Sinitta is a singer and actress from Seattle and London, born in 1963. She is known for pop and dance-oriented music and for a career that spans recording, West End theatre, film, and television.

Career

Sinitta Renet Malone begins performing in London as a child. She appears in musicals from the age of 12, including The Wiz, and also works in West End productions such as the original staging of Cats and later Little Shop of Horrors. In 1981 she appears in the film Shock Treatment as Frankie, credited as Sinitta Renet, and in 1983 she appears in the video for Forrest’s version of “Rock the Boat”.

She achieves her biggest chart success in the mid to late 1980s with “So Macho”, “Toy Boy”, “GTO”, and “Cross My Broken Heart”. “So Macho” reaches number 2 in the UK Singles Chart and also becomes a top 20 hit in Sweden, Australia, and Austria. “Toy Boy”, recorded after work with Stock Aitken Waterman, reaches number 4 in the UK and charts internationally. “Cross My Broken Heart” reaches number 6 in the UK and number 7 in Ireland, while “GTO” is another hit from the same period. Her debut album, Sinitta!, reaches number 34 in the UK and number 69 in Australia.

Further singles include “Feels Like the First Time”, which reaches number 45 in the UK, and “I Don't Believe In Miracles”, which reaches number 22. In 1989 she works on her second album, Wicked, with PWL producers and German producer Ralf-René Maué. Its lead single, a cover of Maxine Nightingale’s “Right Back Where We Started From”, reaches number 6 in the UK and becomes her highest-charting single in Australia and New Zealand. Other singles from this period include “Love on a Mountain Top”, “Hitchin' a Ride”, and “Love and Affection”. In 1992, “Shame Shame Shame” peaks at number 28 in the UK.

She releases the EP The Supreme in 1993 and the cover album Naughty Naughty in 1995, her only album released in Asia. In 1997 she contributes to the cast recording for What a Feeling, tours with Sonia and Luke Goss, and records vocals for a cover of “You Can Do Magic” in a television stunt organised by The Cook Report. She later returns with a cover of her mother Miquel Brown’s “So Many Men, So Little Time” in 2014 and performs at Pride in London. Her first Christmas single, “I Won’t Be Lonely This Christmas”, is released in 2021. She also appears in a live stage tour of The Masked Singer in 2024.

Television

Sinitta appears regularly on television. From 2004 she assists Simon Cowell on The X Factor, helping select acts who go on to become finalists and winners. She becomes a judge on Grease Is the Word in 2007 and joins Loose Women as a presenter in 2008. Her other TV appearances include Celebrity Come Dine with Me, The Jump, Celebrity Masterchef, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, The Xtra Factor, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and Up Late with Rylan. In 2011 she appears on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and assists Louis Walsh on The X Factor. She continues to appear on The X Factor and The Xtra Factor, and in 2016 is announced as a producer and lead presenter of The Xtra Factor.

Background

She is born in Seattle to Miquel Brown, a Canadian disco-soul singer and cast member of Hair, and her father Anthony. She is raised in Seattle and later Detroit, while travelling frequently with her mother on tour. When her mother directs the London production of Hair, she attends boarding school in East Sussex and a ballet school in Tunbridge Wells from the age of nine.