Maizie Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Maizie Williams | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Maizie Ursula Williams |
| Born | March 25, 1951 |
| Origin | St Catherine, Montserrat |
| Genre(s) | Dance-pop, dance, soul |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Label(s) | Hansa Records, Sony-BMG |
| Associated acts | Boney M. |
Maizie Ursula Williams (born 25 March 1951, in Montserrat, West Indies) was a member of the music group Boney M.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Brought up in Birmingham, Maizie began working as a model, eventually gaining the title Miss Black Beautiful in a contest in 1973. After this initial success she went on to front her own band, 'Black Beautiful People'. She later moved to Germany with her friend Sheyla Bonnick. One day in 1975, while at a restaurant, the two were approached by an agent who asked if they were interested in joining a new pop group Boney M. "She asked if we could sing. Well, you don't say no, do you," Maizie later recalled in an interview. She had previously been singing with a local band back in England but had been told off by her brother Billie: "You have a terrible voice. Better keep working as a walking clothes-hanger."
It turned out that it wasn't important either if Maizie could sing or not since the job was to dance and mime to a disco song called "Baby Do You Wanna Bump" that producer Frank Farian had recorded all the vocals for himself but was unable to promote himself since he had a career as a schlager singer in his own name. So Maizie and Sheila teamed up with a girl called Nathalie and a boy called Mike and did a discothek tour and a few TV performances over the next months. Nathalie left and was replaced by Claudja Barry. Sheila then decided that lip-syncing wasn't enough for her and left, hoping to achieve a solo career. Mike left as well, and the two were replaced by new members Marcia Barrett and Bobby Farrell. When Claudja went the same way as Sheila, Liz Mitchell took her place, and finally the pieces fell together: Boney M. were assembled as a real group and ready to do a follow-up to "Baby Do You Wanna Bump".
[edit] Boney M.
Both Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett were singers and would participate in the group's recordings together with producer Frank Farian doing the deep male voice, and the threesome did the follow-up single "Daddy Cool" which soon became a worldwide hit and launched the group's phenomenal career with several hit singles and albums over the next decade. Maizie and Bobby Farrell didn't sing on the records since "their voices weren't suited for this particular kind of music" as Farian put it in a Bravo interview in 1978. It didn't create any big scandal - both Maizie and Bobby did sing during the group's many live performances during their extensive world tours 1977-79. She recorded a part for the group's "That's Boonoonoonoos / Train to Skaville" which was also broadcast in the 1981 TV special "Ein Sound geht um die Welt" (A Sound Goes Around the World) but in the final mix released on record, the part was re-recorded by Liz Mitchell. Maizie remained with the group until the ultimate break-up in 1990. In 1994, she did what her former colleagues Liz Mitchell and Bobby Farrell had also done, she formed her own Boney M. group, billed as Boney M. featuring Maizie Williams. Interestingly, the group featured her friend Sheila Bonnick from the short-lived aboriginal 1975 line-up. Maizie herself would finally front as a lead singer in the group's renditions of the hits "Brown Girl in the Ring", "Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday", "Sunny" and "Daddy Cool".
[edit] Vocal controversy
It is stated on Maizie's official site that "it's no secret that although she sang in the studio Maizie's less dominant voice appears to have been mostly excluded from many of the recordings, with the exception of some backing vocals, for reasons only the producer knew at the time" - however, Liz Mitchell, Marcia Barrett and Frank Farian have all stated in interviews over the years that Maizie didn't sing. She isn't credited on the official vocal credits on the group's fourth album Oceans of Fantasy either, and Maizie herself also said in a recent interview about a court case against Farian concerning unpaid royalties that "Part of Frank's defense is that I didn't sing on the records which is true". Marcia Barrett also confirmed in a now withdrawn biography on her website that a try-out with having Maizie sing on the group's 1989 single without Farian, "Everybody Wants to Dance Like Josephine Baker" was unsuccessful.
[edit] Present
Besides still touring the world, Maizie released her first solo record in December 2006, Call Upon Jesus, an inspirational album, including the download single "Praise Be Unto Him", determined to show that she too can make it on her own. In February 2007, she released her own dance version of the Boney M. hit "Sunny". In June, she starred as the featured vocalist on Latvian group Melo-M's version of "Daddy Cool" which hit the #1 spot in the LMK charts in the last week of August. Maizie is currently working on a new studio album for release in 2008.
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources
- Gerd Röckl: Boney M. (German book, 1978)
- BRAVO articles
- Inner sheet Oceans of Fantasy
