Paulo Araujo
| Paulo Araujo | ||
|---|---|---|
| 300px | ||
| January 2010 cover of Rolling Stone | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born | July 22, 1989 | |
| Origin | São Paulo, Brazil | |
| Genre | R&B, Soul, Pop | |
| Years active | 2005–present | |
| Label | Plat'num Records (Oct/2005–Dec/2006) Wired (Dec/2006–May/2008) Vixenation (May/2008–June/2010) Alias (July/2010–present) |
|
| Associated acts | ||
Paulo Araujo is a Brazilian recording artist.
After being a finalist in Brazil's Fame Academy and signing a deal with a British label, he went to be one of the most worldwide sucessful newcomers of recent time, enjoying chart success not only in his homeland Brazil but also in the North-American and British market. His debut Never As Good As The First Time, released in early 2006, received a warm reception from critics which led to nominations for Urapopstar Awards and other music-related awards.
The cookie-cutter image of the star faded sooner than expected and with the revealing of his bisexuality and a long-term relationship with Alex Washington, chart failures came but the star soon bounced back with the chart-topping success of Diamond-certified Villain (2007), led by a single of the same name, the first UK chart topping single for Araujo.
With the release of another critically acclaimed album, Jack of Clubs, Araujo finally put his imprint on the current music industry, as the record spawned three chart-topping singles and eventually became the biggest selling album by a male artist in history. Other feats accomplished during this era were the number one placing at URAPS Rate 14 and a Uraps Award for Best Male.
Following a suicide attempt, Araujo came back stronger than ever with the release of his fourth album From Dusk 'Til Dawn. Another success with critics and public alike, this era progressed into the start of Araujo's acting career with the self-penned project The Hunger. Thanks to all this success, Araujo has been named the best R&B-oriented artist of our current times as he started "tutoring" new acts, such as MIDNIGHT and Jackson Bradshaw.
Life and career[edit | edit source]
1989-2005: Childhood and discovery[edit | edit source]
Coming from a big family with music background from the typical middle-class west side of São Paulo, Brazil, Araujo has had the chance to learn English on a very tender age, which led to an interest in the language, the culture and specially english-sung tunes. Despite a huge fear of stepping out on its own and embracing his dream of singing, his father finally encouraged him to the brazilian edition of Fame Academy, which worked into boosting the singer's confidence but didn't set his career for a good start as he came 7th in the singing contest, being panned for being "too Americanized" by the judges.
Taking a big chance, the teen hopeful singer moved temporarily to London, hoping to follow in the footsteps of Esmeralda Dimuzio and become a big star hailing from South America.
2005-06: Overnight success and early media backlash[edit | edit source]
In October, after his move to London, Araujo performed for some quick time in the budding grime scene as a way both of earning income and trying to catch the eye of a record label. After a failed audition to Filthy/Gorgeous Records, he managed to impress disco diva Allyseenah who at the time was signed to the label. Their meeting prompted a risky move: dreaming of having control over her career, Allyseenah dropped out of her record deal and created her own Plat'num Records, where Araujo would shortly find a home.
Deciding to waste no time, Plat'num released a buzz single while Araujo was still recording the album - the demo which got Araujo his record deal was polished and turned into "Misery Loves Company". Set for a late January release, Araujo then started doing promotional rounds during the Holidays season. Despite the winter season, the song enjoyed moderate but steady rotation on radio stations and TRL. After months of mild but steady success, the sleeper hit saw its peak with physical single release when it entered the singles chart at #3, pulling a huge chart upset over rockband Innocent's comeback single.
After sudden initial success, Araujo rushed recordings of debut album to release it as soon as possible. Only 2 months later and the monster hit "Hooded Jacket" arrived, spending 3 weeks in the Top 3 of the charts, propelling his debut album Never As Good As The First Time to #2 and a Platinum plaque. The 19-track set reflects Araujo's musical influences, going from the poppiest to the soulful ranges of R&B, throwing a bit of Latin and crunk sounds for good measure.
