Billy Ocean
A career spanning celebration from one of Britain’s biggest stars.
Billy Ocean has achieved extraordinary success as both an artist and a songwriter. Having sold over 30 million records in his lifetime, Billy has collected a pile of Gold and Platinum records across the world and hit the number one spot worldwide on pop charts including the USA, Australia, Germany, Holland, and the UK.
Born in Trinidad, Billy settled in London’s East End when just seven years old. The calypso crazy kid soon got turned on to soul singers like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, as well as pop groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, leading him to spend much of his study time in the music room. Billy got his first break when he signed to GTO records, for whom his second single was the Motown-ish Love Really Hurts Without You, which reached No. 2 in the UK charts and No. 12 in the US.
Billy changed record labels and his move to Jive Records provided instant success, with the million selling American number one single Caribbean Queen (for which Billy won a Grammy for best R&B Vocal), followed by Loverboy, and Suddenly, which became the first of Billy’s killer ballads. Billy also performed on the American half of Live Aid, making 1985 a truly incredible year for him.
1986 wasn’t bad either, opening with When the Going gets Tough (the tough gets going), the theme song to the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner/Danny Devito movie Jewel of the Nile. More hits followed as Billy also proved himself to be one of the most hardworking artists on the live stage, touring the world to ever-growing enthusiastic audiences.
2015 saw him celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of the Suddenly album, which included the no 1 hits Caribbean Queen and title track Suddenly, with live dates across the globe continuing into 2017.
