Billy Ocean
| Billy Ocean | |
|---|---|
Ocean performing in New York in 1988.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Leslie Sebastian Charles |
| Born |
21 January 1950 Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Origin | Romford, East London, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1969–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | billyocean |
Billy Ocean (born Leslie Sebastian Charles; 21 January 1950) is a Trinidadian-born English recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British R&B singer-songwriter of the early to mid-1980s. After scoring his first four UK Top 20 successes, seven years passed before he accumulated a series of successes, including three U.S. 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 Artist.
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. On 29 July 2011, Ocean became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, presented to him by Paul McCartney. He is a member of the Rastafari movement.
Ocean was born as Leslie Sebastian Charles in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago, to Hainsley Charles, a Grenadian musician and his wife Violet. He moved to Romford, Essex, England, with his family at the age of ten. He was exposed to music at an early age from his musician father, and, growing up, Ocean realized he was in line to follow his father's ambitions. During his teenage years, he sang regularly in London clubs while also working as a tailor in London's Savile Row. He was discovered by his first manager, John Morphew, who recorded a double A side single at Pye Studios in London with a full orchestra, However, the ballad singing style of Les was going out of fashion and Morphew was unable to get any major label to release it. It remains unreleased. Les's father, who countersigned the management contract as Les was younger than 18 asked Morphew to release him from contract, which he did without penalty. In 1969 he joined a local band "The Shades of Midnight" playing in the Shoreditch area of London. He recorded his first single, "Nashville Rain" backed with "Sun In The Morning", in 1971 for Spark Records as Les Charles and for two years fronted a studio band called Scorched Earth, with whom he released "On The Run" backed with "Let's Put Our Emotions in Motion" in 1974.
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