Omar Lye-Fook

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Omar Lye-Fook (born October 14, 1968 in London), also known as Omar, is an internationally acclaimed British soul singer, songwriter and musician. He grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He learnt his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano and percussion.

Omar also spent two years at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester and the renowned Guildhall School of Music in London. His most well-known song was his debut single "There's Nothing Like This". It was originally a minor #78 chart single in 1990, but reached #14 on re-release in 1991.

1 Discography
2 Collaborations
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Discography

There's nothing like this (1990)
Music (1992)
For Pleasure (1994)
This is not a love song (1997)
Best by Far (2000)
Sing (If You Want It) (2006)

[edit] Collaborations

Some of the notable musicians Omar has performed with include (but not limited to):

Angie Stone;
Caron Wheeler (vocalist for Soul II Soul);
Erykah Badu;
Guru (of veteran rap group, Gangstarr);
Kele Le Roc, of Basement Jaxx fame;
Stevie Wonder, whom Omar has collaborated with on multiple occasions; and
Common, Electric Circus "The Hustle"

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Omar is sometimes credited as Omar Hammer. His birth father's surname is Lye-Fook, while his step-father's surname is Hammer. He and his siblings, two brothers and a sister are all musicians. Samia Lye-Fook (Omar's sister, and youngest of the four) is a BRIT School alumna, who has provided background vocals for some of Omar's recordings.

Following his first two singles, "Mr Postman" and ‘"You and Me" featuring backing vocals from Caron Wheeler, Omar released his first album, also entitled ‘'There’s Nothing Like This.

Released on his fathers label, Kongo Records, it entered the UK album charts unaided by promotion or advertising.

With this, Omar earned his name as the founder of nu-classic soul.^{[citation needed]}

Signing to his first major record label, Talkin’ Loud, saw the release of his second album ‘'Music'’ which proved less successful than the first.{{Fact}

A new signing to RCA led to some high profile collaborations, something he hadn’t experimented with before.

Motown’s songwriter Lamont Dozier, keyboard wizard David Frank (a player on Chaka Khan’s ‘I feel for you’), former Heatwave bass player Derrick Bramble, Marvin Gaye’s arranger Leon Ware and even Stevie Wonder all collaborated with Omar.

Stevie Wonder got in touch after hearing Omar’s second album. As a result, Omar went over to L.A. for six weeks to write with him. “He was working on his new album at the time so I had to fit in with his sessions. It’s a complicated way of working but he’s my idol and I was just glad we could work together.”^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, after one of his songs ("There's Nothing Like This") was used in the intro round on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, presenter Mark Lamarr questioned Omar's supposed instant recognizability, quipping that he would require a Blockbuster card to confirm Omar's identity. A few episodes later, Omar appeared in the show's identity parade round. Lamarr was force to concede that Omar is indeed instantly recognizable, and a rather more significant artist than he had earlier given him credit for.^{[citation needed]} Omar became the father of twins in early 2008.