Erroll Starr Francis is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rhythm and blues singer."Starr shines with something for all". ''

Hamilton Spectator ''The Hamilton Spectator'', founded in 1846, is a newspaper published weekdays and Saturdays in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. One of the largest Canadian newspapers by circulation,''The Hamilton Spectator'' is owned by Torstar. History ''The Hami ...

'', July 21, 1994. He is most noted for winning the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year in 1989 for his single "Angel".

Background

Originally from

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, Starr's father was a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

musician with the band People's Choice."Juno nominee has spiritual base for his songs". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'', September 18, 1987.

Musical career

Starr built his early music career in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, where concurrently with performing as an R&B singer he was also a member of the rock band Harbinger. He released the singles "Holding Out for You", "The Key" and "

For the Love of Money "For the Love of Money" is a soul/funk song that was written and composed by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Anthony Jackson; it was recorded by Philadelphia soul group The O'Jays for the album ''Ship Ahoy.'' Produced by Gamble and Huff for Phi ...

" in 1986 and 1987, before releasing his debut album ''Temple of Love'' on

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

in 1987. In 1987, he also participated in the recording of a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

charity single, "A Christmas Wish", with a lineup of Toronto-area performers that also included

Billy Newton-Davis Billy Newton-Davis (born April 26, 1951, in Cleveland, Ohio, United States) is an American-Canadian Contemporary R&B, R&B, jazz and gospel music, gospel singer and songwriter. Biography Newton-Davis grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of C ...

Kim Richardson Kim Richardson (born December 22, 1965) is a Canadian singer and actress,

Frozen Ghost Frōzen Ghōst was a Canadian rock band formed in 1985 in Toronto by Arnold Lanni and Wolf Hassel, who were previously with the band Sheriff. The band received a Juno Award for " Most Promising Group of the Year" in 1987. The group placed fi ...

Prairie Oyster Prairie Oyster was a Canadian country music group from Toronto, Ontario. They were named Country Group or Duo of the year six times by both the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) and the Juno Awards. The band also won the Bud Country Fan ...

Messenjah Messenjah is a Canadian-based reggae group that flourished to become one of the most successful and popular reggae groups in the history of Canadian music. History Messenjah was formed in 1980 in Kitchener, Ontario and released their first album ...

, The Pursuit of Happiness,

Salome Bey Salome Bey (October 10, 1933 – August 8, 2020)While ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' gives her year of birth as 1939, other sources say she was born in 1933 or 1944. was an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter, composer, and actress who liv ...

Zappacosta Alfredo Peter "Alfie" Zappacosta (born July 5, 1953), also known by just his surname, is an Italian-born Canadian musician. Career Zappacosta's first band was Surrender, a five-piece group that recorded three albums in the late 1970s and earl ...

Arlene Duncan Arlene Duncan is a Canadian actress and singer from Oakville, Ontario. Her father is African Canadian, with ancestors from Nova Scotia. Duncan has appeared in more than 80 film and television roles, in addition to many theatrical productions. She ...

and Lorraine Scott. He received his first Juno Award nomination in 1986 for "The Key", and his second in 1987 for "For the Love of Money", and won the award for Best Male Artist at the Black Music Association of Canada awards in 1987. However, he was one of a number of

Black Canadian Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though t ...

musicians who faced heavy resistance from Canadian radio programmers in this era, and A&M did not renew his contract for another album. In the early 1990s he moved to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, working as a record producer and recording music for film, television and commercials. During this era he formed a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

duo, North Starr, with colleague Mike Northcott, and released his second album, ''From the Inside Out'', on the independent label Asoma Records in 1994. He has continued to perform occasional live appearances at public events.

Personal life

In the early 2000s, he and his family moved to Killaloe, where they built an environmentally sustainable

off-the-grid Off-the-grid or off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities. The term "off-the-grid" traditionally refers to not being connected to the electrical gr ...

home in the

Earthship An Earthship is a style of architecture developed in the late 20th century to early 21st century by architect Mike Reynolds (architect), Michael Reynolds. Earthships are designed to behave as Passive solar building design, passive solar earth s ...

style. His niece, Tasha Schumann, is a rapper who performs under the stage name

Tasha the Amazon Tasha the Amazon, born Tasha Schumann, is a Canadian rapper, singer-songwriter, hip hop producer Waterloo Region Record The ''Waterloo Region Record'' (formerly ''The Record'') is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area. Since December 1998, the ''Re ...

'', April 6, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starr, Erroll Canadian rhythm and blues singers 20th-century Black Canadian male singers Jamaican emigrants to Canada Juno Award for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year winners Singers from Toronto Musicians from Hamilton, Ontario Living people Year of birth missing (living people)