Chris Willis

Despite spending most of his life as a gospel singer and an unheralded backing vocalist, Chris Willis became the unlikely voice of a string of huge Ibiza club anthems when he began working with superstar DJ David Guetta in 2004. Born in Dayton, Ohio Willis grew up singing in choirs and a quartet with his brother and sisters and after graduating from college in Alabama, he started touring churches across the US with the the gospel group The Heritage Singers. He headed to Nashville to release his self-titled debut album in 1996 and would spend years performing Motown hits on the club circuit and singing back-up vocals for artists including CeCe Winans, Kelly Clarkson and Kenny Rogers. But his fortunes changed when songwriter Desmond Child took him to Paris to work with French pop group 2Be3. While there, he was introduced to the then up-and-coming house producer Guetta and the pair spent the following day creating 'Just a Little More Love', the title track from Guetta's debut 2003 album and a hit single, which made the UK top 20 and became a big club anthem across Europe. Several other collaborative tracks between the pair also featured on the record and the mix of Guetta's trance-electro beats and Willis' powerful vocals proved a successful formula that continued on Guetta's platinum-selling albums 'Guetta Blaster', 'Pop Life' and 'One Love' and on the hit 'Love Is Gone' in 2007. The pair also teamed up with Fergie and LMFAO for the UK chart-topping single 'Getting Over You' in 2010, while Willis continued to create banging, fist-pumping, electro-pop anthems and re-launched his solo career with the album 'Premium - Songs from The Love Ship Vol. 1' in 2011.

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