She was born Geneviève Alison Jane Moyet in 1961 in Essex in the town of Billericay outside of London. Her singing career began in 1982 as the lead singer of the synth pop duo Yazoo, which had to change its name in the U.S. to Yaz due to trademark concerns (Yazoo Records was already in operation). During that time they had three U.S. hits and a slew of hits in the U.K.
When the group broke up in 1983 she began her solo career. Since that time the husky instrument of her voice, which she can stretch to an amazing degree to capture virtually any genre, established her as a fixture in the U.K. musical world. Over the years she has been near the top of the U.K. and EU charts, with occasional crossovers to the States but, unfortunately, her following in the U.S. has not had the same type of following of her musical contemporaries as one would have thought.
This is a common phenomena among certain European and U.K. artists largely, I think, because the musical tastes overseas tend to be quite broad and experimental, and so the artists tend to stretch out to address such catholic tastes, which cuts against the U.S. tendency of marketing artists by musical genre. For example, today, though they are at the core of American music, such genres as jazz, blues, and folk still tend to appeal to a niche of the wider musical audience, the latter following a series of popular musical types that change with each passing youthful generation. Furthermore, in her early years Ms. Moyet had a weight issue which, unfortunately, presented a barrier to her solo marketability to a mass audience which, particularly in the U.S., tends to meld image with musical identity.
Despite these headwinds, she has attained a degree of financial success and musical respect that few artists have achieved. Her discography and other information can be found at her website.
While I prefer to show live performances of a song, unfortunately those that currently appear on YouTube are of questionable origination from a copyright and fair use perspective, and of poor quality. Thus, here is the recording “Alive” from her most recent album entitled Other, her voice calling like a loving siren across ethereal space and time. In my opinion, it is one of her most intelligent, mature, and mesmerizing songs, painting colors and emotions with a pallet of evocative lyrics that float over a timeless electronic musical soundscape.
Life, Project Management, and Everything 