Neneh Cherry

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Neneh Cherry
Background information
Birth name Neneh Marianne Karlsson
Born March 10, 1964 (age 43)
Origin Flag of Sweden Stockholm, Sweden
Genre(s) Pop/Hip-Hop/Trip-Hop/Alternative
Occupation(s) singer/rapper
Instrument(s) vocals
Years active 1988-present
Label(s) Virgin
Associated
acts
Eagle-Eye Cherry

Neneh Marianne Karlsson Cherry (born March 10, 1964 in Stockholm) is a Swedish-born singer and rapper. Cherry blended hip hop with other influences, and experienced some mainstream success with several of her recordings.

Contents

Neneh Cherry performing live in Vienna (ca. 1996–97)
Neneh Cherry performing live in Vienna (ca. 1996–97)

Born as Neneh Mariann Karlsson, Neneh Cherry lived the first years of her life in the small Swedish town Hässleholm, before the family started following her stepfather on his tours. The Cherry family nestled into a small apartment on East 9th Street in New York City in the early-1970s. Moki Cherry currently resides in Garden City New York and works in New York City. The Cherry Mcvey clan settled into the North London suburb Primrose Hill several years ago and split their time between the UK and Sweden.

Many members of her family are musicians or artists.

  • Her mother is noted painter and textile artist Moki Cherry.
  • Her father is the African-Swedish musician Amahdu Jah.
  • Her stepfather, Don Cherry, was an influential jazz musician.
  • Her half-brother Eagle Eye Cherry is also a musician of some international fame.
  • Her half-sister Titiyo is a successful Swedish singer.
  • Her brother David Ornette Cherry is a Jazz musician based in the US.
  • Half brother Cherno Jah is a music producer and dj based in Stockholm.
  • Her stepsonon Marlon Roudette fronts the British duo Mattafix

Cherry began performing after dropping out of school at 14 and moving to London, where she joined the punk rock band The Cherries. Cherry moved through several bands, including New Age Steppers, The Slits and Rip Rig & Panic later Float Up CP. She was close friends with Ari-Up and was married to Bruce Smith.

She began a solo career with "Stop the War" (a protest song about the Falkland Islands). She also worked with The The and musician Cameron McVey (a.k.a. Booga Bear), who co-wrote most of her debut album Raw Like Sushi, and whom she would eventually marry. She was intimately involved in the Bristol Urban Culture scene, working as an arranger on Massive Attack's Blue Lines album and helping out in various other ways in the scene. Famously, she gave birth while Shara Nelson was recording the vocals for the album in the same house. Robert Del Naja and Andrew Vowles of Massive Attack had in turn contributed to Raw Like Sushi.

Her single "Buffalo Stance" was an international blockbuster and she caused controversy when she performed the song - complete with gyrating choreography - on UK television show Top Of The Pops while very heavily pregnant. Buffalo Stance eventually peaked at number 3 on the UK pop charts and number 1 on the American Dance charts, becoming one of 1988's biggest club anthems.

More singles released between 1988 and 1990 included the slower "Manchild," "Kisses On The Wind," "Heart," and "Inna City Mama." She also found success with "I've Got U Under My Skin," a dramatic reworking of the Cole Porter song, which appeared on the Red Hot + Blue AIDS fundraising album. Lyme disease kept her away from the limelight until 1992.

Her second solo outing was Homebrew. Led by the single "Money Love", it was not as commercially successful as its predecessor, but received great critical acclaim. The album met with some success on the dance charts (with "Buddy X," which would become an even bigger hit years later in a remix by Dreem Teem) and on college radio (with "Trout," a duet with Michael Stipe). The album also included a contribution from Gang Starr.

Her most recent albums are 1996's Man, and Neneh Chérie Remixes, a remix album of Man songs released in 1997.

In 2006, Cherry announced the formation of a new band, cirKus. In addition to Cherry, CirKus members are :

  • Burt Ford a.k.a. Cameron McVey and boogabear (Neneh's husband)[citation needed]
  • Lolita Moon (sometimes called Lola Moon)
  • Karmil a.k.a. Matt Kent

The band's first album, Laylow was released in France in 2006.

