Holly Valance

Holly Rachel Vukadinović (born 11 May, 1983), who is better known by her stage name of Holly Valance, is an Australian-born actress and ARIA nominated singer.

Eary life

Valance was born in Melbourne, Australia to a Serbian father and a British mother. She is related to the late British comedian Benny Hill — Hill's cousin was her grandfather (i.e., they are cousins twice removed). Holly was educated at the Star of the Sea College, a Roman Catholic high school located in Melbourne.

Music career

Holly's first single as a recording artist was Kiss Kiss, released in 2002. Kiss Kiss is her version of the original song Şımarık by Turkish superstar Tarkan.^{[citation needed]} The video for Kiss Kiss was notable in that Valance appeared to be dancing naked. In fact, she was dancing whilst wearing flesh colored underwear; the footage was then digitally retouched adding strategically placed lighting effects. Her début album Footprints was released on October 14, 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Kiss Kiss debuted at #1 in both the Australia ARIA charts and UK Singles Charts in (April-May 2002). Kiss Kiss scored Holly 4 ARIA nominations. Her next single, Down Boy peaked at #2 in the UK and at #3 in Australia, while her album Footprints debuted and peaked at #9 in the UK and at #15 in Australia. Her third single Naughty Girl peaked at #3 in Australia and at #16 in the UK. The first single State of Mind from her next album of the same name debuted and peaked at #8 in the UK and at #14 in Australia, but the album didn't get into the top 50 of either country.

She signed a £3 million deal with the hair products company Schwarzkopf Live to front the new line aimed at an early teen to early 20s market. Valance was seen modeling Cosmic Blue, Sahara True Blonde, Hypnotic Red as well as XXL dresses and XXL hats (each colour has a strapline which referenced other popular culture artists). The adverts could be seen across the United Kingdom at bus stops, shopping malls, on buses and in magazines.

During this time, Valance appeared on Har Mar Superstar's album "The Handler" singing on tracks "Body Request" and "Back the Camel up".

Film and television career

From 1999 to 2002 Holly played the role of Felicity "Flick" Scully on Australian soap Neighbours.

In 2004 Valance returned to acting, this time in the United States, appearing in episodes of the television series CSI: Miami and Entourage, and in 2005 she appeared in an episode of CSI: NY. She then guest-starred in Prison Break in 2006 as Nika Volek, a role which she continued to portray in the show's second season. She also had a small role in an episode in the second season of US TV show Entourage.

She appeared in the National Lampoon comedy Pledge This! and DOA: Dead or Alive, an adaptation of the popular video game Dead or Alive, where she played Christie.

She'll be working on the new Luc Besson feature called “Taken” starring Liam Neeson in Paris in March and an Australian drama later on in the year within Australia.

Valance is also set to play a Bosnian Muslim in a new movie titled 'The Tourist', a true story set in the Balkan war.

She also served as the promotional face of Australian collect call company 1800-Reverse and the UK equivalent.

Legal action

In 2003 she fired her then-manager Scott Michaelson (who owns Biscayne Partners Pty Ltd) by fax, 15 months before her contract was due to expire. Biscayne Partners Pty. Ltd. sued Valance Corp., won their case and were awarded damages by the Supreme Court of New South Wales.^[1][2]

During the trial Valance's mother, Rachel Stevens, claimed that Michaelson was negligent in his duties as a manager, which forced her to take over from his role as manager.^[3] Former Neighbours co-star Kym Valentine also gave evidence that Valance "said she was feeling bad, a bit stressed out, because she was leaving Scott" and that "she said the solicitors for her record company would get her out of the contract and would be faxing him the paper work (from the UK) to do so."^[4] Valance denied that she told Valentine this conversation in court, even though she had signed an affidavit where she stated she had no recollection of the conversation.^[5][6]

Justice Clifford Einstein said, "I have given close consideration to the question of whether or not the circumstances presently before the Court which do, it seems to me, show a calculated disregard of the rights of Biscayne as well as a cynical pursuit of benefit".^[1] The court subsequently ordered Valance Corp. pay $350,000 to Biscayne Partners Pty. Ltd. Of this amount, $47,264.56 was "from shares Ms Valance and Mr Michaelson had bought together on the London Stock Exchange",^[7] though the court did not award in favour of Biscayne getting a percentage of sales of her album, State of Mind.^[1][8]

Discography

Studio Albums

Footprints October 14, 2002 London Records AUS #15, UK #9

State of Mind November 10, 2003 London Records AUS #57, UK #60

Singles

Awards and recognition

Trivia

• In 2002, she won the British GQ Award for "Woman of the Year".^{[citation needed]}
• Takes Kickboxing lessons.

References

Wikipedia information about Holly Valance This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Holly Valance". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.