Mari Macmillan Ramsay Wilson (born 29 September 1954,

Neasden Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...

, London) is a British pop and jazz singer. She is best known for her 1982 UK top-10 hit single "

Just What I Always Wanted "Just What I Always Wanted" is a song by English singer Mari Wilson, released as a single in 1982. It is from her 1983 debut album '' Showpeople''. As Wilson's fifth single release, "Just What I Always Wanted" was her first UK top 40 hit, reach ...

" and her 1960s image complete with

beehive hairstyle The beehive is a hairstyle in which long hair is piled up in a conical shape on the top of the head and slightly backwards pointing, giving some resemblance to the shape of a traditional beehive. It is also known as the B-52 due to a resemblance ...

Career

Recording on Compact Records with her backing band The Wilsations, Wilson scored six UK hit singles between 1982 and 1984. Her biggest hit, "

" peaked at No. 8 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 ...

in 1982. In 1983, she scored a second Top 40 hit with a cover of " Cry Me a River" (UK No. 27) and released her debut album ''

Showpeople ''Showpeople'' is the debut album by UK singer Mari Wilson. It was released in 1983 and featured her breakthrough hit "Just What I Always Wanted". Background In early 1982, Wilson had achieved minor success with two singles, "Beat the Beat" a ...

'' (UK No. 24). After this, further commercial success eluded her, though in 1985 she recorded the song "Would You Dance with a Stranger" (theme for the film '' Dance with a Stranger'') and turned her career towards live performances. She subsequently distanced herself from her beehive days, but started touring with her old songs again in 2007. In 1992, her album ''The Rhythm Romance'', which combined

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive lis ...

s with 1960s songs and original material, failed to return her to the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...

. She continued performing with jazz bands, and she sang the theme song to the sitcom ''

Coupling A coupling is a device used to connect two shafts together at their ends for the purpose of transmitting power. The primary purpose of couplings is to join two pieces of rotating equipment while permitting some degree of misalignment or end mov ...

'' (" Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"). Her version of "Cry Me a River" was featured in the 1990s crime drama series '' McCallum''. In 2005, she returned to recording with the album ''Dolled Up''. This was followed by a compilation of her hits ''The Platinum Collection'' to celebrate her 25th anniversary in the music industry. Apart from pursuing her solo career, she toured with Barb Jungr and Claire Martin as the cabaret act 'Girl Talk' (though Claire Martin has now been replaced by Gwyneth Herbert). Wilson has also performed in musicals such as ''Dusty - The Musical'', and has been featured on a BBC Television series about celebrities and their health (she has

Type 1 Diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar ...

). Her band was known as The Imaginations for their first two singles before becoming The Wilsations, and her backing vocalists were called The Marionettes. Occasional featured artists were

Michelle Collins Michelle Danielle Collins (born 28 May 1962) is an English actress and TV presenter, best known for her roles in the British soap operas ''EastEnders'' and ''Coronation Street''. Collins played Cindy Beale in the BBC soap ''EastEnders'' from ...

Julia Fordham Julia Fordham (born 10 August 1962) is a British singer-songwriter. Her professional career started in the early 1980s, under the name "Jules Fordham", as a backing singer for Mari Wilson and Kim Wilde, before signing a recording contract of h ...

and bassist 'Thumbs' Cunningham. Wilson's fourth studio album ''Emotional Glamour'' was released on her own Beehive label in October 2008 (though she has long ago changed her former trademark hairstyle). She has also written and starred in a one-woman musical, ''The Love Thing''. In 2012, an album of covers called ''Cover Stories'' was released, funded by public subscription. She also writes a regular blog about her life and music. On 30 September 2018, she appeared with

Soft Cell Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit version of "Tainted Love" and their plat ...

, as an unannounced special guest to sing a duet with

Marc Almond Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He ...

, as part of their final live concert 'Say Hello and Wave Goodbye, One Last Time' at

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...

in London.

Personal life

Wilson is a longtime resident of

Crouch End Crouch End is an area of North London, approximately from the City of London in the western half of the borough of Haringey. It is within the Hornsey postal district (N8). It has been described by the BBC as one of "a new breed of urban villag ...

, north London and is married to TV producer

Mal Young Mal Young (born 26 January 1957) is a British television producer, screenwriter and executive producer. Career Mersey TV Young began his career in graphic design. At age 27 he began working in television, on the Channel 4 soap opera ''Brooks ...

. Her parents are from Scotland.

Discography

* ''

'' (1983) * ''Rhythm Romance'' (1991) * ''Dolled Up'' (2005) * ''Girl Talk'' (2006) * ''Emotional Glamour'' (2008) * ''Cover Stories'' (2012) * ''Pop Deluxe'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Mari 1954 births Living people Musicians from London English women singers People from Neasden English people of Scottish descent