Alexz Johnson

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Alexz Johnson

Alexzandra Spencer Johnson (born November 4, 1986 in New Westminster , British Columbia ; Alexz Johnson for short ) is a Canadian actress and singer . She is best known in Germany for her role as Jude Harrison in the Canadian series Instant Star .

Early years

Alexz Johnson was born on November 4, 1986 in New Westminster, British Columbia (Canada). She is the sixth of ten children in the Johnson family. One of her sisters is a stage actress and her brother Brendan is a musician and writes her songs with her.

At the age of three, Alexzandra often wanted to sing for her extended family. At the age of seven she received singing lessons and took part in various events with her youth choir, which was followed by solo appearances, for example in her school. She took part in many talent competitions and won a Canadian national anthem contest in 1997 at the age of 11, where her interpretation of the Canadian national anthem was shown on national television. This led to countless radio and television interviews and made them known in the management of various record companies. In the same year she was also voted best hymn singer of the year by the Vancouver Sun newspaper.

She then sang the national anthem at games of the Vancouver Canucks ( NHL hockey team ) and the Vancouver Grizzlies ( NBA basketball team ), and she appeared at charity events and trade shows in British Columbia , as well as at the BC Summer Games . On New Years Eve 1999, when she was 12, she performed on Planet Hollywood .

With her extrovert personality, she also began acting. Among other things, she got roles in various commercials. At the age of 13, she applied for a role in the Disney series So Weird (German: Fiona's website ), for the last season of which an actress who can also sing was wanted. After her audition, Johnson was immediately offered the role. As a result, she was able to win over many fans, both through her singing and her acting. She also worked on the unreleased soundtrack for So Weird .

Johnson also showed interest in songwriting and wrote one of the songs for the series herself. Even after the show ended, she maintained that interest and was supported by her brother Brendan. Then she learned to play the guitar. In addition, she worked as a demo singer on various projects and made a demo tape of her own music to go to the record labels. Several record labels offered Johnson contracts, but she declined because she wanted to keep creative control.

Career

Alexz Johnson and Tim Rozon on the set of Instant Star

In the spring of 2004, while working on Canadian Idol (Canadian counterpart to Deutschland sucht den Superstar ) , Linda Schuyler came up with the idea of ​​producing a television series that would reflect the ups and downs in the career and private life of a casting show winner. Schuyler and Stephen Stohn ran a three month search across Canada to find someone to star. They came across Alexz Johnson, who was chosen to play the role of Jude Harrison in the new series Instant Star . Johnson sang all the songs in the series himself and also contributed songs that he wrote himself.

In 2006, Johnson decided to audition for the role of Julie Christensen in Final Destination 3 . On the day of the audition, she showed up in a completely black outfit (she later admitted to being in a bad mood). The casting directors decided that she was perfect for the role of Erin Ulmer, a very educated character, but always dressed in black. She also worked in other films such as Devils Diary and Stranger with my Face while working on Instant Star.

After the Instant Star series was surprisingly discontinued, Alexz Johnson decided to concentrate more on her music career. Since she had continued to work on her own songs during the Instant Star filming, she was now looking for a suitable record label. On February 15, 2008, Johnson announced on her MySpace blog that she had signed a recording deal with Epic Records, part of the Sony BMG group, and that her album would be released in the fall. On June 11, 2008, five songs ( Swallowed , Running with the Devil , Chicago , Easy and Golden ) were released on their MySpace page, which should be included on the upcoming album. Due to restructuring at the Epic Records label, several artists were released from their record contracts in August 2009, including Johnson. As a result, she also lost all of the songs she had previously recorded on Epic Records.

After new recordings and her new record deal with Laydee Spencer Music Inc, she was finally able to release her album Voodoo on March 30, 2010 . This album has been revised and re-recorded by The Demolition Crew to make the songs more "radio-friendly". Voodoo Reloaded was released on April 26, 2011.