During a short period, the 16-year-old enjoyed a reputation as teen heartthrob. With polite manners, a cute foreign accent and a well-toned body, Araujo soon found himself as a steady fixture in the tabloids, specially after he started dating Robin. However, things suddenly turned sour with his girlfriend and the press when Araujo was caught cheating by the papparazzi. The couple would engage on a on-and-off relationship but Araujo's single status plus his lack of ability to deal with the tabloids would be the start of a major media havoc. Every week a new name was attached to the budding young star, be it correctly or incorrectly. The major crack on the singer's well-groomed public image, however, would be the revelation of his bissexuality. It was during this time that the singer first met Alex Washington and the tabloids went shocking with the sudden outing of a minor celebrity. Over the years, Washington and Araujo's antics as a couple or separately against each other would turn them both into media darlings.
Followed by this major image shift, two duets followed. With friend Tiara Coles, "Superstar" turned into the singer's third Top 10 hit and Coles' biggest hit at the time. However, the Tango Challenge entry "Take A Trip (Granny)" was a major dissapointment: it charted outside the Top 20 altogether upon release and led the re-release of his debut album to chart lower than original, missing the Top 30. Despite its short span of chart success, the project was a hit: worldwide sales for this era are close to 4 million worldwide and Araujo was nominated for Best Male and Best New Artist at the 12th Urapopstar Awards, winning the Best R&B Artist award as well. The feat prompted Araujo to be named "the biggest newcomer since Jack Stevens" by singer-songwriter Russ Hooch. Additionally, "Hooded Jacket" was nominated for Record of The Year 2006 and was the 15th biggest selling single of the year in the UK.
2007-08: Personal problems and commercial boom[edit | edit source]
Following the flop of his latest single in August 2006, Araujo spent the rest of the year on what he later defined as "the first time I've been in the dark". His relationship with Washington continued to receive constant media attention, with their heavy partying, cheating on each other and public fights being published almost on a daily basis. After announcing a comeback in December, Araujo dissappeared from the public eye. During this time, his contract with the now-nearly defunct Plat'num was terminated and the singer was reported to have been locked inside his London flat dealing with a bout of depression and substance abuse. Additionally, his promiscuous ways have granted him a very bad reputation amongst his peers.
Luck struck again for Araujo when Arwyn Knight and Christine Tyler decided to open a record label of their own and Araujo was the first male signee to Wired. On March 2007, "Extinction of the Shy" arrived, a duet with Luke Ramada that showed a grittier and rockier side to the singer. Despite the early hype around the release and the success on digital music outlets and airwaves, the song was another dissapointment for both singers as it failed to crack the Top 10.
Followed by another period of silence from his camp and surrounded with rumors of a cocaine overdose, Araujo finally got in gear (with help from Washington, who allegedly obliged the on-off partner to attend studio sessions) and decided to embrace his image created by the tabloids through the release of Villain, and the title track was chosen to be the first single. A promotional campaign like never seen before arised, crossing all boundaries of sensationalism on the media as not only Araujo continuously stepped on the toes of his music industry peers one by one but he was also during a certain point charged with rape and murder acusations, being a runaway from police forces for a week before the single's release. Despite substancial proof against Araujo, the singer barely escaped conviction right to the top of the charts with both his single and album. He experienced further chart success with Top 5 hit "Baritone", the single that has set the record for all-time biggest weekly spins on radio at the time. "Love Hangover/Is This Paradise" and "Victim" kept the string of Top 10 hits for this era.
Winning over the critics and audience alike with his anti-hero attitude, that still wasn't enough to appease his self-destructive personality, as Araujo kept feuding with every popstar under the sun, including former friends and collaborators like Luke Ramada and Arwyn Knight. After quickly dettaching himself (but not for the last time) from Washington, a public affair with Emma Brown ensued until he found himself surprisingly settled down in a stable relationship with fashionista BRAXTON. The couple bonded fast and soon enough the relationship proved fruitful: on December 29 2008, the couple welcomed their only child, Legolas Araujo.
