Chanteuse Patricia Kaas was born in France's Lorraine region, where she began performing as a youth; by age 11, she even held a residency at the Rumpelkammer Club in Sarrebrucken, Germany, over time honing a distinct style updating the French chanson tradition with elements of pop, blues and jazz. Scoring her first national hit in 1987 with "Mademoiselle Chante le Blues," Kaas was named Female Newcomer of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique, and her debut album Mademoiselle Chante earned platinum status in France, Belgium and Switzerland; the follow-up, Scene de Vie, topped the French charts for three months…

Of the legendary bands Great Britain birthed during the 1960s, none sound remotely like Procol Harum. From their emergence with the single version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" months before the world heard the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, they were prog before prog, psychedelic before the world knew what it was, and a rocking R&B outfit…

Martika appeared after teen girls like Tiffany and Debbie Gibson returned adolescent bubblegum to the pop charts. Martika was born as Marta Marrero in Whittier, CA, on May 18, 1969. Her parents were originally from Cuba; however, they left the country during a revolution. Raised in California, Martika started acting before launching a recording career, appearing in the film version of Annie in 1982 and on the TV series Kids Incorporated from 1984 to 1986…

French singer-songwriter who mixes jazzy styles, French variety, soul and acoustic. She is famous for her hit "Je veux", from her first album, Zaz, released on 10 May 2010…

The most successful British girl group in pop history, Bananarama formed in London in late 1981. Drawing equal inspiration for their name from the children's television program The Banana Splits and the Roxy Music song "Pyjamarama," the trio was comprised of lifelong friends Keren Woodward and Sarah Dallin along with Siobhan Fahey, whom Dallin befriended at the London College of Fashion…

Sir David Coverdale has returned with a new album that is a true return to Whitesnake’s 1980’s dominance. It is not a simple case of saying this is the next 1987 or Slide It In as Forevermore stands on it’s own merits. That said, it does sit nicely on a shelf next to these two classics…

Despite almost universal critical hatred, Transvision Vamp briefly rose to the top of the U.K. charts in the late '80s, thanks largely to the media image of lead singer Wendy James, who fashioned herself as a sexually provocative, rebellious, fashion-conscious punk – sort of a mixture of Madonna, Blondie's Deborah Harry, T. Rex, and the Clash…

Rising from the ashes of late-'90s teen pop ephemera, Marion Elise Ravn (known as simply Marion Raven) has been around for a while. In 1994, the ten-year-old Raven recorded a collection of children's songs for EMI Norway with her friend Marit Larsen. The pair went on to form M2M in 1998, a doe-eyed addition to an overstuffed pop scene reigned over by Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera…

After rising to fame at the helm of the popular folk-rock band 10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant enjoyed even greater success as a solo artist during the mid-'90s. Her literate, socially conscious songs established her among the preeminent women in pop music, while her solo debut – 1995's Tigerlily – helped pave the way for a number of female performers in a pre-Lilith Fair market. She continued releasing albums well into the 2000s, often examining specific genres or subjects, although Tigerlily remained her biggest-selling record…

Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and poet. Classically trained on piano as a child, Apple began composing her own songs when she was 8 years old. Her debut album, Tidal, written when Apple was 17, was released in 1996 and received a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the single "Criminal". She followed with When the Pawn… (1999), produced by Jon Brion, which was also critically and commercially successful and was certified platinum…

1980s pop diva Sheena Easton was born Sheena Shirley Orr in Bellshill, Scotland on April 27, 1959. Inspired to pursue a singing career after seeing Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were, she later attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama while moonlighting with the group Something Else. Exposure on the BBC television production The Big Time: Pop Singer not only resulted in a record deal with EMI but also pushed Easton's 1980 debut singles, "Modern Girl" and "9 to 5," into the U.K. Top Ten, and she became the first female artist to score two simultaneous Top Ten hits…

James Paul McCartney - 1973 ATV Elstree Studios, Studio D, Eldon Avenue, Boreham Wood, England, recorded on February 19-March 18 1972, broadcast on April 16, 1973. One Hand Clapping - 1974 EMI Studio #2,3 Abbey Road, London, England on August 14-19, 1974 + bonus tracks. Wings Fly South - 1975 Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Australia November 13, 1975 + bonus track.

Tanita Tikaram made a splash on both sides of the Atlantic at a mere 19 years old with her dramatic, singer/songwriter-influenced lyrics. The offspring of Malaysian and Fijian parents, Tikaram moved to England at age 12 and began writing songs as a teenager. She played her first gig at 17 in London after a favorable response to her demo tape from a club she had sent it to…

From their earliest days as a band, the members of R.E.M. always had a Keen sense of how they wanted to be perceived visually, even when it sometimes seemed as if they didn’t want to be seen at all…