Ray Quinn

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Raymond Arthur "Ray" Quinn (born 25 August 1988 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English actor, singer, and dancer. He finished second in talent show The X Factor in 2006, and won the 2009 series of Dancing on Ice.

Early life

Quinn attended Rudston Junior School in Childwall and Gateacre Comprehensive School, Liverpool.^{[citation needed]} From a very young age a major influence in his life was his dance coach Suzanne Taylor.^[1] Quinn often claims that his interests in dancing led to him being isolated from his peers during his childhood. He described his school life as "humming his favourite songs in the corner of the playground, while all the other lads would be playing football or other things that teenagers would get up to."

Quinn went on to study Performing Arts at Merseyside Dance and Drama College for a three-year course where he completed two years before joining the X Factor finals.^{[citation needed]}

Appearances and awards

Filmography

• Brookside, "Anthony Murray" (2000–2003)
• Merseybeat (2003)
• Doctors, "Owen Miller" (2006)
• The Afternoon Play, "John Reilly" (2005)
• Bulletproof, "Ben" (2006) short film, Cannes Film Festival (France)
• Cactus Jack, "John" (2005) short film, BBC

Theatre

1998

• Me and My Girl, dancer – Empire Theatre, Liverpool
• Peter Pan, dancer, actor and singer (Lost Boy) – Neptune Theatre, Liverpool

2004

• Buster, actor – Liverpool Playhouse

2008

• Grease, dancer, actor and singer (Doody) – Piccadilly Theatre, London^[2]

• Aladdin, Aladdin – Broadway Theatre, Peterborough ^[3]

Present and Upcoming (2009)

• Grease, dancer, actor and singer (Danny Zuko) – current role
• Sleeping Beauty (Pantomime) (Prince) - upcoming

Dance

• Disco – British Champion
• Ballroom – British Champion, European Champion, World Latin Champion
• Latin – British Champion
• Modern – British Champion
• Ballet – Advanced Level
• Tap – Advanced Level
• Modern – Advanced Level
• Jazz – Advanced Level

Radio

• The Lost Boys – Narrator of book for Big Toe Radio, September 2004
• Millions – Narrator of the film for Big Toe Radio, November 2004

Awards

• 2002 – Best Dramatic Performance, The British Soap Awards
• 2002 – Best Storyline, The British Soap Awards
• 2002 – Best Young Actor, Inside Soap Awards
• 2002 – Best Performance in a Network Soap, Royal TV Society
• 2005 – Manchester Talent Competition – £5000 prize
• 2007 – Scouseology Award, Best Personality
• 2007 – Liverpool Local Hero Awards, Contribution to Music

Singing career

The X Factor (2006)

In 2006, Quinn took part in the third series of UK talent show The X Factor.

Quinn was in the 16–24s category which was mentored by Simon Cowell. As the category's mentor, Cowell chose which contestants made it to the live rounds of the show. Initially, Quinn did not make Cowell's selection of seven contestants for the later stages of the competition, but Cowell subsequently “felt he had made a mistake”. It was then decided that the seven should be expanded to eight, and Quinn was called back. Quinn went on to be chosen as one of Cowell's final four contestants who would appear in the live rounds of the competition.

Many of Quinn's X Factor performances had an old-fashioned feel, and in the earlier stages of the competition he was criticised by judge Louis Walsh for repeatedly performing swing-style numbers. Judge Sharon Osbourne once referred to him as "panto boy" and the judges generally queried his ability as a pure singer as opposed to a "song-and-dance man".

For the first four weeks of the series Quinn survived in the contest without being in the bottom two sing-off. In week five, however, Quinn, along with Nikitta Angus, polled the fewest votes from the public. Louis voted for Quinn to leave the competition, but Sharon and Simon voted in Quinn's favour, keeping him in the contest. Quinn then survived the next four weeks, eventually narrowly finishing as runner-up to Leona Lewis.

Following the conclusion of the show, Quinn participated in The X Factor UK and Ireland Tour with the other finalists from the third series. This took place in February and March 2007.

Quinn was associated with fellow third-series finalists Eton Road prior to the auditions.^[4][5]

Post X Factor

After The X Factor, Quinn was signed by Sony BMG and on 16 January 2007 recorded a swing album^[6] at the Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles.^[7] His self-titled debut album Ray Quinn: Doing It My Way was released 12 March 2007, the same day as that of fellow X Factor finalist Ben Mills. The album went straight to number one in the UK charts. The album also went Gold in the first week.^[8]

Quinn embarked on his own sell-out^{[citation needed]} solo tour in September through to November 2007.^[9]

Quinn was subsequently dropped by his record label, on 6 November 2007.^[10]

In November 2007, Quinn recorded a cover of the song "You To Me Are Everything" for the album Liverpool: Number Ones Album and in January 2008, he performed at the Number One Project concert at the Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Discography

Dancing on Ice

Quinn won the fourth series of British TV contest Dancing On Ice, which began on 11 January 2009. He was partnered by professional ice skater Maria Filippov. His decision to take part generated a small amount of (local) controversy, as he suddenly dropped out of the pantomime in which he was supposed to be performing, mid-run, in order to prepare for the TV show.^[11][12] This left many school-children upset, especially when the panto closed early, a few days after he left.^[13]

In every week (excluding week two, which featured the girls only) on Dancing On Ice, he topped the leaderboard. In his sixth week he scored the maximum 30. Quinn was announced winner of Dancing on Ice 2009 after receiving a perfect score of 60/60. He joined the other contestants and toured the country on the Dancing On Ice Tour.

On Sunday 21 June 2009 Quinn took part in an edition of All Star Family Fortunes which will be broadcast on ITV1 in the Autumn of 2009.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ray Quinn

• Official myspace
• Official Website
• Raymond Quinn at the Internet Movie Database