Titiyo

Titiyo
Titiyo in October 2013, .
Background information
Birth name	Titiyo Yambalu Felicia Jah
Born	(1967-07-23) 23 July 1967 (age 49)
Genres	Pop, soul, R&B
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Warner Music
Associated acts	Eagle-Eye Cherry, Don Cherry, Neneh Cherry
Website	www.titiyo.com

Titiyo Yambalu Felicia Jah (born 23 July 1967) is a Swedish recording artist and songwriter who has won four Grammis.

Titiyo was born in , to Ahmadu Jah, a Sierra Leonean drummer, and Maylen Bergström. She is the half-sister of singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry and stepsister to Eagle-Eye Cherry. She grew up in Solna.

Titiyo discovered her own singing abilities when invited by her older sister to sing with her at a studio in London. She fronted her own band in 1987 and played the Stockholm circuit, and signed with a local label, Telegram, in 1989. She also sang background vocals for a range of Swedish artists, including Army of Lovers and Jakob Hellman. In 1989, Titiyo released her self-titled debut album, which topped at #3 in Sweden, and was released in the United States on Arista, and became one of the contributions to a Swedish R & B wave in the US that lasted throughout the nineties. The single "My Body Says Yes" was a hit in North America, and "Talking to the Man in the Moon" reached #6 in the Swedish charts; the subsequent single, "After the Rain," reached #13.

Titiyo took a two-year break and returned in 1993 with the Aretha Franklin cover "Never Let Me Go" (a hit that reached number 25 on Swedish chart), later included on her second full-length This is Titiyo. Remixes of this and some of her other songs were popular in the London club scene. Her third album, Extended, produced by Kent (Gillström) Isaacs (released by the Swedish label Diesel Music), appeared in 1997, producing the hit single "Josefin Dean" (named after Mariah Carey's best friend).

In 2001, Titiyo revitalised her career with her successful fourth studio album Come Along (released in the US in 2002; also on Diesel Music), spawning the eponymous single "Come Along", which became an international hit. Produced by Peter Svensson (The Cardigans) and Joakim Berg (Kent), the album and its title song made it to the top of in the Swedish charts, while the single was a success in several European countries including France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The second single from the album, "1989", was not nearly as successful as its predecessor but reached the top-30 of the French singles chart.