Jessica Pietersen (; born 23 June 1980) is an English singer. She is best known as member of the pop group

Liberty X Liberty X (originally called Liberty) are a British girl group consisting of Michelle Heaton, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young. The group's best-known line-up also included Tony Lundon and Kevin Simm. The group was formed by the five finalists of ...

Career

1999–2007: Liberty X and hiatus

In a 1999 Pietersen starred the musical '' Gigi'' as the title role. In 2001, Pietersen auditioned for the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

reality television music competition ''

Popstars ''Popstars'' is an international reality television franchise aimed to find new singing talent. Serving as a precursor to the ''Idol'' franchise, '' Popstars'' first began in New Zealand in 1999 when producer Jonathan Dowling formed the girl gr ...

'', a show intended to form a new group from individual contestants, becoming one of the finalist. While the five winning contestants formed

Hear'Say Hear'Say were a British pop group. They were created through the ITV (TV network), ITV reality TV show ''Popstars (British TV series), Popstars'' in February 2001, the first UK series of the international ''Popstars'' Media franchise, franch ...

, the five runner-up contestants – Young,

Tony Lundon Anthony William James Lundon (born 13 April 1979) is an Irish singer, producer and director, formerly a TV presenter with RTE (2007-2009), a vocalist and songwriter with chart act Liberty X (2001-2007), and lead dancer with Lord of the Dance (19 ...

Kevin Simm Kevin Ian Simm (born 5 September 1980) is an English singer and songwriter. He was a member of Liberty X (2001–2007) and is the vocalist of Wet Wet Wet. Simm also won ''The Voice UK'' in 2016. Career 2001–2007: Liberty X In 2001, Simm a ...

Kelli Young Kelli Young (born 7 April 1982) is an English singer. She is best known as member of the pop group Liberty X. Personal life Kelli Young was born 7 April 1982. She went to Derby High School, Littleover, until she was 16. Her mother is Bajan. I ...

and

Michelle Heaton Michelle Christine Heaton (born 19 July 1979) is an English singer, stage actress and television personality. She is best known as member of the pop group Liberty X. Early life Heaton was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, on 19 July 19 ...

– formed the group

and signed a multimillion-pound record contract with

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

and

V2 Records V2 Records (or V2 Music and V2 Benelux; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007, sold to PIAS in 2013 and partially acquired by Universal in 2022 (as part of larger PIAS 49% ...

. 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 "Got to Have Your Love" is a song by American hip hop and electro funk group Mantronix, featuring vocals from American recording artist Wondress. It was released by Capitol Records in December 1989 as the lead single from Mantronix's fourth s ...

", "

Song 4 Lovers "Song 4 Lovers" is a song by English pop group Liberty X, released as the lead single from their third studio album, '' X'' (2005). The song features uncredited vocals from Rev Run of Run-D.M.C. and was produced by Liberty X member Tony Lundo ...

", and "

Holding on for You "Holding On for You" is a song by English-Irish pop group Liberty X. Written by Martin Prime and produced by Tim Laws, it released in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2002 as the fifth and final single from the group's debut studio album, '' Thi ...

" all reached the top 5 in the UK Singles Chart. They split up in 2007 after selling over 3 million records worldwide. During this time, Pietersen also appeared on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's '' Strictly Ice Dancing'' in 2005, finishing in second place, and ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series broadcast from 2006 to 2014 and then from 2018 to 2025. It was presented by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. Other previous hosts include Phillip Schofield and Christine Lampard. The series ...

'' in 2009, finishing in third place. After the split, Pietersen took a long hiatus from her artistic career.

2013–present: Liberty X return

In 2013 Pietersen reunited with

for

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

's reality show ''

The Big Reunion ''The Big Reunion'' is a British reality-documentary series that began airing on ITV2 on 31 January 2013. The show featured chart-topping bands who were big in the UK pop music scene between the 1990s and early 2000s, and the programme followed ...

'', along with other pop groups of their time –

B*Witched B*Witched are an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O'Carroll. Originally active between 1997 and 2002, they enjoyed success in both Europe and North America between 1998 and 2002 ...

Honeyz The Honeyz are a British Contemporary R&B, R&B girl group currently composed of members Célena Cherry, Heavenli Abdi and Cherry's sister, Candace Cherry, as a touring member. The group had five UK top 10 hits between 1998 and 2000, with "Final ...

911 911, 9/11 or Nine Eleven may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** The 2001 September 11 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, commonly referred to as 9/11 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that ousted the ...

Five 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

and

Atomic Kitten Atomic Kitten were an English girl group formed in Liverpool in 1998, whose original lineup comprised Kerry Katona, Liz McClarnon, and Natasha Hamilton. The group was founded by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) members Andy McCluskey an ...

– to solve past problems and do a live performance at the London

Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly and still commonly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Pa ...

on 26 February. Due to the success, Liberty X returned for a full tour between 2013 and 2014. She also appeared in the game shows '' Hole in the Wall'' and '' The Chase'', facing

Mark Labbett Mark Andrew Labbett (born 15 August 1965), also known by his professional nickname "The Beast", is an English professional quizzer and television personality. Since 2009 he has been one of the "chasers" on the ITV game show '' The Chase''. He ...

and winning £75,000 in her individual chase. In 2017, Pietersen,

and

reformed

again, but as a three-piece girl group, without Tony and Kevin. Since then, they continued touring at music festivals and Pride events.

Personal life

On 29 December 2007, she married England cricketer

Kevin Pietersen Kevin Peter Pietersen (born 27 June 1980) is a former England international cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest England batsmen to have played the game, and renowned for his competitive, and often controversial nature. He was a ri ...

at a service in

Castle Combe Castle Combe is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is around north-west of Chippenham and north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had ...

. They have two children: Dylan Blake, born on 10 May 2010, and Rosie, born on 27 December 2015.

Stage

Filmography

Television

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Jessica 1980 births Living people Musicians from Lancashire People from Penwortham Liberty X English women pop singers