Eliza Doolittle (singer)

Eliza Sophie Caird (born 15 April 1988), better known by her stage name Eliza Doolittle, is an English singer, songwriter and activist who signed with the Parlophone record label in October 2008. Her debut eponymous album was released on 12 July 2010, where it debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart. The album, Eliza Doolittle, produced two UK top forty hits: "Skinny Genes" and "Pack Up", the latter of which peaked within the top five on the UK Singles Chart.

On 7 June 2013 she premiered a single called "Big When I Was Little", which was released in July 2013. It subsequently joined BBC Radio 1's and Radio 2 playlist. It was later included on her second studio album, titled In Your Hands.

Early life

Eliza Doolittle was born in Westminster, London in 1988. She comes from a family with a successful and varied musical background. Her father is John Caird, a stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas who is also an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her mother is musical theatre actress and model artist Frances Ruffelle, who won a Tony Award for her role of Éponine in the English-language version of Les Misérables. Doolittle is the granddaughter of Sylvia Young, founder of the eponymous theatre school.

Eliza Doolittle

Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character who appears in the play Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw, 1912) and the musical version of that play My Fair Lady.

Eliza is a Cockney flower girl, who comes to Professor Henry Higgins asking for elocution lessons, after a chance encounter at Covent Garden. Higgins goes along with it for the purposes of a wager: That he can turn her into the toast of elite London society.

Doolittle receives voice coaching and learns the rules of etiquette. The outcome of these attentions varies between the original play and the various adaptations (see Pygmalion article).

History

The part of Eliza was originally played by Mrs Patrick Campbell, at that time the most famous actress on the London stage but considered by many to be far too old for the role. The unprecedented use of the word "bloody" - as a scripted intensive - caused a sensation when Campbell delivered it.

For the 1938 film Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw personally requested the young English actress Wendy Hiller play Doolittle, a part she had previously played on stage opposite Leslie Howard as Higgins. Her performance served as the definitive film portrayal until Audrey Hepburn played the role in the highly successful 1964 film musical My Fair Lady.

Eliza Doolittle (disambiguation)

Eliza Doolittle is a character from the play Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, a musical adaptation of the play.

Eliza Doolittle may also refer to:

Eliza Doolittle (album)

Eliza Doolittle is the eponymous debut album by British recording artist Eliza Doolittle. It was released on 12 July 2010 by Parlophone Records. The first single, "Skinny Genes", was released on 11 April 2010. The second single, "Pack Up", was released on 5 July 2010. On 7 January 2011 it was announced by BPI that the album had been certified Platinum for sales of 300,000 in the UK. The album was released in the United States on 19 April 2011.

Critical reception

Fraser McAlpine of BBC Blog gave the album a positive review stating:

Let’s start with the voice. It’s a beautiful, expressive thing: high and clear, with the occasional emotive crack. The pretty melodies and tweeting harmonies (literally, in some cases) are rendered snoozily, as if Eliza’s vocals were recorded just after waking and stretching from a dream-filled sleep.

Track listing