Jaki Graham

Jaki Graham is one of the most appealing Soul entertainers to emerge from the UK, paving the way for many a black British female solo artist who followed. As a British soul singer who originally signed with EMI in 1983, Jaki achieved international success with a string of hits from '85 including 'Could it Be I'm Falling In Love?', 'Round and Around', 'Set Me Free', 'Step Right Up' and 'Breaking Away'. Jaki made the Music Guinness Book of Records in the 80's as the first black British female solo artist to have 6 consecutive Top 10/20 hits. Michael McDonald, whilst looking for a female singer to accompany him on the classic 'On My Own' for his UK Tour in the mid-80's, personally chose Jaki over a stream of UK female vocalists commenting that she was 'one of the best singers Britain has ever produced'. They have since remained good friends and Michael has written for Jaki's albums, including 'I Still Run To You', a duet with Philip Ingram. Her career excelled in the 90's whilst signed with Avex, when she reached international acclaim with her first album, 'Real Life' which sold more than 800,000 copies in less than four weeks. 'Ain't Nobody,' which followed, reached No. 1 in the US Billboard Dance charts for 5 weeks and the accompanying video made the top 5 in the American Black Entertainment Charts and reached gold in Australia, Japan and the USA. Her second single release in the US Billboard Dance Charts 'Absolut-E-Sensual' reached No.7 again remaining for another 5 weeks. Jaki also made official Motown status when providing lead vocals on the albums 'Kiss The Sky' which went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, again an achievement almost unheard of from a UK talent from Birmingham. In 2009 there was a phenomenal response to her 'Gershwin & Soul' concert with the BBC Big Band for Radio 2 and 2010 will see a repeat performance, this time for an evening of Duke Ellington classics. There are plans to release the live album,'The Sounds of Gershwin & Ellington' around May 2010 along with her autobiography 'Heaven Knows' in the Autumn. Jaki has recently become the face of Paul Wayne Gregory chocolates, a world leading chocolatier, who is well known for supplying chocolates for HM Queen's 80th birthday and will launch her own exclusive range in 2010 to tie in with the album release. Later this year, she will be returning to LA to work on her first, long awaited studio album in over 10 years, where she will be working alongside the legendary Patrice Rushen.