Billy Ocean
Leslie Sebastian Charles, MBE, known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-British recording artist. He had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. Ocean was born in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago, to Hainsley Charles and his wife Violet.
About Billy Ocean in brief
Leslie Sebastian Charles, MBE, known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-British recording artist. He had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, Ocean won the Grammy Award for his worldwide hit “Caribbean Queen ” and in 1987 was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist. In 2010, Ocean was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MOBO Awards. On 29 July 2011, Ocean became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, presented to him by Sir Paul McCartney. He is a member of the Rastafari movement. Ocean was born in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago, to Hainsley Charles, a Grenadian musician and his wife Violet. He moved to Romford, England when he was ten years old. He recorded his first single, “Nashville Rain”, backed with “Sun in the Morning” in 1971 for Spark Records as Les Charles. He was discovered by his first manager, John Morphew, who recorded a double A-side single at Pye Studios in London with a full orchestra.
In 1969, he joined a local band, The Shades of Midnight, playing in the Shoreditch area of London. His first single release, “Love Really Hurts Without You”, charting at No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 22 in the US Billboard Hot 100. He enjoyed club success from the songs “Are You Ready” and “Stay The Night” from the album City Limit — both of which were later covered by La Toya Jackson. He also wrote and composed songs for other artists. Between 1976 and 1982, Ocean released four albums and Inner Feelings) through his record label GTO, the none of which scored success on any musical charts aside from his biggest single, 1976’s Love Really Hurting Without You. As Sony Music acquired Jive Records in 1978, he received a second breakthrough in his career in the early early 1980s in his album Suddenly.
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This page is based on the article Billy Ocean published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
