Singles: "Bring it All Back" - "S Club Party" - "Two in a Million/You're My Number One" - "Reach" - "Natural" - "Never Had a Dream Come True" - "Don't Stop Movin'" - "Have You Ever" - "You" - "Alive" - "Say Goodbye/Love Ain't Gonna Wait for You"
Filmography
Movies: Seeing Double - Back to the 50s (TV) - Boyfriends & Birthdays (TV) - Christmas Special (TV) - Artistic Differences (TV)
Television: Miami 7 - LA 7 - Hollywood 7 - Viva S Club - S Club Go Wild
Related bands
S Club 8 - Upper Street