Yazz - WikiHQ

Yazz (born Yasmin Evans; 19 May 1960) is a British pop singer, who remains perhaps best known for her 1988 UK number one single "The Only Way Is Up". Some of her records are credited to Yazz and the Plastic Population.

Career

Yazz was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, to a Jamaican father and a British mother. She attended Holland Park School, where she excelled at sports, including the 400 metres. She was also a member of the England under-19 volleyball team. Following a spell as a catwalk model, she scored a number of club hits after recording with the group the Biz in 1983. Her first commercial success came in early 1988, when she sang on Coldcut's "Doctorin' the House". She soon launched a solo career on Big Life records, a label set up by her husband Jazz Summers, releasing her debut solo single, "The Only Way Is Up", in the summer of 1988. It went on to spend five weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart, for sales exceeding 600,000.

She had a fourth UK top-10 single in 1989 with "Fine Time", was scheduled for release in 1990 following the single "Treat Me Good" (peaking at number 20 in the UK). following the release of the title track, but was also cancelled. She returned to the Top 40 in 1993, performing with Aswad on the hit "How Long".

Her 2008 album Running Back to You, distributed in the UK by ICC Records, charted her spiritual journey and her new-found Christian faith. Yazz is now based in Spain, and is an active member of the Calahonda Baptist Church. She returned to Britain occasionally to promote this album, performing songs from it live interspersed with several anecdotes pertaining to her faith.

In August 2009, Yazz performed with a full band on stage for the first time in several years at a church in Southampton. In October 2010, she performed again with a band at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, home of the Huddersfield Christian Fellowship.

A three-CD remastered deluxe edition of the Wanted album, containing Yazz's 1990 single "Treat Me Good", B-sides and remixes, was released on Cherry Red Records on 25 November 2016.

Discography

Albums

{|class="wikitable"

! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Year

! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album

! scope="col" colspan="7"| Peak chart positions

!width="35"|UK

!width="35"|AUS

! style="width:35px;"| NED

! style="width:35px;"| NZ

! style="width:35px;"| SWE

|1988

|Wanted

| style="text-align:center;"|3

| style="text-align:center;"|43

| style="text-align:center;"|35

| style="text-align:center;"|57

| style="text-align:center;"|27

| style="text-align:center;"|8

| style="text-align:center;"|19

|1989

|The Wanted Remixes

| style="text-align:center;"|53