Alison Moyet Biography
Genevieve Alison-Jane Moyet, 18 June 1961, Billericay, Essex, England. The former singer of the synthesizer duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in the USA), Moyet embarked on a solo career in 1983, after critics had consistently praised her outstanding natural blues voice. Her debut Alf was a superb recording produced and co-written by Tony Swain and Steve Jolley. "Love Resurrection" (number 10), "All Cried Out" (number 8) and "Invisible" (number 21) were all UK hits in 1984, while the album made number 1 and took root in the charts for nearly two years. "Invisible" also provided her with a debut US Top 40 single.
In 1985, Moyet abandoned pop and toured with a jazz band led by John Altman, performing standards which included a version of Billie Holiday's "That Ole Devil Called Love", which became her biggest UK hit to date, climbing to number 2 in April. The tour was not well-received and following her performance with Paul Young at the Live Aid concert, little was seen or heard of Moyet. During this time she gave birth to a daughter and experienced the break-up of her marriage. She returned in 1987 with the UK number 3 hit "Is This Love?", while the attendant Raindancing narrowly missed the number 1 position. Moyet enjoyed two further UK single successes with the driving "Weak In The Presence Of Beauty" (number 6) and a sensitive cover version of a standard previously associated with Dick Haymes and Ketty Lester, "Love Letters" (number 4). Once again Moyet disappeared, giving birth to another child but experiencing another bout of lack of self-confidence. She returned in 1991, embarking on a UK tour and releasing a new album. Hoodoo was a diverse record that broke Moyet away from the mould she was anxious to escape. It was artistically satisfying, although commercially pedestrian and effectively enabled this highly talented singer to start again. Another lengthy hiatus was broken by the release of Essex in 1994, but this album failed to redress the balance with material that was nowhere near as strong as her outstanding voice deserved. Her cover version of Jules Shear's "Whispering Your Name" did return Moyet to the UK Top 20. There was a reminder of the quality of her past songs on a well-compiled retrospective, which reached number 1 in the UK album chart in 1995. After a long period away from the public eye, Moyet returned to prominence in August 2001 when she made her debut as Mama Morton on the London stage in Chicago, playing alongside actress Denise Van Outen. The following year she ended her protracted dispute with Sony and signed a new recording contract with Sanctuary Records and released her first studio album in eight years, Hometime. This fine record, which Sony had refused to release, achieved respectable sales and confirmed Moyet's welcome return to the UK music scene. The 2004 follow-up Voice saw Moyet performing an album of cover versions with a classical orchestra. The album, with production by Anne Dudley, was Moyet's biggest commercial success for many years.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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