Vitamin C (singer)

Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick (born July 20, 1969, although other sources list July 20, 1972) is an American pop music singer, dancer and actress, better known by her stage name, Vitamin C. Her singles include "Smile", "As Long As You're Loving Me", "The Itch", and her most successful song, "Graduation (Friends Forever)".

She was ranked #76 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2001. Mattel released a Vitamin C doll in 2000. She has her own lipstick color developed after her signature strawberry blonde hair.

Biography

Personal life

Vitamin C was born Colleen Fitzpatrick in Old Bridge, New Jersey,on the day of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. She is the daughter of Vita, a legal secretary, and Gerard Fitzpatrick, a communications executive. She married guitarist Michael Kotch in 2004, who was her former band mate from Eve's Plum and worked on her solo debut.

Music

Performing with her band Eve's Plum in 1997.

Vitamin C made her first musical outing as the lead singer of alternative rock band Eve's Plum, who got a record deal with Epic Records in 1992. The band released 2 albums and 7 singles between 1993 and 1995 before being dropped by their label for failing to achieve any mainstream success. The band continued to play together until 1998. Immediately following, she took interest in a dance/pop musical solo project she dubbed "Vitamin C."

Her version of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons song "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" was used as a brand image theme by the American television network The WB in image spots, promos, and interstitials during the 1999-2000 television season. She also recorded a song called "Vacation", which became the opening theme to the short movie Pikachu's Vacation (Pokémon: The First Movie).

She shopped demos she recorded for a while and found herself with an album deal from Elektra Records. Her first album, Vitamin C, peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 29. The album's first single, "Smile", climbed to number 18 on the Hot 100. Second Single "Me, Myself & I" failed to chart. However, the third single "Graduation (Friends Forever)" made a huge impact on the radio, though only peaking at #12 on the Top 40 Mainstream Chart and #38 on the Hot 100. The song is considered a landmark in graduation themed songs and is still hugely popular amongst graduation parties and ceremonies. It has appeared on the iTunes Music Chart at the end of every school year since the chart's inception. In the summer of 2000, a DJ from the Republic of Ireland picked up a copy of the single while on holidays in New York. The song was subsequently one of the biggest hits in 2000 in the Republic of Ireland peaking at number 2 in the charts and still receives massive airplay each summer.

Late 2000, Vitamin C released "The Itch", the first single from her second album More. Though the song got some popular dance/club airplay, it stalled on the Hot 100 at number 45. It was a minor hit in 2001 in Ireland. After the album debuted at a disappointing #122 on the Billboard 200, Elektra Records released the second single "As Long As You're Loving Me" with almost no promotion. The song failed to chart in the US, thus the planned third single ("I Know What Boys Like") was scrapped and Vitamin C was dropped from Elektra Records.

File:VCP.jpg

Vitamin C at the premiere of Get Over It in 2001.

Vitamin C then signed with V2 Records and began recording her third album over the course of 2002. The first single, "Last Nite", was released in January 2003 and failed to chart in the US, as well as flopping by peaking at #70 on the UK Top 75. Her third album under the Vitamin C name was subsequently shelved and has yet to see the light of day, though fans hope it will leak. Promotional copies were never made available.

In 2005, Vitamin C's cover of the 1980s hit "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday was included on the soundtrack for the Disney superhero comedy movie Sky High.

In 2006, she assembled a Radio Disney-aimed group of four young teenagers named The Truth Squad. She allowed the group to cover "Graduation (Friends Forever)" and wrote a number of songs for their debut album as well as producing it. The album was released on April 3, 2007 and failed to spark much interest besides a brief appearance on the Top Kid Audio Chart where it peaked at #23 for two weeks, dropped to #25 the next week and by the third week had fallen off the chart completely. Despite this, the group's video for their single "Flip" has been heavily promoted on the Disney Channel. She also recently assembled and produced the new girl ground The Stunners.

