Neneh Cherry

Her father was from Sierra Leone and her mother from Sweden, but probably the greatest influence on Neneh Cherry's career as an eclectic and distinctively individual singer was her stepfather, the Afro-American jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Neneh dropped out of school to move to London at the age of 14, joining punk rock band The Cherries. She gained further experience with bands like Rip Rig and Panic, New Age Steppers and Float Up CP as well as DJing on a pirate reggae radio station.

She launched her solo career with the protest single 'Stop the War' and made her debut album 'Raw Like Sushi' in 1989, co-writing with her future husband Cameron McVey with contributions from members of Massive Attack. The big track, however, was 'Buffalo Stance' which reached number three in the UK charts and established her as a star all over Europe and America. Other hits followed, including 'Manchild', 'Kisses On the Wind' and 'I've Got You Under My Skin'. Second album 'Homebrew' (1992) was less successful but she achieved a major international hit duetting with Youssou N'Dour on '7 Seconds' from the 1996 album 'Man'.

A decade later she formed the band cirKus with husband McVey and their daughter Lolita Moon, releasing albums 'Laylow' (2006), 'Laylower' (2007) and 'Medicine (2009). In 2011 she formed The Cherry Thing, an experimental jazz collaboration with The Thing, and released a self-titled album in 2012. Another side project, a collaborative effort with duo RockerNumberNine, emerged in 2013, with an album titled 'MeYouWeYou'. She returned to solo work for her fourth studio album 'Black Project' that was released in 2014. In 2018 she revealed new music in the form of singles 'Kong', 'Synchronised Devotion' and 'Natural Skin Deep' taken from the album 'Broken Politics'.