Joan Armatrading (GB)

About

Also known as: Joan Amtrading, Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading

Joan Armatrading broke through properly in 1976 when producer Glyn Johns helped turn her third album, Joan Armatrading, into a Top 20 record and gave her a Top 10 hit with "Love and Affection". The sound mixed acoustic warmth with jazz influences, and she carried that approach into Show Some Emotion and To the Limit, building a catalogue of live staples like "Willow", "Down to Zero" and "Tall in the Saddle". In the process she became the first Black British female singer songwriter to find international success. She kept pushing her sound forward rather than standing still. Me Myself I in 1980 leaned harder into rock and pop and became her highest charting album on both sides of the Atlantic. She also wrote and performed "Flight of the Wild Geese" for the 1978 war film of the same name, showing a range that goes well beyond the folk and singer songwriter box she is sometimes filed under. Three Grammy nominations and an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection round out a career that has stayed stubbornly on its own terms.