Cirkus feat. Neneh Cherry will tour through the summer and autumn of 2007 appearing in Canada, France, Belgium and Germany.

Although Cherry has only released a handful of albums, she has frequently collaborated with other artists.

  • Seven Seconds, a collaboration with Youssou N'Dour, was a huge international hit in 1994, remaining on the charts for nearly half a year.
  • Cherry also contributed guest vocals on Pulp's UK #1 album This Is Hardcore, singing on the track Seductive Barry.
  • Cherry collaborated with Edward Kowalczyk the lead singer of the band Live. They contributed a duet entitled Walk into this Room written by Kowalczyk for the soundtrack to the movie Playing by Heart in 1998.
  • In 1999 she Contributed to Christian Falk's debut Quel Bordel.
  • She contributed vocals alonside Speech and Ulali on 1 Giant Leap's 2003 song Braided Hair.
  • In the 2005 release of Gorillaz's Demon Days, she contributed vocals to the tracks Kids With Guns.
  • In 2006 she collaborated with Swedish rapper Petter on his album P and Stockholm electro-dub punks The Teddybears international release Soft Machine.
  • She also contributed vocals to the Groove Armada track, Think Twice. The track is featured on the band's greatest hits collection.
  • In 2006 she was featured in the song 'Yours to Keep' by Teddybears.
  • In 2006 She is featured on the Agoria track "Million Miles". Released 9 December, 2006

Due to the impressive performance of "Buffalo Stance," Cherry was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1990 in the Best New Artist Category; she lost out to Milli Vanilli, who later had their Grammy revoked when it was discovered that they had not performed on their recording.

She received her second Grammy nomination in 1994 for the Youssou N'Dour duet "7 Seconds." The single received worldwide acclaim but did not win the Grammy Award.

  • In 2004, Cherry became a grandmother. [1]
  • Presented "Neneh Cherry's World of music" a six part series on BBC Radio 2 in Spring 2004
  • She's hosting a cookery television programme with Andrea Oliver, called "Neneh and Andi - Dishing It Up" (BBC2; first broadcast - 4th April) (2007)
  • In April 2006 Neneh Cherry appeared with the Gorillaz at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York. Neneh appeared in the CD/DVD on the track "Kids With Guns".
  • Neneh's duet with Youssou N'Dour, 7 Seconds, remained at number1 in France for a record 17 weeks in 1994.
  • Neneh is mentioned in the 1995 book Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair by Lisa Jones. Lisa is the daughter of Poet LeRoi Jones a.k.a Imiri Baraka

Year Title UK singles US Hot 100 Australian singles NZ singles German singles
1988 Buffalo Stance 3 3 21 14 2
1989 Manchild 5 -   4 2
1989 Kisses On the Wind 20 8   8 23
1989 Heart - 73 91 - -
1989 Inna City Mama 31 - - 15 -
1990 I've Got You Under My Skin 25 - 61 32 23
1992 Money Love 23 -   31 -
1993 Buddy X 35 43 - - -
1994 7 Seconds (with Youssou N'Dour) 3 98 3 7 3
1995 Love Can Build a Bridge (with Cher, Chrissie Hynde & Eric Clapton) 1 - - - 62
1996 Woman 9 - 17 35 52
1996 Kootchi 38 - - - -
1997 Feel It 68 - - - -
1999 Buddy X '99 (by Dreem Teem Vs Neneh Cherry) 15 - - - -
2000 Long Way Around (by Eagle-Eye Cherry featuring Neneh Cherry) 48 - - - -
2003 Braided Hair (by Speech featuring Neneh Cherry) - - - - -
2006 Kids With Guns (by Gorillaz featuring Neneh Cherry) 27 - - - -
2006 Starved (by cirKus featuring Neneh Cherry) - - - - -
2006 Is What It Is (Tiger HiFi Mix) (by cirKus featuring Neneh Cherry & Martin Jondo) - - - - -
2006 Is What It Is (by cirKus featuring Neneh Cherry) - - - - -

Year Title UK albums US albums Australian albums German albums
1989 Raw Like Sushi 2 40 30 10
1992 Homebrew 27 - 49 ?
1996 Man 16 - 10 20
2006 Laylow - - - -

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