Early life

Hayley Williams was born to Joey and Cristi Williams, in Meridian, Mississippi. She has two younger half sisters. As a result of her parents divorcing in 2002, Williams moved to Franklin, Tennessee. She met former band members Josh and Zac Farro in her new school. While still at school she tried out for a local funk cover band, The Factory, where she met Jeremy Davis.

Music career

Williams was discovered in 2003 by managers Dave Steunebrink and Richard Williams, who signed the 14-year-old to a two-year production deal. At the time she was writing pop songs with songwriters in Nashville. Williams was introduced to Atlantic Records A&R Tom Storms through Richard Williams' attorneys Jim Zumwalt and Kent Marcus, and then signed to the label by Jason Flom. The label's original plan for their new artist was to make her a solo pop artist but Williams objected to this, saying that she wanted to be part of a band and play pop punk music.

Atlantic decided to go along with her wishes, and she then formed Paramore with Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jeremy Davis. The music of Paramore was originally supposed to come out on Atlantic Records, but the label's marketing department decided it would be better for the image of the band to not have them attached to a huge label. They instead released their music through a "cooler" niche label, Fueled by Ramen. The band's debut album, All We Know Is Falling, was released in 2005 when Hayley was only 16 years old. Paramore has later released three more studio albums, Riot! (2007), Brand New Eyes (2009), and the self-titled Paramore (2013). In June 2009, the band welcomed Taylor York (rhythm guitar) as an official member, although he had already been playing as a touring member with the band since 2007. In December 2010, two of the founding members of Paramore (Josh and Zac Farro) left the band. The news was posted by Williams on Paramore's web site, with Josh later posting a controversial blog post confirming their departure.

In 2007, she made an appearance in the music video for "Kiss Me" by New Found Glory.

In the 2007 Kerrang! Readers' Poll she finished second to Evanescence's Amy Lee in the "Sexiest Female" category, going on to win the first place spot for "Sexiest Female" a year later in the 2008 poll, and again in the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 poll. She also appears as a playable character in the video game Guitar Hero World Tour after completing "Misery Business" in the vocalist campaign.

Williams wrote and recorded the song "Teenagers", which was featured in the soundtrack for the feature film Jennifer's Body. After the release of "Teenagers", Williams stated that she had no plans to establish herself as a solo artist. In 2010, she appeared on the tracks "Airplanes" and "Airplanes, Part II" from alternative rapper B.o.B's debut album, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray. When it was released as a single, "Airplanes" peaked within the top ten in nineteen countries, including number one peak positions in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

In 2006, Paramore toured outside of the US for the first time, which included a headline tour of the UK and supporting post-hardcore rock band The Blackout on the Give It A Name Festival in Europe.

EDM producer Zedd and Williams collaborated on the track "Stay the Night", which was released later in 2013 from his debut studio album, Clarity. Williams was honored with the "Trailblazer Award" in the 2014 Billboard's Women in Music Awards for making a unique mark in music and paving the way for other artists. In 2015, Williams starred as the 'Crimson Curse' in Taylor Swift's music video for her single, "Bad Blood" with sixteen other celebrities.

Along with band member and co-writer Taylor York, Williams was nominated for and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song at the 2015 ceremony for the song Ain't It Fun.

In July 2015, Williams won the APMA for Best Vocalist.

Voice

Williams possesses a four octave light-lyric soprano vocal range. Alternative Press states that Williams "has more charisma than singers twice her age, and her band aren't far behind in their chops, either." Singer-songwriter John Mayer had praised Williams' voice in a blog in October 2007, calling her "The great orange hope"; "orange" in reference to her hair color.

Public image

In March 2013, Williams announced she was partnering with MAC Cosmetics for the release of a new makeup collection on April 9, 2013. The four-piece collection included a bright orange lipstick, an orange nail polish, a shimmery coral eye shadow and a beauty powder. Later that year Hayley appeared on the April cover of Nylon magazine to promote Paramore's self-titled album.

In October of that year, Williams partnered with the Hard Rock Café's PINKTOBER charity campaign to raise awareness and funding for breast cancer and its research.

In 2015, she launched the online beauty and music series "Kiss-Off" on Popular TV.

In 2016, after over 4 years of planning, Williams launched her own hair dye company, Good Dye Young. The colors offered by the company include an orange, Riot!; a pink, Ex-Girl; a blue, Blue Ruin; a yellow, Steal My Sunshine; and a red, Rock Lobster.