With her brother Brendan Johnson she also released the EP The Basement Recordings in August 2011 . The Basement Recordings II followed in May 2012 and The Basement Recordings III in February 2013 .

On February 24, 2012, Alexz Johnson launched an appeal on the American Internet platform kickstarter.com to raise money for a US tour. She had raised $ 50,000 in three days, with a goal of $ 30,000 in 60 days. The money came about when Johnson offered to download her upcoming EP Skipping Stone , signed t-shirts and CDs, private live performances, personal phone calls and the like. This made Johnson possible her Skipping Stone tour through North America in the summer of 2012. The tour name is based on the EP Skipping Stone released on April 24, 2012 . The tour was accompanied by documentary filmmaker and photographer Jessica Earnshaw . This regularly published photos of Johnson's live performances on a tour blog. In addition, the documentary The Skipping Stone Documentary was created , which was published in December 2012 along with a live album of the tour and a photo book.

In the spring of 2013 Alexz Johnson toured again through North America together with Charlene Kye as well as Jay Stolar and Misty Boyce . In January and February 2014 she toured Europe and visited the UK , Ireland , Germany , Sweden and the Netherlands . It was the concert opening for Wakey! Wakey! and Ron Pope .

On February 18, 2014, she released her EP Heart . Once again, Johnson has succeeded in using crowdfunding to collect enough donations via an Internet platform to be able to publish her second album, which she is working on.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Songs from Instant Star
  DE 67 04/14/2006 (3 weeks)
  CH 41 04/23/2006 (9 weeks)
Singles
24 hours
  DE 60 03/24/2006 (7 weeks)
  CH 25th 04/02/2006 (11 weeks)

Albums

  • 2005: Songs from Instant Star
  • 2006: Songs from Instant Star Two
  • 2007: Songs from Instant Star Three (USA / UK)
  • 2008: Songs from Instant Star Four (USA / UK)
  • 2009: Songs from Instant Star Greatest Hits (USA / UK)
  • 2010: Voodoo
  • 2011: Voodoo Reloaded
  • 2012: Live from the Skippin Stone Tour

EPs

  • 2011: The Basement Recordings (USA / UK)
  • 2012: The Basement Recordings 2 (USA / UK)
  • 2012: Skipping Stone (USA / UK)
  • 2013: The Basement Recordings 3 (USA / UK)
  • 2014: Heart

Singles

  • 2005: 24 hours
  • 2006: How Strong Do You Think I Am
  • 2007: Where Does It Hurt (USA / UK)
  • 2010: Trip Around The World
  • 2011: Boogie Love
  • 2011: Look At Those Eyes
  • 2011: Skipping Stone
  • 2012: Walking
  • 2013: American Dreamer

Filmography

Movies

  • 2005: Falcon Beach (TV movie)
  • 2005: Selling Innocence (TV movie)
  • 2005: Kifferwahn ( Reefer Madness , TV movie)
  • 2006: Final Destination 3
  • 2007: Devil's Diary: Write in it, it will be so ( Devil's Diary , TV movie)
  • 2009: Stranger With My Face (TV movie)
  • 2013: House of Bodies

TV Shows

Guest appearances

  • 2004: The Chris Isaak Show (episode Taking Off )
  • 2004: The Collector (episode The Ice Skater )
  • 2004: Cold Squad (episode Teen Angel )
  • 2004: Doc (Follow Till We Meet Again )
  • 2005: Sue Thomas: FBI (episode Bad Girls )
  • 2006: Degrassi: Minis (episode I'm a Degrassi, I'm an Instant Star )
  • 2009: Smallville (episode Legion )
  • 2011: The Listener - Hellhörig ( The Listener , episode Jericho )
  • 2011: Haven (episode Roots )
  • 2014: Blue (four episodes)

Web links

Commons : Alexz Johnson  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE CH
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, Alexz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spencer Johnson, Alexzandra (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian actress and singer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th November 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH New Westminster , British Columbia , Canada