Juliet Roberts

Born on 11 January 1962 in England, Roberts possesses talents that extend well beyond the label of house diva; she also functions as a capable singer-songwriter, performs jazz and reggae material with equal skill, and counts among the early participants in British soul. Raised in the Catholic tradition rather than gospel settings, she never acquired her abilities through church choirs, though her upbringing still immersed her in music. Her father, once part of the calypso group the Nightingales, regularly escorted her to live shows, planting the seeds for her own path. She first appeared onstage with the reggae outfit Black Jade, then secured a solo contract in 1980 with Bluebird Records, the imprint founded by a Paddington record shop in north London. While employed as a sports tutor, she issued two early recordings: a version of the Police’s “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” and the track “Fool For You.” These caught the ear of the Funk Masters, who featured her as lead vocalist on their 1983 UK Top 10 single “It’s Over.” Following a year-long break in the United States, she returned and promptly joined Latin jazz ensemble Working Week as vocalist.

Upon departing Working Week in 1988, she joined Cooltempo Records and notched several UK Top 30 entries during the mid-1990s, among them “Free Love” (1993), “Caught In The Middle” (1994), and “I Want You” (1994), the last of which marked her initial appearance on American charts. Though widely recognized as a house diva, she faced difficulty reaching broader audiences until the Delirious label released “So Good”/“Free Love 98” in January 1998, which climbed to UK number 15. Her interpretation of Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls” entered the UK Top 20 the next January. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s she collaborated with reggae and jazz musicians such as saxophonist Denys Baptiste and Gary Crosby’s jazz/ska collective Jazz Jamaica. In 2002 she completed her second solo album, Beneath The Surface, for Crosby’s Dune imprint.