Jasmin Walia

Birth-2012: Early life and career beginnings

Walia was born in Essex, United Kingdom. She was brought up in Essex. She has a younger brother named Danny Walia, who is a Chigwell-based businessman. Her mother used to call her by the nickname "Sonam".^[4] She started singing at the age of around 7-8, and was first in her family to sing. While watching television, she used to imitate the actors in the lounge. She said in a session, "I used to sit there every Saturday night, performing "Over The Rainbow" to my dad, and he picked up the fact that I loved singing and enrolled me into singing classes."^[4] She demonstrated a vehemence for stage at a very young age.^[2] She started attending a theatre school at the age of 10.^[5] She used to listen to the Indian music and watch Bollywood movies.

She did four A levels and got three As and a B, and subsequently applied to the Cambridge to study philosophy, but failed to get through. She went to the interview with Natwest Bank and got hired for the job of Customer Adviser. She also enrolled with ACCA for an accountancy course, but later decided to drop out of the study programme.^[4]

Walia first worked as an extra in the British reality TV series, The Only Way Is Essex in 2010, and was promoted to a full cast member in 2012.

2012-2015: TOWIE and X-Factor

Walia became popular in the UK by appearing on the reality TV show The Only Way Is Essex. She was part of series 7 to 14 (September 2012 - April 2015). While series 7 to 12 were released by ITV2, ITVBe has original release rights for series 13 to 14. She also recorded for The Only Way Is Las Vegas, with the shooting starting in September 2013.

Walia was voted as the sexiest Asian in UK, along with the One Direction's ex-member Zayn Malik, in December 2014 in the poll by UK-based Eastern Eye magazine.

She started a YouTube channel in February 2014 and started uploading song covers with artists including Zack Knight, intens-ti and Ollie Green Music.Popular tracks like "Rather Be", "Dark Horse" and "All Of Me" were among her first covers.

In September 2014, Walia auditioned for the singing talent show, The X Factor: Series 11, but all four judges rejected her, leaving her sobbing. She said in an interview, "I was completely shattered. You're waiting around, getting more and more nervous watching everyone around you."^[6]

In May 2015, she declared about quitting the TOWIE show on Twitter: "I can confirm that I am taking a break from filming #TOWIE but would like to thank everyone involved with the show, Producers, Crew & Cast x [sic]."

Walia next appeared in the British television show Desi Rascals 2, streamed by Sky One from July to September 2015. The show also featured her then-boyfriend Ross Worswick. Before shooting for the show, she said, "This is the opportunity I’ve been looking for that will allow me to explore my cultural roots whilst still maintaining all the glitz and glamour that I love."^[7] The structured reality TV series delved deeper into the lives of a diverse set of West Londoners in their quests to fulfil their dreams and overcome challenges.^[7]

2016 to present: Career as a singer

Walia launched her first single, "Dum Dee Dee Dum", in April 2016 with Zack Knight. The song, written by Knight, P Cruz Michaela, and Reesa/Shide, and composed by Zack Knight and P Cruz, was released on the record label T-Series. Her second single, "Girl Like Me", was released on her YouTube channel in November 2016 and was made available for digital download on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify and Amazon Music. The track was written by Zack Knight and Harley Nixon, and the music video was directed by Roger Russell.

In December 2016, Walia appeared in the theatre show Aladdin at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre alongside Michelle Collins.^[8]

She partnered with T-Series once again in March 2017 with the release of her third song, "Temple". Walia and Zack Knight wrote this song, it was composed by Knight, and the music video was directed by Luke Biggins and Roger Russell. In May 2017, Walia released her fourth single, "Go Down". Its music video was shot in Dubai. The music label Saavn LLC released her fifth song, "Bom Diggy", with her long-term music partner, Zack Knight, who also wrote and composed the track. The music video, published in August 2017 on Knight's official YouTube channel, was directed by Knight and Luke Biggins. It was shot in the London nightclub, Café de Paris.^[4] The video received over 8,630,000 YouTube views in less than two months. In February 2018, T-Series released the same song with a change in music and a little alteration of the lyrics as a track in the movie Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.^[9][10]