Enjoy Celebrity Radio’s Billy Ocean Life Story Interview….
Billy Ocean is the hugely successful and unique English recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s and sold over 30 million albums around the world.
With mega-hits including ‘Suddenly’, ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’, ‘Caribbean Queen’ & ‘When The Going Gets Tough’.
Ocean was born in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago, to Grenadian parents, and moved to Romford, Essex, England, with his family at the age of eight.
During his teenage years, he sang regularly in London clubs while also working as a tailor in London’s Savile Row. He released his first single in 1972 on Spark Records as Les Charles, his real name.
In September 2014 Billy stole the show at BBC Radio 2’s ‘Live From Hyde Park’.
In 2014 he releases his new single ‘Love Train’ + album and is on tour across the UK.
Enjoy an Exclusive interview with Alex Belfield and Billy Ocean via YouTube:
After scoring his first four UK top 20 successes, seven years passed before he accumulated a series of transatlantic successes, including three US number ones. In 1985, Ocean won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his worldwide hit, “Caribbean Queen”, and in 1987 was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male.
In 2002, the University of Westminster, London awarded Ocean an honorary doctorate of music. In 2010, Ocean was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MOBO Awards.
Ocean’s period of greatest success began with the releases, during 1984, of the album Suddenly and its main single, “Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)”.
The song’s title and lyrics were changed for different regions, such that the song is also known as “African Queen” or “European Queen”.
The song won Ocean the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1985 Grammy Awards. The album’s title track also became a success, peaking at No. 4 in both the US and the UK and the song “Loverboy”, while also being a No. 2 US success in 1985 was also featured in the very first scene of the popular UK BBC One TV series, Casualty, in 1986.
Ocean appeared at Live Aid in 1985, singing “Caribbean Queen” and “Loverboy”, from the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
On 29 July 2011, Ocean became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. His title was presented by Sir Paul McCartney.
In 2012, Ocean made a cameo appearance in the British comedy movie Keith Lemon: The Film as Lemon’s father.
Interview recorded by Alex Belfield for Celebrity Radio 2nd October 2014.
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