Billy Ocean

More about Billy Ocean

In 2020, Billy was awarded an MBE for services to music. His accolades include a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, an Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement, two Billboard Music Awards, the 2010 MOBO Lifetime Achievement Award, and an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Westminster University.

Billy’s pop and soul anthems remain wildly popular. Hits such as Red Light Spells Danger, Love Really Hurts Without You, When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, and the Grammy Award-winning Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) attract millions of streams and views.

Born in Trinidad, Billy moved to London’s East End at just seven years old. Inspired by soul legends like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as well as mainstream groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he got his first break with a deal from GTO Records. His first taste of chart success came with the Motown-esque Love Really Hurts Without You, which reached number two in the UK charts and number twelve in the US.

Two more top-twenty singles, Love on Delivery and Stop Me..., followed before Red Light Spells Danger became a smash hit in both the UK and the US. Billy then moved to Jive Records, where he released the million-selling American number one single Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run), followed by Loverboy and the ballad Suddenly.

His album Suddenly, which included these hits, spent a year in the US charts and went double platinum (triple in Canada). Billy also performed on the American leg of Live Aid, rounding off an incredible 1985. The following year opened with When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, the theme song to the film Jewel of the Nile, starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito, who joined Billy in the video shot at Brixton Academy.

His album Love Zone went straight to number two in the UK charts, remaining in the top 40 for six months. In the US, he hit number one with There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry). More classics followed, including the iconic Get Outta My Dreams; Get Into My Car, which became another US number-one hit.

Two further albums followed before Billy took an extended break to spend time with his family. He returned to the stage in 2007, with his daughter Cherie on backing vocals, for live dates across the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and the Caribbean.

These shows were followed by a return to the studio, resulting in new albums Because I Love You (2008) and Here You Are (2017). Most recently, One World (2020) spoke powerfully to a world in crisis amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today, Billy is back on stage, where he belongs. A recent string of UK festival appearances and headline dates across Europe and the US will be followed next year by a UK headline tour.

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