Shakespears Sister
| Shakespears Sister | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres |
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| Years active | 1988–1996, 2009–present |
| Labels |
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| Website | shakespearssister |
| Members | Siobhan Fahey |
| Past members | Marcella Detroit |
Shakespears Sister is a pop-rock project, formed by Irish-born singer–songwriter Siobhan Fahey in 1988, and based in the United Kingdom. Initially, Shakespears Sister was a solo act, but by 1989, it had become a duo with the addition of the American musician, Marcella Detroit. Together they released two Top 10 albums and a string of Top 40 hits, including the 1992 hit "Stay" which peaked at No. 1 in the UK for eight consecutive weeks. Detroit was fired from the band in 1993, leaving Fahey as the sole member again until she ended the project in 1996. After working under her own name for some years, Fahey revived the Shakespears Sister name in 2009.
Shakespears Sister was conceived as a solo project by Siobhan Fahey, a onetime punk turned chart-pop singer who'd left the successful British girl-group Bananarama in 1988 due to disillusionment with the group's musical direction. The name was adapted from the title of the song "Shakespeare's Sister" by The Smiths, which was in turn a reference to Virginia Woolf's work A Room of One's Own. According to Fahey, the spelling began with an accidental misspelling on a woodcut sign, however she decided to keep it, because "It made it sort of my thing, as opposed to the song by The Smiths". Fahey has described the meaning of the name being "Siobhan Fahey is the mother, the sister, the daughter, it's not the artist. The artist is Shakespear's sister."
Fahey began writing and recording work for the project with producer Richard Feldman. Several other musicians were involved in the songwriting, one of whom was Feldman's friend and colleague Marcy Levy, a veteran of live and studio work with Eric Clapton (with whom she'd written "Lay Down Sally"), Leon Russell and Bob Seger as well as a songwriter for artists including Jennifer Rush, Chaka Khan and Patty Weaver. An accomplished singer and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, harmonica and keyboards), Levy also made vocal and instrumental contributions to the sessions, staying on as a prominent "hired hand". During this time, Fahey suggested that Levy - who'd previously tried and failed to get a couple of solo albums released - took on a new professional name in order to give herself a new lease of artistic life. Levy agreed, and restyled herself Marcella Detroit, a name she'd use throughout her time with Shakespear's Sister and afterwards.
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