| Yazz | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Yasmin M. Evans[1] |
| Born | 19 May 1960 Shepherd's Bush, London, England |
| Genres | Pop, funk, Christian |
| Occupations | Musician, model |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Big Life, Polydor, eastwest, Elevation |
| Website | www.yazzmusic.co.uk |
Yazz (born Yasmin Evans, 19 May 1960, Shepherd's Bush, London) is a British pop singer, who remains best known for her successful 1988 dance track, "The Only Way Is Up". Some of her records were credited to Yazz & The Plastic Population. Her father is Jamaican, her mother English.
Contents |
Yazz attended Holland Park School where she excelled at sports including the 400 metres and she was a member of the England under-19s volleyball team. After a spell as a catwalk model, she scored a number of club hits after recording with the group, Biz, in 1983. Her first commercial success came in early 1988, when she supplied the vocals on Coldcut's "Doctorin' the House".[2] She soon launched a solo career on Big Life records, a label set up by her future husband Jazz Summers, releasing her debut single "The Only Way Is Up" in the summer of 1988. It went on to spend five weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart,[2] eventually becoming the biggest selling UK single of the year. Suddenly one of Britain's biggest pop acts, her follow-up was another big hit ("Stand Up for Your Love Rights", UK number 2), whilst her debut album went Top Ten.[2]
She continued to have hits into 1989 (and had her last Top Ten hit with the number 9 hit "Fine Time") but has since recorded only sporadically, releasing one single during 1990 and another in 1992. Her last Top 20 single was 1990's "Treat Me Good", which made number 20 in the UK.[2] She returned to the charts in 1993, performing with Aswad on the Top 40 hit "How Long". She continued to release singles throughout the 1990s, including a cover version of The Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye". In 1997 she recorded the album Natural Life, which was only released in some parts of Europe and Asia.
Her 2008 album Running Back to You, distributed in the UK by ICC Records, charted her spiritual journey and her new-found Christian faith. Yazz is now based in Spain,[3] and is an active member of the Calahonda Baptist Church. Yazz returns to England occasionally to promote this album, performing songs from it live interspersed with several anecdotes pertaining to her faith.
In August 2009, she performed with a full band on stage for the first time in several years at a church in Southampton. In October 2010, Yazz performed again with a full band at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, home of the Huddersfield Christian Fellowship.
| Year | Album | UK[2] | AUS[4] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Wanted | 3 | 43 |
| 1989 | The Wanted Remixes | - | - |
| 1994 | One on One | - | - |
| 1997 | The Natural Life | - | - |
| 2001 | At Her Very Best and All the Greatest Hits | 166[5] | - |
| 2008 | Running Back to You | - | - |
| 2011 | This Is Love | - | - |
| Year | Song | UK[2] | AUS | GER | NZ | US | NL | SWE | FRA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | "Doctorin' the House" (with Coldcut) | 6 | 45 | 11 | - | - | 20 | - | - |
| "The Only Way Is Up" (as Yazz & The Plastic Population) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 96 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| "Stand Up for Your Love Rights" | 2 | 22 | 10 | 8 | - | 6 | - | 19 | |
| 1989 | "Fine Time" | 9 | 56 | 32 | 18 | - | 42 | - | 31 |
| "Where Has All the Love Gone" | 16 | 90 | 40 | - | - | 86 | - | - | |
| 1990 | "Yazz' Megamix" (France only) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| "Treat Me Good" | 20 | 100 | 55 | - | - | 48 | - | - | |
| 1992 | "One True Woman" | 60 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1993 | "How Long" (with Aswad) | 31 | - | 52 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1994 | "Have Mercy" | 42 | - | 86 | - | - | - | - | - |
| "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" | 56 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1996 | "Good Thing Going" | 53 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1997 | "Never Can Say Goodbye" | 61 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1998 | "Abandon Me" | 79[5] | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |