Joan Armatrading

Joan Armatrading's entry onto the U.K. charts in 1976 heralded the arrival of a distinctive artist whose uncompromising attitude would propel her throughout a career of remarkable consistency that has traversed multiple genres from rock to jazz and blues. Initially coming out of the folk-oriented singer/songwriter scene of the early '70s, she enjoyed a period of mainstream success on the back of her Glyn Johns-produced hit "Love and Affection." Reinventing herself in the early '80s as a hard-edged new wave and pop act, she remained a chart staple with rock hits like "My Myself I" and "Drop the Pilot." An increasing self-reliance as a producer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist eventually led to yet another career resurgence in the 2000s as she delivered albums like 2007's Grammy-nominated Into the Blues out of her home studio.

Born in 1950 on the island of St. Kitts in the West Indies, Armatrading moved to England at the age of seven, settling with her family in Birmingham where she taught herself to play a piano that her mother had purchased simply as a piece of furniture. Graduating to £3 guitar her mother picked up from a local pawn shop, she began writing songs and playing in local bands. In 1970, while working on a production of the musical Hair, she met a lyricist named Pam Nestor and the two formed a short-lived songwriting partnership which yielded the material for Armatrading's 1972 Cube Records debut, Whatever's for Us