Janet Kay Bogle (born 17 January 1958) is an English actor and vocalist, best known for her 1979

lovers rock Lovers' rock is a style of reggae music noted for its romantic sound and content. While love songs had been an important part of reggae since the late 1960s, the style was given a greater focus and a name in London in the mid-1970s.Larkin, Col ...

hit "

Silly Games Silly may refer to: Places * Silly, Belgium, a town * Silly Department, a department or commune of Sissili Province in southern Burkina Faso Music * Silly (band), an East German rock group from the 1970s * The Sillies, an American punk rock b ...

Biography

Janet Kay Bogle was born in

Willesden Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has formed ...

North West London The NW (North Western) postcode area, also known as the London NW postcode area, is a group of 13 postcode districts covering around 13,895 live postcodes within part of northwest London, England. It is the successor of the NW sector, originally ...

. She was discovered singing impromptu at a rehearsal studio by Tony "Gad" Robinson, the keyboardist from

Aswad Aswad are a British reggae group, noted for adding strong R&B and soul influences to the reggae sound. They have been performing since the mid-1970s, having released a total of 21 albums. Their UK hit singles include the number one "Don't Tur ...

, who recommended Kay to

Alton Ellis Alton Nehemiah Ellis (1 September 1938 – 10 October 2008)Godfather ...

. The Jamaican-born Ellis, a successful

rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

vocalist, had relocated permanently to London, where he continued to be involved with

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 ...

music and was looking for a female vocalist to record a reggae cover of

Minnie Riperton Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You" and her four octave D3 to F7 coloratura soprano range. She is also widely known for her use o ...

's song "

Lovin' You "Lovin' You" is a song recorded by American singer Minnie Riperton from her second studio album, ''Perfect Angel'' (1974). It was written by Riperton and Richard Rudolph, produced by Rudolph and Stevie Wonder, and released as the album's fourth s ...

". In 1978 Kay recorded " I Do Love You" and "That's What Friends Are For". The single "

", written and produced by

Dennis Bovell Dennis Bovell (born 22 May 1953Huey, Steve"Dennis Bovell Biography" Allmusic. Retrieved 27 December 2014.) is a Barbados-born reggae guitarist, bass player and record producer, based in England. He was a member of the British reggae band Mat ...

, was released in 1979 and became a hit across Europe, reaching No. 2 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The chart success of "Silly Games" led to Kay appearing on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

'', then the BBC's flagship music programme. She played the character Angel in the UK sitcom '' No Problem!'', created by the Black Theatre Co-operative (now

NitroBeat Nitrobeat is a British theatre company, founded in 1979 as the Black Theatre Co-operative by the playwright Mustapha Matura and the director Charlie Hanson. Early performers with the company included the actor Trevor Laird. The company's first ...

) and broadcast on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

(1983–85). While on the programme, she enjoyed a further club hit with "Eternally Grateful" in 1984, which also reached the UK top 100. Kay has recorded, and co-produced her seventh album for

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

. It was released on 18 June 2003, and is entitled ''Lovin' You … More''. The popularity of the song "Lovin' You" in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

is so strong that she was asked to record it again for this album (for the third time). That version was produced by

Omar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

. "Silly Games" first hit the UK charts in 1979, and appeared again in 1990 as a re-recording, billed as by

Lindy Layton Belinda Kimberly "Lindy" Layton (born 7 December 1970) is an English singer. She was a founding member of and vocalist for dance music band Beats International. She has released a number of solo albums and singles and worked with other musicians ...

featuring Janet Kay, which reached No. 22. A

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

version of Kay's original recording spent three weeks in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 62. Kay is credited as producer on "Missing You", recorded by

. She was a founding member of

BiBi Crew BiBi Crew, founded in 1991, was the first British comedy troupe to consist entirely of Black actresses. Their work focuses on the Black British experience. History In 1991, Joanne Campbell, Judith Jacob, Janet Kay, Suzette Llewellyn, Josephine M ...

, Britain's first theatre troupe made up entirely of Black women. Kay was included on the 2003 list of "

100 Great Black Britons ''100 Great Black Britons'' is a poll that was first undertaken in 2003 to vote for and celebrate the greatest Black Britons of all time. It was created in a campaign initiated by Patrick Vernon in response to a BBC search for '' 100 Greatest Brit ...

". In November 2022, "Silly Games" was named the runner up in a list of the 70 best number two singles, compiled by UK newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the UK Singles Chart. Kay was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2023 New Year Honours The 2023 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

for services to music.

Discography

Albums

*''Capricorn Woman'' (1982, Arawak) *''So Amazing'' (1988, Body Music) *''Sweet Surrender'' (1989, Body Music) *''Lovin' You'' (1991,

) *''Love You Always'' (1993, Sony Music Japan) *''For the Love of You'' (1994, Sony Music Japan) *''Making History'' (1998, Sony Music Japan) *''Through the Years'' (1999, Sony Music Japan) *''Now & Then'' (2001, Sony Music Japan) *''Lovin' You ... More'' (2003, Sony Music Japan) *''

Idol Kay is a cover album by British singer Janet Kay. Released through Universal Music Japan on 23 May 2012, the album features English-language reggae covers of popular J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an ab ...

'' (2012,

Universal Music Japan , often referred to as just Universal Music Japan or UMJ, is a Japanese subsidiary of the Universal Music Group founded in 1990. It is the largest subsidiary for a foreign company in the country regarding music distribution. The company is resp ...

) *''Dramatic Lovers'' (2012, Sony Music Japan)

Singles

References

External links

Official website
* *
Janet Kay's Myspace

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Janet 1958 births Living people 21st-century Black British women singers English reggae musicians Lovers rock musicians 20th-century Black British women singers English people of Jamaican descent People from Willesden Musicians from London Members of the Order of the British Empire