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Stacey Jackson, the hip hop housewife

A Reform synagogue isn't a location you'd expect to see as the backdrop for a raunchy hip-hop video featuring scantily-clad dancers.

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It's not a location you'd expect to see as the backdrop for a raunchy hip-hop video featuring scantily-clad dancers.

But filming in a Reform synagogue in central London isn't the only unconventional aspect of Chelsea-based Jewish singer Stacey Jackson's bid for pop success.

Last year the 42-year-old mother-of-four swapped her life as a banker's wife in Chelsea to pursue her musical career.

Since then, she's released three songs and reached the number two spot on the club charts, as well as recorded with rapper Snoop Dogg. "I sent him my track 'Live it up' and five days later I was working with him," she said. "He was a doll, we sat and talked about parenting and football. He has kids the same age as mine, so we had a lot in common."

Her latest single, Is this Love, a cover of a track by 1980s band Whitesnake, is on sale on iTunes now and she is planning to release an EP early next year.

Mrs Jackson admitted that her fellow congregants might be surprised that its video, which features women shedding their clothes and dancing provocatively, was filmed in a room normally reserved for Hebrew classes.

"It's a funny story," she said. "We needed somewhere to film on a week day. We talked about churches, then I said, hold on, I've just held a big barmitzvah. I'm sure I could just call the shul – I have a really good relationship with them.

"We filmed on a Monday so no one was at shul," she said. "It's a dance track so it's obviously quite racy but you'd never know it was shot there."

"I don't think anyone has ever done that before," she added. "I've made a donation to the shul to say thank you – I'm giving back to the community."

As well as her musical ambitions, Mrs Jackson could find that the new year brings television stardom. She and her family have filmed a pilot episode of a "hyper-reality" show, in the style of the hit series Made in Chelsea, and are currently meeting television executives to discuss the project.

"It would show my life as a pop singer and a soccer mom," she said. "I'm excited, as long as I don't look like Sharon Osbourne or Kim Kardashian."

She said the programme would also show her "Jewish mum" side.

"They want to film us doing Shabbat dinner. Even though I perform in from of thousands of people, my Judaism is a really big part of me," said Mrs Jackson, who speaks fluent Yiddish. "I couldn't be me without the Jewish background and family tradition."

As a rebellious teenager at a Jewish school in Montreal, Mrs Jackson was in an 80s rock band called Cold Front and sang regularly at the city's pubs and bars "before I could even drink". But she chose to go to university and build a family, not a career.

"It's funny how it's worked out," she said. "But it doesn't make a difference if I'm 12 or 22 or 42. As Snoop said, it doesn't matter – the DJs are still playing your stuff."

"I'm not trying to be a 20-year-old pop star. I'm still a mum and I never want to embarrass my children. You'll never find me dancing with a toy boy in my video."

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