Joss Stone - from teenage soul diva to Masked Singer winner in 40 fascinating photos

This time last year Devon’s soul superstar Joss Stone was crowned the winner of ITV’s The Masked Singer after performing week after week while pregnant and disguised as a life-sized sausage.

This week she’ll be back in the spotlight on our screens as a guest judge for the programme’s series final.

It marks another step on the journey of the 34-year-old singing sensation whose remarkable talent started turning heads when she was just 13 and still a pupil at Uffculme School, near Cullompton in East Devon.

That was when the shy Joscelyn Stoker won the BBC’s Junior Star for a Night celebrity judged talent competition singing the Donna Summer hit On The Radio and the wheels of fame and fortune began to turn.

Signed up by American record label S-Curve, her debut album The Soul Sessions was released in 2003, cracking the tricky US market and catapulting the renamed Joss Stone to “diva” status at the tender age of 16.

She enjoyed phenomenal success very fast and very young. Joss became the youngest British female to top the UK Album Chart and won Best Urban Artist at the Brit Awards in 2005, and a year later was on the Sunday Times Rich List.

The next few years were a whirlwind of touring, recording and high profile appearances for the modest and bubbly Joss, then managed by her mother, Wendy, who later set up the much-missed intimate Mama Stones venue in Exeter where her daughter was known to play impromptu gigs from time to time.

Having sold around 13 million records and performed all over the world, shared stages and studios with some of the biggest names in the music business, and become a brand ambassador for clothing companies and chocolate bars, Joss has also used her name and status to support charitable causes close to her heart through The Joss Stone Foundation.

In 2019 she completed her five-year, 200-stop Total world tour, playing in every country in the world, except Iran, where she was not allowed to perform.

She’s never forgotten her roots. Despite spending a lot of time away, Devon has always remained Joss’s home. Through the years she’s returned regularly to the beautiful family cottage where she grew up and it’s where she now lives with her partner Cody DaLuz, their one-year-old baby daughter Violet and a clutch of rescue dogs. It’s also where she hosts her Instagram cooking videos and Cuppa Happy podcast.

Take a look through our gallery to see Joss as she’s travelled through the years from shy teenager to champion Sausage, including many appearances in Devon.

Love nostalgia? Have the best articles emailed to you for free with our new weekly nostalgia newsletter. Click here to see all the Devon Live newsletters.

What do you miss most about the past 30 years? The fashions, music, or perhaps the way of life. Take a look at our nostalgia survey.