WAdam and the Ants were an English rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The group, which lasted from 1977 to 1982, existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant. The first, founded in May 1977 and known simply as The Ants until November that year, achieved considerable cult popularity during the transition from the punk rock era to the post-punk and new wave era, and were noted for their high camp and overtly sexualised stage performances and songs. The final line-up of this first incarnation – Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman – left the band in January 1980 at the suggestion of then-de facto manager Malcolm McLaren, to form the instrumentalist personnel of the controversial Bow Wow Wow.
WStuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant is an English singer and musician. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten hits from 1980 to 1983, including three UK No. 1 singles. He has also worked as an actor, appearing in over two dozen films and television episodes from 1985 to 2003.
WDie Ärzte is a German punk band from Berlin. The band has released 13 studio albums. The group consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B and bass player Rodrigo González. All three write and perform their songs.
WJoan Chandos Baez is an American singer, songwriter, musician and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest or social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing over 30 albums. Fluent in Spanish and English, she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages.
WDaryl Braithwaite is an Australian singer. He was the lead vocalist of Sherbet (1970–1984), and returned for various reunions. Braithwaite also has a solo career, placing 15 singles in the Australian top 40, including two number-one hits, "You're My World" and "The Horses". His second studio album, Edge, peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, No. 14 in Norway and No. 24 in Sweden.
WBros are an English band formed in 1986 in Camberley, Surrey. The band originally consisted of twin brothers Matt and Luke Goss, and their friend Craig Logan, who attended Collingwood School in Camberley. The band was managed by former Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins. They achieved chart success and a large teenage fanbase in 1988 with songs such as "When Will I Be Famous" and "I Owe You Nothing". Early the following year, Logan quit the band and the Goss twins continued as a duo. After two more albums the band split up in 1992.
WJorge Antonio Cafrune was one of the most popular Argentine folklorist singers of his time, as well as an unflagging researcher, compilator, and diffuser of the native culture.
WThe Canadian Brass is a Canadian brass quintet formed in 1970 in Toronto, Ontario, by Charles Daellenbach (tuba) and Gene Watts (trombone), with horn player Graeme Page and trumpets Stuart Laughton and Bill Phillips completing the quintet. As of 2018, Daellenbach is the sole original member in the group, with the other members being trumpeters Caleb Hudson and Chris Coletti, hornist Jeff Nelsen and trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos.
WThe Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 as a key player in the original wave of British punk rock. They also contributed to the post-punk and new wave movements that emerged in the wake of punk and employed elements of a variety of genres including reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly. For most of their recording career, the Clash consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon. Headon left the group in 1982 and internal friction led to Jones' departure the following year. The group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986.
WLéonie, Baroness Cooreman, known by the stage name Annie Cordy, was a Belgian actress and singer. She appeared in more than 50 films from 1954 and staged many memorable appearances at Bruno Coquatrix' famous Paris Olympia. Her version of "La Ballade de Davy Crockett" was number 1 in the charts for five weeks in France in August 1956. She was born in Laeken, Belgium, where in 2004, King Albert II of Belgium bestowed upon her the title of Baroness in recognition for her life's achievements.
WMichael Damian Weir is an American actor, recording artist and producer, best known for his role as Danny Romalotti on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, which he played from 1980 to 1998 and again in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2013.
WJoseph "Joe" Ira Dassin was an American-born French singer-songwriter.
WClaudie Fritsch-Mentrop, known by her stage name Desireless, is a French singer. Between 1986 and 1988, her hit single "Voyage, voyage" made it to number one in many European and Asian single charts.
WThe Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy, alternative rock and vocal group who initially performed together between 1984 and 1994. The group were an acoustic trio, originally comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals. The group reformed in 2014, with Paul Livingston replacing Fidler on guitar.
WDavid Essex is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. Since the 1970s, he has attained 19 Top 40 singles in the UK and 16 Top 40 albums. Internationally, Essex had the most success with his 1973 single "Rock On". He has also had an extensive career as an actor.
