Lohan, Lindsay

views updated

Lindsay Lohan

Singer, actor

With red hair and freckles galore, as a child Lindsay Lohan was a fresh face in the modeling and acting world. As Lohan matured, her films did as well, and after 2004's Mean Girls and 2006's Bobby, Lohan proved herself to be a sought-after actress capable of both comedy and dramatic roles. Lohan's music career, unfortunately, was often overshadowed by her films as well as her perpetual appearance in tabloid magazines. With her vibrant acting roles and now two solo albums, Lohan's well-rounded career has helped her standout from the "teen queen" set. "I feel blessed to be able to do this," Lohan said about her music career in an AOL online interview. "And I'm not trying to put something out there that is not real or me."

Born on July 2, 1986 in New York City, Lohan grew up in Long Island with three younger siblings and her parents Dina (a former Rockette) and Michael (a former Wall Street trader). At five years old, with endless freckles and red hair, Lohan was a standout in a sea of blondes as a Ford Model. Appearing in some 60 commercials, Lohan's acting career took off with a role on the television soap opera Another World, and later with the lead role in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.

Lohan wasn't just acting by the time she was six, she was also taking voice lessons. "I've been singing since I was a little kid," Lohan said in an interview with MSNBC.com. "I used to put on shows for my Barbie dolls singing Madonna or Paula Abdul. But I started acting first, so it made more sense to just go with that, and I was young when I started." The Parent Trap was just the beginning of a slew of Disney films Lohan would make, including another remake with 2003's Freaky Friday. Lohan co-stars with Jamie Lee Curtis in a role in which mother and daughter switch bodies. In the film, the daughter happens to play in a rock band, and subsequently, Lohan sang the film's theme song "Ultimate," which also appeared on the popular soundtrack. Now fully a maturing teenager, the success of Freaky Friday was the beginning of Lohan's perpetual appearance in the celebrity gossip realm. Rumors abounded when the media propelled an alleged conflict between Lohan and actress/singer Hilary Duff over a mutual ex-boyfriend, pop singer Aaron Carter.

In Lohan's next tween film, 2004's Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, she got to show off her singing voice in the starring role. Four songs from the film were included on the album's soundtrack. The movie and its soundtrack failed; however, these were eclipsed by the spring release of Mean Girls, Lohan's first PG-13 role. Mean Girls, a film written by Saturday Night Live alumni Tina Fey, brought in a remarkable $112 million at the box office alone. As Lohan's fame rose, so did her tabloid coverage. Speculating on everything from her underage drinking in nightclubs to rumored plastic surgery, after Mean Girls, Lohan was officially more than famous.

In July of 2004, Lohan turned 18 and the following month appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Now a legal adult, Lohan went public with her relationship with the then 24-year-old actor Wilmer Valderrama from That '70s Show. Lohan's year was made complete when she signed to Tommy Mottola's reemerged label Casablanca Records for her solo album debut.

With a handful of top-notch producers who previously made hits for Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, and Ashlee Simpson on her team, Lohan began working on her debut album at the same time she was filming Disney's Herbie Fully Loaded. Her schedule was so tight that she recorded much of the album in her trailer on the Herbie set. Lohan got so overworked during this period that she was hospitalized for exhaustion, and subsequently began to lose weight.

Released in December of 2004, Lohan's album Speak was teased by the single "Rumors." The song, which was actually a bonus track tacked on the end of the album, was a slickly produced pop song set for the dance clubs. The song and its glossy video spoke of something Lohan knew about personally: gossip magazine rumors and the endless paparazzi. "You can't really complain [about the gossip] because it's what you have to accept is going to happen when you're in the spotlight. And you want this. And I understand that," Lohan told MSBN about the song. "At the same time, it's hard when you're just waking up and you're going out to get your mail and there are people there. It bugs me sometimes, of course." The provocative video earned a nomination for Best Pop Video at MTV's 2005 awards show. In Lohan's interview with AOL, she explained the message behind the album title, stating "… it was titled Speak encouraging people to know that it is always okay … to speak your mind. In terms of speaking about … love, hate, fear, anger, truth, lies … everything. Just to be open to what's out there. It's very therapeutic."

Even when Lohan wasn't busy filming her next slew of movies in 2005, her name and face were constant gossip material. Lohan's parents had separated and her father was sent to prison in 2005 for aggravated assault and a handful of other charges. When Lohan was a preteen, Michael Lohan had served a four-year prison sentence for stock fraud. The Lohan family was boiling over in 2005, which only fueled the tabloid fire. Ironically, Lohan's public family troubles added some validity and emotion to Lohan's music. A year after Speak, Lohan released A Little More Personal (Raw), debuting it at number 4 on the Billboard 200. Contributing more of herself lyrically and emotionally to her second record, Lohan used her tumultuous relationship with her father as the subject of the album's first single. Lohan co-wrote the jarring "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)" and directed the video in which she and her look-alike younger sister appear. "This album has been so therapeutic for me," Lindsay stated on her website. "But at the same time I think it captures the kind of collective hyper-existence a lot of young people find themselves in these days. I'm just thankful music has provided me with a forum to break out and express the kind of emotions that often get pushed aside."

With the work of writers/producers including Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne, The Donnas), Greg Wells (Michelle Branch), and former Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody, Lohan was able to work more directly on each song's lyrics and feeling than she had on Speak. Many critics compared the album with Ashlee Simpson's sophomore album, and like All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, agreed that Lohan's had more heart and artistic vision. "She really means it … when she sings about her father, or when she sings about alienation and heartbreak, and this emotional investment when married to the duly professional, straight-ahead songcraft of her collaborators makes for interesting listening."

For the Record …

Born Lindsay Lohan on July 2, 1986, in New York City, New York; daughter of Dina and Michael Lohan.

A child model and actress, Lindsay Lohan began her music career singing pop songs for her film soundtracks' including Freaky Friday, 2003; Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, 2004; signed to Casablanca Records/Universal, released Speak, 2004; A Little More Personal (Raw), 2005. Actress in feature films including The Parent Trap, 1998, Freaky Friday, 2003, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, 2004, Mean Girls, 2004, Herbie Fully Loaded, 2005, A Prairie Home Companion, 2006, Just My Luck, 2006, Bobby, 2006.

Addresses: Record company—Casablanca Records/Universal Motown Records, 2220 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404; 1755 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Website—Lindsay Lohan Official Website: http://www.lindsaylohanmusic.com.

Before and after recording her sophomore album, Lohan was almost continually filming movies. Released in 2006 alone, Lohan had roles in Just My Luck, A Prairie Home Companion, and Bobby. In Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, Lohan not only sang a song during the film, but appeared on the soundtrack as well.

Selected discography

(Contributor) Freaky Friday (soundtrack), Hollywood, 2003.
(Contributor) Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (soundtrack), Hollywood, 2004.
(Contributor) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (soundtrack), Disney, 2004.
Speak, Casablanca Records, 2004.
(Contributor) Herbie: Full Loaded (soundtrack), Hollywood, 2005.
A Little More Personal (Raw), Casablanca Records, 2005.
(Contributor) A Prairie Home Companion (soundtrack), New Line, 2006.