Meanwhile, Araujo's sophomore album granted a Diamond certification in the United Kingdom for sales of over a million copies and it was nominated for a Best Album award at the 15th Urapopstar Awards, along with another nomination for Best R&B Artist.
2009-10: Stardom and suicide attempt[edit | edit source]
Ending his sophomore album era on a high note, the singer returned to Brazil for an extended break with his child and son before going full-force on his third album. Much like before, it took one last straw in his public life for him to get in gear to release another album: the silent end of his relationship with BRAXTON and simultaneous bad press coming from former collaborators Washington and Ben Johnston. The boost worked worked wonders as Jack of Clubs features never-seen before depth on Araujo's lyrical construction and boldness on the sound, experimenting and toying with influences outside the regular run-of-the-mill R&B artist, stepping from the shadows of both former partner and producer Washington and of the Motown sound, the biggest pillars in the shaping of his sophomore project.
His comeback single Blaze was received with huge praise by critics and public alike, and it entered the charts at #2, winning a chart battle over Washington. With the release of Sort It Out (Part 3) as part of the Tango Challenge 2 weeks later, Araujo became the second artist to have 2 singles charting inside the Top 10 of the Singles Chart this decade. The fan-favorite Fireflies in the Dark was deemed a mistep, but soon after Trainwreck, featuring a state-of-art video that was nominated for several awards throughout the year, gave the singer his best first-week sales for a solo single, a personal best that was beat months later with the release of Vocoder, his long-awaited second chart-topping single. With sales bordering 400,000 units, the single is the biggest selling of his career.
The constant success of the album inspired the artist to prepare the Royal Straight Flush repackage of the album. The re-release continued the streak of hits with another two chart-topping singles in the form of Blunt and Falso Amor, the latter being the first song in Portuguese to top the British Singles Chart.
Despite a sparkling record track, Araujo's personal tribulations finally kicked in and he showed signs of cracking under pressure as a public tabloid feud with former friend Romo managed to sent the singer into a nervous breakdown in January 2010. Apparently recovered, the singer returned to promotional activites until on April 2010 he entered in a coma state after trying to take his own life.
The album Jack of Clubs had the best opening sales for a male artist in the United Kingdom ever since 2006 and it landed the best first-week numbers worldwide for a male artist in 2009. In the long run, the album tied the record for longest spell inside the Top 40 Albums chart and went on to be the third biggest selling album of all time, behind only Buffi and China .The star was once again nominated for both Best Male and Best Urban Artist at the 16th Urapopstar Awards, winning the latter. After the strength of the follow-up singles of the album, the singer was once again nominated for those 2 categories at the following Uraps Awards, other than a nomination for Best Video for Trainwreck, following his success at the VMAs, leading the pack of nominees with 6 of them and walking home with 2 moonmen. On November 8th 2009, Araujo won the award for Best Urban for the 3rd time and in August 7th 2010, he won it for the 4th time, making him the most awarded artist in that category. Additionally, he won the award for Best Male for the first time, after being nominated for years.
This era has also seen the singer being crowned the #1 artist according to the 14th URAPS Rate.
Personal Life[edit | edit source]
It is very debatable whether the brazilian singer is more known for his baritone pipes or his widely-publicized life. Starting off as a cute nerdy boy at the tender age of 16, the singer composed the perfect teenybopper couple with another underage R&B singer, Robin. In true Lifetime movie/soap opera style, soon after starting very succesfully his music career, the teen singer went on a downfall including drugs-induced breakdowns and the end of his relationship in exchange of a promiscuous lifestyle, briefly dating almost every women (and later men) involved with the music industry. Robin followed soon after with her own fall from grace but despite that, both singers often rekindle every now and then.
