Biography
Born Silifatu Mornii Wehabie Tella around 1960 in England, the singer first rose to prominence supplying lead vocals for the hugely popular ensemble Boney M. That outfit delivered a string of tracks over an ersatz reggae rhythm, among them the chart-topping adaptation of the Melodians’ ‘Rivers Of Babylon’, a fresh take on the Jamaican playground rhyme ‘Brown Girl In The Ring’, and Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman No Cry’. Once she left the group, Tella launched a solo path that took her into Britain’s reggae circles, where she cut sides under the supervision of Lloyd Charmers and with the Administrators supplying the backing. That alliance endured roughly twelve months before she moved elsewhere. In the latter part of the 1980s she registered a major reggae-chart success with the enduring single ‘Spell’, yet the scale of that hit ultimately hampered further advancement even while she stayed busy on stage and in the studio. Hurricane Gilbert’s devastation of Jamaica in 1988 prompted a charity single assembled by assorted pop and reggae artists operating as Windjammer, on which Tella contributed the principal vocals. She reached a broader listenership through her work with the jazzy pop outfit the Blow Monkeys on ‘Choice’, a track that climbed to number 22 on the UK Top 30 during summer 1989. Additional guest vocals appeared on releases by the indie group Pop Will Eat Itself, including the atmospheric follow-up ‘Slaves No More’, which registered modestly on the pop listings. Tella re-emerged forcefully in 1996 with a four-track discomix shared alongside Vivian Jones that contained ‘Nu Chat To Me’, ‘Sometimes Love’, ‘Jah Bless Love’ and ‘Feelings’, plus her own solo outing ‘Mother Nature’. Momentum grew further through the solo successes ‘Searching For The One’ and ‘Happy Home’. Another joint effort, ‘Sweet As Honey’, paired her with Leroy ‘Mafia’ Heywood, whose long-standing partnership with his sibling forms the duo Mafia And Fluxy. That November she took part in a London concert marking twenty-eight years of reggae, sharing the bill with Jah Woosh, Junior Delgado, Horace Andy, Earl Sixteen, Tyrone Taylor, Winston Reedy and Top Cat. The following year Tella toured worldwide with Saint And Campbell, performed at London’s Notting Hill Carnival in the company of Beenie Man and the Main Street Crew, earned the Best Female Performer trophy at the People’s Choice Awards, and received a nomination for Best British Reggae Artist at the MOBO awards.
Albums
Singles
