Mica Paris

Like many fine soul singers Mica Paris grew up singing gospel songs in a church run by her strict minister grandfather, taking inspiration from greats like Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin as she developed a powerful, lung-bursting voice. She became a session singer at 15, working with Birmingham pop group Hollywood Beyond, before signing with Island Records and seeing debut album So Good (1988) shoot to Number 6 in the UK charts. The single My Temptation also became a Top 10 hit and Paris duetted with American star Will Downing on Where Is The Love as her sound started to incorporate jazz and pop influences. She made the Top 20 with the album Whisper A Prayer (1993) and single I Never Felt Like This Before, but by the 2000s Paris was down on her luck, sacked by her label EMI, declared bankrupt and suffering a nervous breakdown. Paris became a born again Christian and carved out a television career as a presenter of What Not To Wear and contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, but returned to music with the covers album Soul Classics (2005) and her sixth studio record Born Again (2009).