WEurogliders are a band formed in 1980 in Perth, Western Australia, which included Grace Knight on vocals, Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals, and Amanda Vincent on keyboards. In 1984, Eurogliders released an Australian top ten album, This Island, which spawned their No. 2 hit single, "Heaven ". "Heaven" also peaked at No. 21 on the United States Billboard Mainstream Rock charts and appeared on the Hot 100. Another Australian top ten album, Absolutely, followed in 1985, which provided two further local top ten singles, "We Will Together", and "Can't Wait to See You". They disbanded in 1989, with Knight having a successful career as a jazz singer. Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane described Eurogliders as "the accessible face of post-punk new wave music. The band's sophisticated brand of pop was traditional in its structure, but displayed the decidedly 'modern veneer' ". The band reformed in 2005 releasing two new albums followed in 2014 by their seventh album.
WGoombay Dance Band is a German band created in 1979 by Oliver Bendt, named after a small bay on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. Their music has a distinctive sound, which is a mixture of soca, calypso and western pop. The group enjoyed greatest commercial success at the beginning of the 1980s, spawning such number 1 hits as "Sun of Jamaica", "Seven Tears" and "Aloha-Oe, Until We Meet Again". Goombay Dance Band built up a fan base across Europe and proved very popular in South Africa too, where "Sun of Jamaica" and "Aloha-Oe" entered the charts.
WCatharina "Nina" Hagen is a German singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her theatrical vocals and rose to prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
WAlbert Louis Hammond OBE is a British-Gibraltarian singer, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific songwriter, he collaborated most notably with the songwriters Mike Hazlewood, John Bettis, Diane Warren, Holly Knight and Carole Bayer Sager. Hammond's son Albert Hammond Jr. is rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band the Strokes.
WThe Inspirational Choir of the Pentecostal First Born Church of the Living God, later the name was shortened to The Inspirational Choir, were a gospel choir based in London, England. The choir was founded by John Francis, who also co-founded the London Community Gospel Choir. Their recording career began as backing vocalists for Madness on their single "Wings Of A Dove", which reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. They later produced their own single, which reached No. 36 in the UK Singles Chart and a studio album, which reached No. 59 in the UK Album Chart.
WMarc Wallace Jordan is an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, session musician, and actor. Covering a wide variety of genres, he has written songs for a number of well-known artists, including Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Cher, Bette Midler, Chicago, and Josh Groban. He was named best producer with Steven MacKinnon at the Juno Awards in 1994 for "Waiting for a Miracle" from Reckless Valentine. In early 2014, Jordan was named Chair of Slaight Family Music Lab at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre.
WJudas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million copies of their albums, and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in the latter half of the 1970s, the band had struggled with indifferent record production and a lack of major commercial success until 1980, when they rose to commercial success with the album British Steel.
WFausto Leali is an Italian pop singer.
WLinda Martin is a singer and television presenter from Northern Ireland. She is best known in Europe as the winner of the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Why Me?", and in Ireland as a member of the 1970s/1980s band Chips.
WMi-Sex is a New Zealand new wave band originally active from 1978 to 1986, and led for much of its existence by Steve Gilpin as vocalist, Kevin Stanton as guitarist and songwriter, Murray Burns as keyboardist and songwriter, and Don Martin as bassist. The group's manager for much of its career was Bob Yates. Mi-Sex achieved two top 10 hit singles in 1979-80: "Computer Games" in October 1979 and "People" in 1980. Their first two albums both reached the New Zealand top 10, Graffiti Crimes and Space Race. They were known for their cutting edge production and dynamic live shows. Gilpin died in January 1992, two months after a serious car accident from which he never recovered. Mi-Sex have periodically reformed, including in 2011 with Steve Balbi (ex-Noiseworks) on lead vocals. Stanton died on 17 May 2017, Martin on 10 August 2020.
WMott the Hoople are an English rock band, popular in the glam rock era of the early to mid-1970s. They are best known for the song "All the Young Dudes", written for them by David Bowie. The song appeared on their 1972 album of the same name.
WGeneviève Alison Jane Moyet is an English singer, songwriter and performer noted for her powerful bluesy contralto voice. She came to prominence as half of the duo Yazoo, but has since mainly worked as a solo artist.