Another big turnout for Araujo was his very public closet come-out through a long on-and-off relationship with Alex Washington. Be it together or apart, both play a large influence on each other's personal life and career. Articles regarding their relationship can be found everywhere in the British press for their drama-fueled break-ups and make-ups. Inbetween the release of his second and third albums, Araujo started a serious and much more grounded relationship with BRAXTON, but that soon faded once Washington got back in the picture for one last time. Out of the failed relationship with Washington, Araujo got press and lyrics enough to release 10 albums with and hit singles; with BRAXTON, Araujo had the chance to become a parent as they've adopted one son together, Legolas Araujo.
Apart from his promiscuous behavior and relationships to other stars, Araujo is also known for being a very hated personality amongst his celebrity peers: despite presenting a tongue-in-cheek borderline crazy persona to the public, he's fallen out with almost every celebrity friend under the sun. In recent times, former boss Arwyn Knight and studio partners Luke Ramada and Ben Johnston all had bad things to say about Araujo. The only close friends of Araujo in the music business are Tiara Coles and possibly Carl Reeves.
It is also notable that the singer has nearly been charged with rape and murder during the release of his sophomore album. It is unclear how the charges were dropped and how the singer was found not guilty as substantial proof of his involvement leaked to the media in the form of camera recordings, but the fact is he remains a free citizen.
The cherry on top is his recently and infamous already mushroom tea addiction.
Other endeavours[edit | edit source]
After rumours that he was in talks with spanish director Pedro Almodovar about a joint movie project, Paulo Araujo finally landed his first acting gig, starring alongside Esmeralda Dimuzio in the suspense movie War Within Our Hearts. The movie was a mild box office success in the United States, charting at #2 behind "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".
The singer seems to be involved with reality TV: it was his stepping stone in Brazil and after that he's joined the 2009 edition of Celebrity Big Brother. Despite failing to win, he starred a very explicit sex scene with then-enemy-now-lover-again Alex Washington. He is currently a judge on the 10th installment of Uraps Idol.
He also serves as occasional vocal coach for a few musicians, the most prominent of them being Emily Henning.
Also, 2009 saw Araujo branching into modelling after being signed by the all-star Ramone Agency, owned by no other than Sophie Ramone. Rarely doing runway work, Araujo specializes on being a photo model, being sought out by many for his newfound beefcake-sexy looks
Araujo is also the current reigning Duke of the country Macedonia, which is part of the Homossexual Empire founded by Neyssa and Alesha. It is unknown the status of other countries in the Empire but Araujo still rules Macedonia to this date.
Discography[edit | edit source]
Main article: Paulo Araujo discography
Filmography[edit | edit source]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Fama (Fame Academy) | himself (contestant) |
| 2006 | There's Something About London | himself (contestant) |
| 2009 | Uraps Idol 10 | himself (judge) |
| 2009 | War Within Our Hearts | Al Peryse |
| 2009 | Don't Mess With The Woman In A Truck | Pablo Alato |
| 2010 | Uraps Idol 11 | himself (judge) |
| 2010 | URAPS Idol: Second Chance | himself (judge) |
| 2011 | The Hunger | Jorge; also scriptwriter and music producer |
Awards[edit | edit source]
Despite being one of the youngest amongst the greatest ranks of the industry, Araujo has been receiving critical acclaim from the start of his career, being only 16 when he won his first Urapopstar Award - before he could even celebrate one year since the release of his debut single. He's been a fixture name at the awards ever since the release of his sophomore album, being nominated for a total of thirteen Urapopstar Awards amongst other ceremonies, winning four times the prize for Best Urban/R&B Artist, the only artist to be awarded so many times in that particular category.
