ABC's first special with Simpson & Lachey, The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour, garnered such high ratings for it's Easter weekend broadcast that the network immediately ordered another. Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas kicked off the 2004 holiday season with similarly stellar ratings. In addition to Nick and Jessica's Variety Hour and Nick and Jessica's Family Christmas, Nick and Jessica's Tour of Duty proved to be yet another hit for the network. Enjoying the peak of popularity, Jessica completed her first national headlining tour in 2004, released her first Christmas album and is making her feature film debut in The Dukes of Hazzard. Along with her starring role, Jessica also recorded These Boots Are Made For Walkin' with Willie Nelson for the Dukes soundtrack. With a new merchandising and licensing deal, more acting and recording projects, and still more dreams to fulfill, 2005 has proven to be another banner year.
In response to the steadily increasing popularity of Jessica and her music, Columbia Records released a special expanded version of In This Skin in March. With You, Jessica's biggest hit single to date (and the first she has co-written), hit the #1 spot on the Billboard/Monitor Top 40 Mainstream Audience chart. A video for the song was among the most played on MTV and her videos for Take My Breath Away and Angels received massive airplay on the network.
The expanded version of In This Skin featured two newly-recorded bonus tracks: Jessica's soaring renditions of Take My Breath Away (from Top Gun) and Robbie Williams' Angels. The album also contained an exclusive acoustic version of Jessica's #1 hit single, With You, an exclusive DVD featuring classic scenes from the first season of Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, as well as romantic footage from Nick and Jessica's wedding.
Originally released in late August 2003, In This Skin debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 best-selling albums chart the week of its release and had fallen to #127 by October. In one of the most remarkable sales turnarounds in recent pop history In This Skin, driven by With You and Jessica's television stardom, began climbing back up the charts and into the Top 20 in early 2004.
ReJoyce The Christmas Album and the Jessica Simpson Reality Tour Live DVD, a live DVD capturing an outstanding performance from the singer's enormously successful 2004 Reality Tour concert series were both released in November 2005. Named in honor of her grandmother, ReJoyce The Christmas Album is Jessica's yuletide present to fans and music lovers everywhere, a holiday package brimming over with some of Jessica's favorite holiday songs, fresh interpretations of seasonal music ranging from timeless Christmas carols to contemporary holiday standards.
With endorsements and other opportunities pouring in, Jessica appeared in a Super Bowl spot with the Muppets for Pizza Hut. She launched her fragrance line, Dessert, in April 2004 as a partner in the venture and has since introduced two line extensions, Taste and Dessert Treats. In addition to Dessert, Jessica is preparing to launch her own clothing line and has numerous other merchandising projects in the works. Jessica has been featured on the covers of magazines all over the world and is considered an international style icon.
She and Nick experienced yet another career high in January 2004, hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live and Jessica fulfilled a dream of performing alongside such artists as Patti LaBelle and Cyndi Lauper on VH1's Divas telecast.
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Jessica shared bills with gospel acts like Kirk Franklin, God's Property and CeCe Winans, and toured in support of the pop group 98° - which featured her future husband, Nick Lachey - prior to the 1999 release of her Columbia Records debut album Sweet Kisses, in 2000. The double platinum Sweet Kisses featured Jessica's massive breakthrough hit, I Wanna Love You Forever. The title track to Irresistible, her 2001 follow-up, was a similar crossover smash.
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