WNena was a German Neue Deutsche Welle band. In 1983 and 1984, their German-language song "99 Luftballons" reached number one in the singles charts of countries around the world.
WNoiseworks are an Australian hard rock band formed in Sydney in 1986 with bass guitarist Steve Balbi, guitarist Stuart Fraser, drummer Kevin Nicol, keyboardist Justin Stanley and lead vocalist Jon Stevens. They had four Australian Top 10 albums, Noiseworks, Touch, Love Versus Money and Greatest Hits. They produced three Top 10 singles, "Take Me Back", "Touch" and "Hot Chilli Woman" before disbanding in 1992. Reunion tours occurred in 1999, 2004, 2007–2008 and 2011.
WAbi Ofarim, born Avraham Reichstadt was an Israeli musician and dancer. He is better known for his work in the 1960s as half of the duo Esther & Abi Ofarim with his then-wife Esther Ofarim.
WRaymond Edward "Gilbert" O'Sullivan is an Irish singer-songwriter who achieved his most significant success during the early 1970s with hits including "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair", and "Get Down". O'Sullivan's songs are often marked by his distinctive, percussive piano playing style and observational lyrics utilising word play.
WAnna Hoxha, known professionally as Anna Oxa, is an Italian singer, actress, and television presenter. Affectionately referred to as la Voce e il Cuore, Oxa has received mainstream popularity and recognition within Italy due to her numerous participations in the Sanremo Music Festival.
WPlatinum Blonde is a Canadian rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1982. At the beginning of its most commercially successful period in the mid-to late 1980s, the band consisted of Mark Holmes on vocals and bass, Sergio Galli on guitar, and Chris Steffler on drums. The Scottish musician Kenny MacLean joined the group as bassist in 1985, freeing Holmes from bass duties.
WQuiver were a British rock band formed in 1970 by Tim Renwick and Cal Batchelor. In December 1972, they teamed up with the Sutherland Brothers and became known as Sutherland Brothers & Quiver, releasing soft rock music and achieving success with the songs "(I Don't Want to Love You But) You Got Me Anyway" and "Arms of Mary", a No. 5 UK hit.
WRiders in the Sky is an American Western music and comedy group which began performing in 1977, having made more than 8,000 live appearances through 2019. The band has released more than 40 full length albums, starred in a self-titled television series on CBS lasting two seasons, wrote and starred in an NPR syndicated radio drama Riders Radio Theater, and appeared in television series and films including as featured contributors to Ken Burns' Country Music. Their family-friendly style also appeals to children, exemplified in their recordings for Disney and Pixar. They have won two Grammy Awards and have written and performed music for major motion pictures, including "Woody's Roundup" from Toy Story 2 and Pixar's short film, For the Birds. The band also recorded full length companion albums for Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc.
WAndrew Roachford is a British singer-songwriter and the main force behind the band Roachford, who scored their first success in 1989 with the hits "Cuddly Toy" and "Family Man". He has also had a successful solo career.
WPeter Seeger was an American folk singer and social activist.
WThe Shillelagh Sisters were a UK female group composed of Jacquie O'Sullivan (vocals), Lynder Halpin, Patricia "Trisha" O'Flynn (saxophone) and Maria "Mitzi" Ryan (drums). Their music style was a mixture of rockabilly and punk rock, influenced by Halpin and O'Sullivan's boyfriends, who were, respectively, Boz Boorer (guitarist) and Phil Bloomberg (bassist), both of the rockabilly group The Polecats.
WStars on 45 was a Dutch novelty pop act that was briefly very popular throughout Europe, and in the United States, and Australia in 1981. The group later shortened its name to Stars On in the U.S., while in the UK and Ireland it was known as Starsound. The band, which consisted solely of studio session musicians under the direction of Jaap Eggermont, formerly of Golden Earring, popularized medley recordings made by recreating hit songs as faithfully as possible and joining them together with a common tempo and underlying drum track.
