Who Was the Most Successful Female Pop Singers of the Eighties?
Throughout the 80s, there were several successful female pop singers. Some of these performers were Cyndi Lauper, Lisa Stansfield, Olivia Newton-John, and Belinda Carlisle. Here are some of their most popular songs and their biggest hits.
Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper was born in Brooklyn, NY and went on to become one of the most successful female pop singers in the eighties. She began her career in a rockabilly band, but left to pursue a solo career. Her debut album, She’s So Unusual, became a worldwide success. She is most known for her hit song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Cyndi is also one of the only female artists to place 4 consecutive songs in the top five of Billboard’s Hot 100 magazine.
The success of Lauper’s career began when she signed with CBS/Columbia Records. The song had already been covered by other artists, and she worked with record producer Jim Steinman to record her own version. The result was a huge hit that sold more than six million copies. Cyndi continued to record hits throughout the eighties, including Holding Out for a Hero for the Footloose film soundtrack and Here She Comes for Metropolis.
Lisa Stansfield
Stansfield began her career by winning the singing competition Search for a Star, held in 1980 at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Her first single, “Affection,” topped the UK singles chart for three weeks. She then teamed up with producer Trevor Horn to create the album The Moment, which went gold in Germany. Stansfield also starred in several films and television series.
In 1989, Stansfield co-wrote the Coldcut single “People Hold On.” The single was released in the U.S. and reached number six on the Hot Dance Club Songs charts. Stansfield’s success as a solo artist led Arista Records to sign her to a solo deal. Her debut album, Affection, was released in November 1989 and February 1990 in the U.S. Stansfield has since released eight solo studio albums. Her most popular single, “All Around the World”, reached number three on the U.S. Billboard charts in 1990.
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John was born in 1948 and moved to Melbourne, Australia with her family when she was only six. She began her career in her teenage years, appearing on Australian television shows and singing competitions. She had her first number one single in the U.K. in 1966. She represented the United Kingdom at the only Eurovision Song Contest, coming in fourth place in 1974. She won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance for her single “I Honestly Love You” and went on to become one of the most successful female pop singers of the 1980s.
Newton-John had some early success in the music industry, earning her success with such songs as “Physical” in 1981. This song was one of the biggest hits of the decade and spent ten weeks at the top of the charts. Newton-John eventually decided to stop recording music in order to devote herself to motherhood and overcoming health issues.
Belinda Carlisle
Carlisle’s solo career began in the late 1980s and continued into the 1990s. She made several appearances on television shows, including “Celebrity Duets” with Lea Thompson. One of the albums’ highlights was its cover, which featured Carlisle in little make-up. Carlisle co-produced the album and wrote most of the songs. Carlisle continued to work in the music industry, performing at festivals and promoting her upcoming album Real.
Belinda Carlisle was born in Los Angeles, California. She was the fifth of five children. Her father left her family when she was a young girl. Her mother later remarried an alcoholic, and their relationship was volatile. Despite these difficulties, she began to express an interest in music at a young age and went on to attend Colina Junior High School and Newbury Park High School.
Bananarama
Bananarama were one of the most successful female pop groups of the 1980s. Their first single, Venus, reached the Billboard Top 10 in 1986. However, the group suffered from a series of personnel changes over the years. In 1988, lead singer John Fahey left the band and joined the BRIT Award-winning duo Shakespears Sister. In 1992, Bananarama’s line-up was expanded to include singer Jacquie O’Sullivan.
Bananarama was formed in London in 1979. Fahey and Woodward met as schoolmates in Bristol. During their time studying fashion journalism in London, they were avid fans of punk and post-punk music. They performed impromptu sets and contributed backing vocals for other bands. Bananarama lasted for more than a decade.
Celine Dion
Celine Dion was born in 1968 and has been one of the most successful female pop singers in history. She rose to stardom as a teen star in the French-speaking world, but she was also a successful pop star in English-speaking countries. Her parents had a musical background and started a singing group called “Dion’s Family” when Dion was an infant. Her parents also owned a piano bar, where she performed for customers at age five.
In early 2000, Dion announced that she would take a break from music and focus on her family life. Dion and her husband, Angelil, had been trying to conceive for years. They decided to undergo in vitro fertilization, and in May 2000, she underwent two small operations at a fertility clinic in New York.