Simpson was born on July 10, 1980, in Abilene, Texas. She is the first child of Tina Ann Simpson (née Drew), a homemaker, and Joseph Simpson, a minister. Simpson's parents married in 1978; they divorced in 2013. Simp… See more

Simpson has listed Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin and Sade as influences on her music. She attempted to launch her career as a Christian music singer, and at one point completed a self-titled albu… See more

Simpson came to prominence as a teen idol in the late 1990s and the media described her as Columbia Records's "blond response to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera", who had achieved recent succ… See more