Yazz (& The Plastic Population)

Yasmin Evans was born in Shepherd’s Bush, London, on 19 May 1963 to a Jamaican father (who worked as a station manager at Leicester Square station on London’s underground) and an English mother.

Following a spell as a catwalk model in Germany, she scored a number of club hits after recording with the group The Biz in 1983. They released a single called Fallin’ which flopped.

Her first commercial success came in early 1988 when she sang on Coldcut’s Doctorin’ the House prompting her to launch a solo career.

She recorded a high-energy cover of the Otis Clay soul track The Only Way Is Up which became the year’s biggest-selling single in the UK in 1988 and sold over 1.8 million copies worldwide.

The subsequent release, Stand Up For Your Love Rights, was a Yazz original.

After the initial success of her first album, Wanted, a second album – One on One – came out in 1993 and virtually disappeared without trace.

Yazz returned in 1997 with the album Natural Life, produced by Ali Campbell of UB40 and featuring the single Never Can Say Goodbye, a former big hit for Gloria Gaynor and – to a lesser extent – for The Communards.

Her 2008 album Running Back to You, charted her spiritual journey and her newfound Christian faith. Yazz is now based in Spain and an active member of the Calahonda Baptist Church.

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