See a list of Araujo's most important nominations and wins below:
| Year | Result | Category | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Winner | Best R&B | Urapopstar Awards 12 |
| 2006 | Nominated | Best Newcomer | Urapopstar Awards 12 |
| 2006 | Nominated | Best Male | Urapopstar Awards 12 |
| 2006 | Winner | Best R&B Video For: "Hooded Jacket" |
TRL Awards |
| 2006 | Nominated (Top 25) | Record of the Year For: "Hooded Jacket" |
Uraps' Record Of The Year 2006 |
| 2008 | Nominated | Best R&B | Urapopstar Awards 15 |
| 2008 | Nominated | Best Album For: "Villain" |
Urapopstar Awards 15 |
| 2009 | Winner | Best R&B | Urapopstar Awards 16 |
| 2009 | Nominated | Best Male | Urapopstar Awards 16 |
| 2009 | Winner | Best Male Video For: "Trainwreck" |
2009 Video Music Awards |
| 2009 | Winner | Best Urban Video For: "Trainwreck" |
2009 Video Music Awards |
| 2009 | Nominated | Breakthrough Video For: "Trainwreck" |
2009 Video Music Awards |
| 2009 | Nominated | Viewers' Choice For: "Trainwreck" |
2009 Video Music Awards |
| 2009 | Nominated | Video of the Year For: "Trainwreck" |
2009 Video Music Awards |
| 2009 | Nominated | Best Collaboration Video For: "Sort It Out (Part 3)" |
2009 Video Music Awards |
| 2009 | Winner | Best Urban | Urapopstar Awards 17 |
| 2009 | Nominated | Best Male | Urapopstar Awards 17 |
| 2009 | Nominated | Best Video For: "Trainwreck" |
Urapopstar Awards 17 |
| 2009 | Nominated | Best Collaboration For: "Sort It Out (Part 3)" |
Urapopstar Awards 17 |
| 2009 | Winner | Best Live Male | Live Music Awards |
| 2010 | Winner | Best Male | Urapopstar Awards 18 |
| 2010 | Winner | Best Urban | Urapopstar Awards 18 |
| 2010 | Nominated | Popjustice £20 Music Prize For: "Vocoder" |
Popjustice £20 Music Prize |
| 2010 | Nominated | Best Male Video For: "Quixotism" |
2010 Video Music Awards |
| 2010 | Nominated | Best Urban Video For: "Dethroned" |
2010 Video Music Awards |
| 2010 | Nominated | Best Collaboration Video For: "Survive" |
2010 Video Music Awards |
| 2011 | Winner | Best Male | Urapopstar Awards 19 |
| 2011 | Winner | Best Collaboration For: "Survive" |
Urapopstar Awards 19 |
| 2011 | Nominated | Best Overall Artist | Urapopstar Awards 19 |
| 2011 | Nominated | Best Urban | Urapopstar Awards 19 |
| 2011 | Nominated | Best Video For: "Quixotism" |
Urapopstar Awards 19 |
| 2011 | Nominated | Best Male | Urapopstar Awards 20 |
| 2011 | Nominated | Best R&B/Hip-Hop | Urapopstar Awards 20 |
| 2012 | Nominated | Best Male | Urapopstar Awards 21 |
| 2012 | Winner | Best Digital Single For: "Heartbreak Hotel" |
Urapopstar Awards 22 |
| Paulo Araujo | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Never As Good As The First Time | "Misery Loves Company" · "Hooded Jacket" · "Superstar" · "Take A Trip (Granny)" | ||||||||
| Villain | "Extinction of the Shy" · "Villain" · "Baritone" · "Love Hangover/Is This Paradise" · "Victim" | ||||||||
| Jack of Clubs | "Blaze" · "Sort It Out (Part 3)" · "Fireflies in the Dark" · "Trainwreck" · "Vocoder" · "Blunt" · "Falso Amor" | ||||||||
| From Dusk 'Til Dawn | "Quixotism" · "Dethroned" · "Blur/The Hunger" · "Like Honey (Time Goes By)" | ||||||||
| Versus | "The Boss EP" · "Rinse, Rinse/Frenemies" | ||||||||
| Related topics | Discography · Vixenation · Alias Records · URAPS Idol (10 · 11 · Second Chance) · The Hunger | ||||||||