Over the last three years, Vitamin C has been steadily recording two new albums for herself and trying to land herself an album deal with another record label. She hopes to have both albums out before the end of the year, but no official release dates or labels have been cited. Most recently, she contributed vocals on Information Society's latest album, Synthesizer (2007).

Acting

Vitamin C made her first foray into acting under her real name "Colleen Fitzpatrick" in John Waters' 1988 feature film Hairspray as the bratty Amber Von Tussle. In 1991, she sang in a blues club in the comedy film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear. She later appeared in Dracula 2000 (2000), as Lucy Westerman, and Rock Star (2001). In addition, in 2001 she appeared in the film Get Over It. She made a brief comedic cameo appearance as herself (in voiceover) in the film Scary Movie 2.

As for her television appearances, she played a judge in the American Idol spoof The WB's Superstar USA. She appeared in an episode of MTV's The Andy Dick Show and Celebrity Bootcamp, a celebrity game show. Vitamin C made cameos on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Brothers Garcia, The Amanda Show, and The Sausage Factory. Currently she is one of three judges of Lifetime reality series "Your Mama Don't Dance". In the 80's she appeared on The Equalizer.

Future

In 2006, she starred in an indie TV sitcom called THE LEK that was released to the Internet through YouTube, though to date there have been only three episodes released.

In 2006, MTV News interviewed Vitamin C where she revealed details on a comeback, with two new albums. She is about to finish work on a children's world-music album that will celebrate diversity through songs like the Indian-styled "Bhangra On and On" and "We All Share the Same Sky," and she started work on a non-children's third Vitamin C album she describes as "Goldfrapp-meets-Vitamin C," which she had hoped to have out by early 2007. Regarding the album, she has stated "Just because you're not always on MTV doesn't mean you're not actively working," she said.

In early 2007, she was interviewed by People Magazine and stated the albums will be out by the end of the year. In the June 11 issue, People Magazine had a special "Where Are They Now" article.

2009, she wrote the song Let's get crazy for Miley Cyrus. Miley sang the song in-character as Hannah Montana.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart positions
		U.S.
1999	Vitamin C	29
2001	More	122

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions
		U.S. Hot 100	U.S. Hot 100 Sales	U.S. Top 40 Main- stream	UK	AUS	NZ	IRL
1999	"Smile"	18	7	21	-	-	13	-
	"Me, Myself & I"	1201	27	36	-	-	-	-
2000	"Graduation (Friends Forever)"	38	10	12	-	2	21	2
	"The Itch"	45	5	26	-	6	34	29
2001	"As Long As You're Loving Me"	-	-	-	-	-	45	-
2003	"Last Nite"	-	-	-	70	-	-	-

• ¹ indicates that the single failed to enter the Hot 100 and actually peaked at #20 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Chart.

Soundtracks/B-sides

• "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" (1999)
• "Vacation" (1999)
• "This Summer I" (2000)
• "The Only One" (2000)
• "Smash It Up" (2000)
• "Do You C What I C?" (2000)
• "September" ft. Sisqó (2001)
• "Love Will Keep Us Together" (2001)
• "Master of Disguise" (2002)
• "Learning to Love the Enemy" (2003)
• "Volare" (2003)
• "Voices Carry" (2005)
• "Kiss the Girl" (2005)

Filmography

Movies

• Hairspray (1988)
• The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
• The Mambo Kings (1992)
• Crinoline Head (1995)
• Higher Learning (1995)
• Just Cause (1995)
• High School High (1996)
• St. Patrick's Day (1997)
• Liar Liar (1997)
• Da Hip Hop Witch (2000)
• Dracula 2000 (2000)
• Get Over It (2001)
• Scary Movie 2 (2001) (voice only)
• Rock Star (2001)
• My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Reception (2001)
• Happy Is Not Hard to Be (2005)

TV

• Your Mama Don't Dance (2008)
• The WB's Superstar USA (2004)
• Celebrity Bootcamp (2002)
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch (2002)
• The Amanda Show
• MADTv