Biography
West, the youngest of four children, was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2000 following her graduation from Waterloo West High School in hopes of achieving her goals of becoming a country music singer. West soon signed a deal with a publishing company in Nashville, Warner-Chapell. West was then signed to Capitol Records Nashville when producer Mike Dungan listened to her demo tapes. One of her first appearances was as a background vocalist on Chely Wright's 2005 album The Metropolitan Hotel.
Capitol released a self-titled EP December 11, 2007 to the iTunes music store. In early 2008, West was featured in People Magazine and completed a media tour for her debut single, "Rocks in Your Shoes". "Rocks in Your Shoes" peaked in the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in early 2008. The song received a "thumbs up" rating from The 9513 critic Jim Malec, who called it "a fun-but-gritty up-tempo that exudes confidence and perfectly frames her music." A second single, "That Kind of Happy" was released in April 2009 and failed to enter the chart.
West appeared on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? on September 25, 2009, winning $25,000. In January 2010, West released a duet with labelmate Keith Urban titled "Blue Sky." The song debuted at No. 53 on the Hot Country Songs chart for the week of February 23, 2010. Roughstock gave the song 4½ stars out of 5,stating that "'Blue Sky' is already a contender for one of 2010's best singles." It spent thirteen weeks on the charts and peaked at No. 38.
Emily appeared in the April 18th, 2010 episode of Celebrity Apprentice, as the "music make-over" target for the women's team led by Cyndi Lauper. Lauper won the challenge and as a result West donated 100% of the first month of iTunes sales of her song "Blue Sky" to the Stonewall Community Foundation, Lauper's charity.
She appeared in the January 10th, 2012 "Shades of Blue" episode on Body of Proof on ABC. She played a drug addict trying to make it in the music business. She sings her single "Head On" at the end of the episode.
Read more about this topic: Emily West
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