WHarold Ray Ragsdale, known professionally as Ray Stevens, is an American country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian, known for his Grammy-winning recordings "Everything Is Beautiful" and "Misty", as well as comedic hits such as "Gitarzan" and "The Streak". He has worked as a producer, music arranger, songwriter, television host, and solo artist; been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and the Christian Music Hall of Fame; and received gold albums for his music sales.
WThe Sutherland Brothers were a Scottish folk and soft rock duo. From 1973 to 1978, they performed with rock band Quiver, and recorded and toured as Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. Under this combined moniker, the group recorded several albums and had a significant international hit single with the song "Arms of Mary" in 1976. In North America, they are primarily known for their 1973 single "(I Don't Want to Love You But) You Got Me Anyway".
WChip Taylor is an American songwriter, noted for writing "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing". His songs have been covered, and often made into hits, by a wide range of artists, including The Troggs, Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts, P.P. Arnold, Janis Joplin, Juice Newton, Anne Murray, Ace Frehley, Jimi Hendrix, Chrissie Hynde, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris.
WLinda "Tui" Tillery is an American singer, percussionist, producer, songwriter, and music arranger. She began her professional singing career at age 19 with the Bay Area rock band The Loading Zone. She is recognized as a pioneer in Women's music, with her second solo album titled Linda Tillery released on Olivia Records in 1977. In addition to performing, she was the producer on three of Olivia's first eight albums. Within the women's music genre, she has collaborated with June Millington, Deidre McCalla, Barbara Higbie, Holly Near, Margie Adam, and others. Tillery was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997 for Best Musical Album for Children.
WMargaret Mary Urlich is an ARIA Award-winning New Zealand musician based in New South Wales, Australia. Urlich moved to Sydney in 1988 to pursue her singing career. Her debut solo album, Safety in Numbers, released in 1989, was highly successful and won "Breakthrough Artist – Album" at the 1991 ARIA Awards. Its follow-up Chameleon Dreams was also a success when released in 1992. Urlich has been successful trans-Tasman, selling over 400,000 albums during her career, ranking her as one of New Zealand's most successful recording artists. She is the cousin of fellow New Zealand singer Peter Urlich.
WWham! were an English pop music duo consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, formed in Bushey in 1981. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. Influenced by funk and soul music and presenting themselves as disaffected youth, Wham!'s 1983 debut album Fantastic addressed the United Kingdom's unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album Make It Big in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, the singles from the album—"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Everything She Wants" and "Careless Whisper"—all topped the US Billboard Hot 100. In 1985, Wham! made a highly publicised 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The event was seen as a major watershed moment in increasing friendly bilateral relations between China and the West.
WMark Williams is a New Zealand singer with Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) number one hit singles, "Yesterday Was Just the Beginning of My Life" (1975) and a cover of Paul Anka's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" (1977) before he relocated to Australia later that year. His single, "Show No Mercy" (1990) was a top ten hit in both countries. He has undertaken extensive touring in support of numerous Australian bands and worked in television. In 2006 he became the vocalist for the reformed New Zealand-Australian band, Dragon.
WPaul Antony Young is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. His hit singles include "Love of the Common People", "Wherever I Lay My Hat", "Come Back and Stay", "Every Time You Go Away" and "Everything Must Change", all reaching the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. Released in 1983, his debut album No Parlez, the first of three UK number-one albums, made him a household name. His smooth yet soulful voice belonged to a genre known as "blue-eyed soul". At the 1985 Brit Awards, Young received the award for Best British Male. Associated with the Second British Invasion of the US, "Every Time You Go Away" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985. It also won Best British Video at the 1986 Brit Awards.
WYuridia Valenzuela Canseco, commonly known as Yuri, is a Mexican singer, actress and television host. Yuri began her career as a teenage singer in her native country. In 1978 she released her first album titled Tú Iluminas mi Vida. She gained recognition as a result of her participation in the Oti Festival in 1980. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Yuri established herself as one of the most popular pop music singers in Mexico and Latin America. Her vocal quality and versatility allow her to be incorporated into other musical genres, ranging from pop to dance, ranchera and tropical music genres. Thanks to her success and influence, she came to be considered the "Queen of Latin Pop".
WThe Zombies are British beat group and soft rock band formed in 1962 in St Albans and led by keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone.