'''Jessica Ann Simpson''' (born July 10 1980) is an American pop singer who rose to fame during the late 1990s. In the following ten years she starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show ''Newlyweds'', released her own line of Dessert Beauty and Dessert Treat beauty products and started a career as an actress, while continuing her music career. Her younger sister Ashlee Simpson is also a popular singer.

Biography

Early life

Jessica Simpson was born in Abilene, Texas and raised in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. She is the daughter of Joe Simpson (a former Baptist youth minister) and Tina Ann Drew (a former Sunday School teacher). Her younger sister Ashlee launched her own music career in mid-2004. Simpson started singing at the age of 12 in her Baptist church choir. At the same age, she made an unsuccessful application for ''The New Mickey Mouse Club'', which starred fellow pop singers Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, among other future stars.

Simpson attended J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. She was discovered singing at a church camp by a head of a small contemporary Christian record label and recorded an album over the next three years; however, the label folded before the record could be released. She dropped out in her senior year in order to tour and promote her demo album, which was funded by her grandmother, Joyce (thus the reason for the name of her 2004 holiday album, ''Rejoyce: The Christmas Album''); she later earned her GED. During this time, she toured with the Christian Youth Conference circuit performing with Kirk Franklin, God's Property and CeCe Winans. She and her father sold copies of the album after her performances.

Tommy Mottola of Columbia Records obtained a copy of the album and, thinking she had potential as a pop singer, signed her as such.

1999–2002: Pop music beginnings

left|thumb|Simpson performing in May 2002.
In late 1999, Simpson released her debut album ''Sweet Kisses'', which reached a peak of number 25 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and also made the top 40 of the UK charts. The album proved to be a success, selling two and a half million copies in the U.S. Her first single, the platinum-selling "I Wanna Love You Forever," reached the top five of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and the top ten in Canada and the UK. Her second single, a duet with then-boyfriend Nick Lachey of boy band 98 Degrees, "Where You Are", was a modest radio hit. The last single from the album, "I Think I'm in Love with You" (sampling John

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