Kelli Young

Kelli Young (born 7 April 1982) is an English singer. She is best known as member of the pop group Liberty X.^[1]

Kelli Young
Birth name	Kelli Young
Born	(1982-04-07) 7 April 1982 (age 42) Derby, England
Genres	Pop
Occupation	Singer
Years active	2001–2007 2013–present
Member of	Liberty X
Spouse	Iain James ​ (m. 2011)​

Personal life

Kelli Young was born 7 April 1982. She went to Derby High School, Littleover, until she was 16. Her mother is Bajan.

In 2011, she married the songwriter Iain James, after five years of dating, and they have twin boys, born in July 2012.^[2]

Career

2001–2007: Liberty X and hiatus

In 2001, Young auditioned for the ITV reality television music competition Popstars, a show intended to form a new group from individual contestants, becoming one of the finalist. While the five winning contestants formed Hear'Say, the five runner-up contestants – Young, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Jessica Taylor and Michelle Heaton – formed the group Liberty X and signed a multimillion-pound record contract with Richard Branson and V2 Records. Liberty X released three studio albums and enjoyed seven Top 10 singles from 2001 to 2005: Their biggest hit, "Just a Little", reached number one in May 2002; "Thinking It Over", "Got to Have Your Love", "Song 4 Lovers", and "Holding on for You" all reached the top 5 in the UK Singles Chart. They split up in 2007 after selling over 3 million records worldwide.

After the split, Young starred the ITV Christmas special Britain Sings Christmas in 2007, performing a cover version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You". She tried to sign a solo deal with a few labels, but failed and took a long hiatus from her artistic career.^[3]

2013–present: Liberty X return

In 2013 Young reunited with Liberty X for ITV2's reality show The Big Reunion, along with other pop groups of their time – B*Witched, Honeyz, 911, Five and Atomic Kitten – to solve past problems and do a live performance at the London Hammersmith Apollo on 26 February.^[4][5] Due to the success, Liberty X returned for a full tour between 2013 and 2014.^[6] In 2017, Young, Jessica Taylor and Michelle Heaton reformed Liberty X again, but as a three-piece girl group, without Tony and Kevin.^[7] Since then, they continued touring at music festivals and Pride events.^[8][9]

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Popstars	Contestant	Season 1
2013	The Big Reunion	Herself

Discography

Guest appearances

Title	Year	Other artists	Album
"Go Go"	2004	Billy Crawford	Big City
"All I Want for Christmas Is You"	2007	—	Britain Sings Christmas

References

1. "'Big Reunion' stars return to the stage". Digital Spy. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
2. Corner, Lewis (21 October 2016). "Whatever happened to Liberty X?". Digital Spy. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
3. Thursday, 18 October 2012 (18 October 2012). "ITVS to reform pop bands for The Big Reunion". Broadcast. Retrieved 18 October 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
4. Goodacre, Kate (18 October 2012). "Atomic Kitten, 5ive, B*Witched, 911, more to reunite for ITV2 show". Digital Spy.
5. Harvey, Joanna (18 October 2012). "Atomic Kitten, 5ive, Liberty X, 911, B*Witched and The Honeyz are all to reunite for ITV2 show The Big Reunion". Daily Mirror.
6. "Atomic Kitten and 5ive set to reform for ITV2's The Big Reunion". Metro. UK. 18 October 2012.
7. Bychawski, Adam (18 January 2017). "Liberty X are reforming as a girl band". NME. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
8. Sigodo, Melissa (18 August 2021). "Where Liberty X are now, what they look like and net worths". MyLondon.
9. Benson, Rhianna (5 July 2022). "Michelle Heaton admits 'Booze gave me the confidence to perform with Liberty X'". OK!. Retrieved 10 July 2022.