Marcia Barrett
| Marcia Barrett | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 October 1948 Saint Catherine Parish, Jamaica |
| Origin | England |
| Genres | R&B, eurodisco, reggae |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Labels | Hansa Records, Sony-BMG, BSC Music |
| Associated acts | Boney M. |
Marcia Barrett (born 14 October 1948, Saint Catherine Parish, Jamaica) is one of the original singers with the vocal group Boney M.
Barrett was born in Jamaica; her parents brought her to Croydon, England in 1963. In the late 1960s she moved to Germany, where she joined a band and toured with Karel Gott and Rex Gildo. In 1971 she signed to Metronome Records and made her first record, "Could Be Love", written by Drafi Deutscher. It sold poorly, but she kept touring with such songs as "Son of a Preacher Man", "Oh Happy Day", and "Big Spender".
In 1975 she joined Boney M., a group of models and dancers, to make discothèque and television performances of "Baby Do You Wanna Bump", a song recorded by record producer Frank Farian. The single was sold in the Benelux countries. When singer Claudja Barry left in early 1976, Barrett suggested a fellow Jamaican, Liz Mitchell, as replacement. Mitchell was a singer, and Farian engaged her and Barrett to make a follow-up recording, "Daddy Cool". They recorded Boney M.'s first album, Take the Heat Off Me, in 1976. After an appearance on the German television programme Musikladen in September, the group was in the charts all over Europe, and a series of hit singles and albums followed over the next decade. Boney M. counted four official members, but only Barrett and Liz Mitchell were in the recording studio when Boney M.'s records were recorded. Frank Farian (and, from 1982 to 1985, Reggie Tsiboe) provided male vocals that Bobby Farrell mimicked on stage. While Mitchell was regarded as the lead singer, owing to her larger number of songs on which she performed lead vocals, Barrett contributed harmony on all the group's well-known songs and shared the lead with Mitchell on hits such as "Ma Baker", "Rasputin" and "Gotta Go Home". She also led on a couple of tracks on each of the group's studio albums up to Christmas Album (1981), including the title of the first album Take the Heat off Me and "Lovin' or Leavin'". These were also released as a Barrett solo single in 1977. She sang lead vocal on "Belfast", a song she had performed live in her solo years, which became the second single from the second album Love for Sale; it was a German no. 1 and a European Top 10 hit. On that album she also performed "Silent Lover".
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