Jan Johnston

Britain's Jan Johnston channels deep passion into singing and songwriting, shaping her own dance-pop material while contributing vocals to numerous trance and EDM productions. She entered the world in 1968 within Salford, a borough of Manchester, and first experimented with piano-driven songwriting during her teenage years. Following secondary school, she built experience through regular performances at a neighborhood men's club. She soon partnered with Tony Kirkham, a fellow songwriter and instrumentalist. The pair adopted the name JJ, secured a contract with Sony/Columbia Records, and reached number 55 on the U.K. chart with "If This Is Love." Their 1991 album Intro appeared next and spotlighted the single "Slide Away," yet weak promotional support from the label prompted the duo's breakup.

Johnston pursued a solo path, maintaining songwriting ties with Kirkham, and signed with A&M Records to issue her 1995 debut Naked But for Lilies. The record reflected her increasing songwriting maturity and prompted favorable mentions of Kate Bush and Carole King, although it failed to register on the charts. By chance, BT discovered the album's lead single "Paris" in a Manchester record store's cutout bin, then sampled the B-side "The Prayer" for his track "Anomaly (Calling Your Name)," resulting in a club hit.

Johnston and BT extended their partnership, co-writing the U.K. Top 30 single "Remember." Demand quickly grew for her services as both writer and vocalist among additional electronic producers. Further successes followed, such as "Skydive (I Feel Wonderful)" with Anthony Pappa and Alan Bremner's Freefall, which reached the Top 40. She later joined Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label and released the singles "Flesh" and "Silent Words." In the years since, she has appeared on multiple trance productions involving Tiësto, Svenson & Gielen, Jussi Suro, DJ Feel, and others. She also co-wrote several songs on Paul van Dyk's 2003 Grammy-nominated album Reflections. In 2016 she issued When Everything Was Possible, a set of previously unreleased tracks recorded with Jamie Myerson in 1998. A second collection of archival material, captured with Manny Ferreiros, surfaced in 2017.