Maggie Reilly

Flame-haired folk-pop singer Maggie Reilly is best known for her long-time collaborative partnership with legendary electronic composer Mike Oldfield, for whom she provided vocals on international hits such as "Moonlight Shadow" and "Five Miles Out" between the years 1980 and 1984. Born on 15 September 1956 in Glasgow, Scotland, she cut her teeth as a member of local soul and blues group Cado Belle (formerly Joe Cool) and released a self-titled album with the band in 1976. Another EP arrived the following year, but Cado Belle parted ways shortly after and Maggie Reilly took on work as a session musician. She spent some time performing with the trio Riotous Assembly before fortuitously crossing paths with Mike Oldfield in 1979 and performing a number of tracks on his albums Five Miles Out in 1982 (notably co-writing and performing the vocals on "Family Man") and 1984's Discovery ("Moonlight Shadow," "Foreign Affair" and "To France"). She took some time out in the '80s to focus on bringing up a family but was reunited with Mike Oldfield in 1989 for his album Earth Moving. Her own debut solo effort, Echoes, emerged in 1992 with "Everytime We Touch," "Tears in the Rain," and "Wait" proving to be particular highlights. Her second album, Midnight Sun, was issued the following year and her third LP Elena came in 1996. As well as collaborating with a wide array of artists including Simon Nicol of Fairpoint Convention and The Sisters of Mercy, she continued to put out solo albums for the next three decades, including a best-of in 2021 (The Best Of Maggie Reilly: Past - Present - Future) and a Christmas album that same year (Happy Christmas).