Personal life

Williams is a Christian and regularly discusses her faith in relation to her music, but has been critical of the judgmental nature of some in the Christian community. The Farro brothers cited differing attitudes on faith as contributing to their exit from Paramore.

Since 2008, she has been in a relationship with New Found Glory's lead guitarist Chad Gilbert. On December 31, 2014, Williams confirmed that she and Gilbert had become engaged, after being proposed to on Christmas Day. They were married on February 20, 2016.

Discography

See also: Paramore discography

Studio albums with Paramore

• All We Know Is Falling (2005)
• Riot! (2007)
• Brand New Eyes (2009)
• Paramore (2013)

Songs

Year	Title	Album
2009	"Teenagers"	Jennifer's Body: Music from the Motion Picture

Featured singles

Single	Year	Peak chart positions										Certifications	Album
		US	AUS	AUT	CAN	GER	IRE	NZ	SWE	SWI	UK
"Airplanes"	2010	2	2	2	2	8	2	1	10	5	1	RIAA: 5× Platinum ARIA: 3× Platinum BPI: Platinum BVMI: Gold MC: 2× Platinum RIANZ: Platinum	B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray
"Airplanes"		—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
"Stay the Night"	2013	18	11	20	22	15	8	20	47	56	2	RIAA: Platinum ARIA: Platinum BPI: Silver	Clarity
"Vicious Love"	2015	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Resurrection: Ascension

Other appearances

Year	Song	Album
2006	"Keep Dreaming Upside Down"	A Season in Hell
2007	"Then Came to Kill"	The Fiancée
	"The Church Channel"	In Defense of the Genre
	"Plea"
2009	"Tangled Up"	Not Without a Fight
	"The Few That Remain"	This Will Be the Death of Us
2010	"Airplanes, Part II"	B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray
2011	"Rainbow Connection"	Muppets: The Green Album
2012	"Fox's Dream of the Log Flume"	Ten Stories
	"All Circles"
	"Babe"	Nashville Sessions
	"What's His Name"	Five Minutes in Timeout!
2015	"Wearing Your Ring"	That New Sound You're Looking For
	"Vicious Love"	Resurrection

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
2007	Kerrang Readers' Poll 2007	Sexiest Female Front Singer	Herself	Won
2008	Kerrang Readers' Poll 2008			Won
	Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica	Premio Fashionista 2008		Won
	MTV Video Music Brazil	Best International Atc 2008		Won
2009	Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica	Premio Fashionista 2009		Won
	Shockwaves NME Awards 2009	Sexiest Female		Won
	Kerrang Readers' Poll 2009			Won
2010	Kerrang Readers' Poll 2010			Won
	2010 MTV Video Music Awards	Video of the Year	"Airplanes" - B.o.B	Won
		Best Female Video		Won
		Best Hip-Hop Video		Won
		Best Collaboration		Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards 2010	Hook Up Song		Won
	52nd Annual Grammy Awards	Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media	"Decode" - Williams, Josh Farro and Taylor York	Nominated
2011	Kerrang Readers' Poll 2011	Sexiest Female	Herself	Won
	37th People's Choice Awards	Favorite Song	"Airplanes" - B.o.B	Nominated
	BET Awards 2011	Video of the Year		Nominated
		Best Collaboration		Nominated
	53rd Annual Grammy Awards	Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals	"Airplanes, Part II" - B.o.B	Nominated
2012	Kerrang Readers' Poll 2012	Sexiest Female	Herself	Won
	NME Awards 2012	Hottest Female		Nominated
	Kerrang! Awards 2012			Nominated
		Tweeter of the Year		Won
2013	Kerrang! Awards 2013	Hottest Female		Nominated
2014	Alternative Press Music Awards 2014	Best Singer
	iHeartRadio Music Awards	EDM Song of the Year	"Stay the Night" - Zedd
	MTV Video Music Awards 2014	Best Editing
		MTV Clubland Award		Won
	Billboard Women in Music	Trailblazer Award	Herself
2015	57th Annual Grammy Awards	Best Rock Song	"Ain't It Fun" - Williams and Taylor York
	Kerrang! Awards 2015	Best Tweeter	Herself
	Alternative Press Music Awards 2015	Best Singer

[ Source: Wikipedia ]