Hazell Dean

A Hi-NRG pop artist who rose to prominence during the 1980s, Hazell Dean played a pivotal role in launching the career of the hitmaking production team Stock, Aitken & Waterman, whose early productions propelled the initial breakthroughs of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, and Jason Donovan. She entered the world as Hazell Dean Poole in Great Baddow, Essex, in 1956, launching her professional journey with appearances on the cabaret club circuit and later advancing to the final round of A Song for Europe, the British contest that selected the United Kingdom's Eurovision Song Contest entry, during 1976. Several singles appeared under the Hazell Dean Orchestra banner, among them the 1981 debut full-length release titled The Sound of Bacharach & David, before she scored Top Ten placements with the singles "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)" and "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)," which marked the first of hundreds of chart successes credited to Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. The studio albums Heart First and Always arrived next, after which she ended her association with the production trio in favor of pursuing a stronger dance-oriented direction alongside Ian Levine. Throughout the 1990s she composed and produced material for the boybands Bad Boys Inc., Gemini, and Upside Down, issued the ABBA covers collection The Winner Takes It All, and established herself as a steady presence within the gay club circuit. She joined the roster of Energise Records in 2010, issuing multiple remixes drawn from her most successful recordings.