Shakespears Sister

Shakespears Sister emerged as a transcontinental pop duo whose commercial reach spanned multiple continents, built around the songwriting and vocal partnership of Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit. After departing Bananarama, Irish singer and songwriter Fahey sought a fresh creative direction and launched the project in late 1988 under the name drawn from a Smiths track, initially envisioning it as her solo vehicle. While based in Los Angeles alongside then-husband Dave Stewart, she connected with neighbor Richard Feldman, an established producer and songwriter who reviewed her demos, began co-writing material, and proposed an introduction to Marcella Detroit, then known as Marcy Levy. The Detroit native, a seasoned session vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, had already accumulated credits with Bob Seger, Jimmy Ruffin, Leon Russell, and Chaka Khan, spent five years as Eric Clapton’s backup singer through the mid- to late 1970s, and issued the commercially unsuccessful 1982 solo album Marcella on Epic, produced by David Foster.

Fahey initially engaged Levy strictly as a supporting musician for backing vocals, co-writing, and instrumental contributions. The vocal contrast between Fahey’s resonant contralto and Levy’s soprano immediately struck Feldman, Stewart, and the two women themselves; Stewart urged them to form a permanent duo, an idea Feldman, Fahey’s management, and London Records all endorsed. Though both artists valued their independence, they eventually agreed, with Levy becoming a fifty-percent partner and adopting the professional name Marcella Detroit. Their debut single, “Break My Heart (You Really)” / “Heroine,” failed to chart, yet the follow-up “You’re History” reached the U.K. Top Ten and propelled the 1989 album Sacred Heart to gold status and a number-nine peak on the U.K. albums chart while registering in five additional territories. Most tracks were shaped with Feldman, whose glossy, synth-driven R&B aesthetic evoked the Eurythmics; the duo promoted the set through Top of the Pops appearances, European television slots, international touring, and MTV videos.

A 1991 single, “Goodbye Cruel World,” stalled at number 59, but the next release, “Stay”—co-written with Stewart (credited as Jean Guiot)—topped the U.K. Singles Chart for eight weeks, reached number four on the U.S. Hot 100, charted in fourteen countries altogether, and earned “Best British Video” at the 1993 BRIT Awards. Detroit’s lead vocal took center stage on the track and its video, creating friction with Fahey, who viewed the song as unrepresentative and had opposed issuing it as a single. Recorded while both members were pregnant, the 1992 album Hormonally Yours followed within a month, earned double-platinum certification, and yielded further Top 40 singles in “I Don’t Care,” “Hello (Turn Your Radio On),” and a reissue of “Goodbye Cruel World.” Tensions surfaced publicly during the subsequent tour, culminating in the cancellation of a Royal Albert Hall concert after Fahey was hospitalized for depression; the pair placed the project on hiatus.

At the 1993 Ivor Novello Awards ceremony honoring Hormonally Yours as “Best Contemporary Collection of Songs,” Fahey’s publicist read a note announcing the partnership’s end without prior discussion with Detroit, who later described returning to her seat stunned and weeping for five minutes. The two artists did not speak for twenty-six years. Fahey continued briefly under the duo name, releasing “I Can Drive” in 1996—an outside-the-Top-40 U.K. single that prompted London Records to shelve the completed third album—before issuing “Bitter Pill” under her own name in 2002 and eventually securing rights to release the earlier recordings as #3 via her website in 2004. The 2005 compilation Long Live the Queens! gathered rarities and introduced the single “Pulsatron.”

Detroit signed with London Records for her post-duo debut Jewel (1994), whose lead single “I Believe” reached number 11 in the U.K. while the album climbed to number 15 and earned silver certification; additional charting tracks included a duet with Elton John on “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” plus “I’m No Angel” and “Perfect World.” After departing the label she self-recorded Feeler (1996), whose single “I Hate You Now…” surfaced the same week as Fahey’s “I Can Drive.” Subsequent Detroit projects included the Japan-only live set Without Medication Plus MTV “Buzz Live,” guest spots on Absolutely Fabulous that yielded the 1999 collection Abfab Songs, the 2001 album Dancing Madly Sideways on her own Banned Records (later Lofi Records), and leadership of the Marcy Levy Band, which issued one EP and the album The Upside of Being Down between 2002 and 2008.

Fahey’s planned solo album Bad Blood was retitled Songs from the Red Room and issued in 2009 under the Shakespears Sister banner on her SF Records imprint, preceded by the single “It’s a Trip” in a deluxe edition; she toured the U.K. and performed at the Isle of Wight Festival. Two 2012 compilations appeared—Cosmic Dancer and a physical edition of #3—while Detroit placed third on Popstar to Operastar and released both Skin I’m In and The Vehicle in 2013, followed by the 2015 album Gray Matterz and the 2011 Christmas EP Happy Holiday. Fahey rejoined Bananarama for the 2017 reunion tour documented on Live at the London Eventim Hammersmith Apollo before exiting ahead of In Stereo.

Reuniting in 2018 after decades apart, Fahey and Detroit met for coffee without initial plans to record; the reconciliation led to a Joshua Tree songwriting session that produced “All the Queen’s Horses,” released by London in May 2019 alongside a biographical video. The compilation Singles Party (1988–2019) followed in July, a reunion tour took place that summer, “When She Finds You” (featuring Richard Hawley) appeared in September, and the Ride Again EP arrived in October. During the COVID-19 lockdown Detroit wrote roughly seventy songs, selecting twenty for the 2021 album Gold and issuing singles such as “Vicious Bitch” and “Alien 2 Me” with Seventh Heaven. London’s 2022 thirtieth-anniversary edition of Hormonally Yours added tour videos and Lance Aston’s documentary footage; a remastered, expanded “My 16th Apology” included bonus string and live versions plus a cover of Marc Bolan’s “Hot Love.” A new studio album was slated for 2023.