About Lisa, the story so far….

Britain has produced some of the world's best-loved divas over the past four decades - but few, if any, have been as soulful as Lisa Stansfield.

Lisa is not your typical glitzy diva. In fact, the word prima donna doesn't fit the down-to-earth honesty that characterises the girl from Rochdale, Lancashire, North West England, who has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. 

Lisa Jane Stansfield was born at the Crumpshall Hospital in Manchester, England, on 11th April 1966. She is the middle of two sisters, Karen the eldest by three years and Suzanne who is four years younger than Lisa. They grew up in the town of Heywood in Greater Manchester, then by the age of 12, Lisa's parents Keith and Marion moved the family to the nearby town of Rochdale. 

Her early musical tastes and influences came from the Motown era and soul music to the likes of Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and Barry White. Lisa soon realised she wanted to become a singer from a young age and she was already singing at local working men’s clubs in her early teens. 

It didn't take too long before Lisa who was barely 14 years old, got her big break after she entered and won a local talent contest "Search For A Star" which was sponsored by the Manchester Evening News at the Willows Club in Salford. This opportunity led to her first recording contract.

In 1981 at the age of 15, she recorded and released her first single called, "Your Alibis".  Subsequently Lisa got signed to Polydor and between 1982 and 1983 she released a handful of singles. None of them charted. However, around the same time Lisa was invited to co-host a UK based TV music show called Razzamatazz where she appeared as a co-presenter for a couple of series. Although it was a well paid job, Lisa believed that nobody would ever take her seriously as a singer if she continued presenting for the longterm and decided to leave the show to continue her career as a singer.

Along the way she met Augusto Grassi, an Italian costume designer on a holiday in Tunisia. In 1987 they got married at Sacred Hearts Catholic Church in Rochdale and Lisa moved to live with him in Italy on a hilltop town called Zagarolo outside of Rome. However Lisa was really in-love with the idea of Italy rather than her husband and after sixteen weeks, she realised that their marriage was over.

Lisa moved backed to Rochdale and met up with her former school friend Ian Devaney (who was soon to become her fella) and his friend Andy Morris. Several years prior on a chance meeting, Ian and Andy convinced Lisa to write some songs. This led them to form a band together , they called themselves "Blue Zone". They made a demo which was sent around to several record labels. Their chance came when a small independent label called Rockin' Horse signed them (which later got taken over by Arista). Blue Zone's first two singles were unsuccessful, however their third started to make some waves. It was 'Thinking about His Baby' with the b-side 'Big Thing'. Kiss-FM and the club scene picked up on 'Big Thing' and went on to sell over 10,000 copies in one week. Their album which took over a year to complete created a stir without charting. 

Lisa's major breakthrough came in 1989 when Morris and Devaney, both brass players, were recruited for a Coldcut session. Lisa went along just for fun and was asked to provide guest vocals on the group's new single, "People Hold On". The song became an instant dance hit and reached number 11 in the UK charts. On the strength of its success, Lisa was persuaded to try her luck as a solo artiste and the threesome decided to drop the band name and Blue Zone eventually became "Lisa Stansfield".

They were now signed to Arista Records - and things started moving rapidly when the next single release, "This Is The Right Time", became a top 20 hit in the UK.  A few months later came Lisa's most infamous anthem "All Around The World". This was to become her first UK number one hit and still remains the biggest selling single and her most well known track to date.

"All Around the World" opened the doors to Lisa's success overseas and gave her the first taste of success in the US where, in addition to topping the pop charts, it also headed the R&B charts - making her only the second white artiste to score such a distinction. Her first album as a solo artiste, "Affection" was released in November 1989 and went onto sell over 5 million copies worldwide. To cap a spectacular first year off as a solo artiste, Lisa was at number one for the second time on the charity single with Band Aid 2,with Do They Know Its Christmas. 

In February 1990 she won a BRIT award for Best Newcomer, while All Around The World won an Ivor Novello award for Best Contemporary Song. By then, her debut album, Affection, had topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Lisa was also nominated for a Grammy awards in the categories of Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best New Artist.

As they toured around the globe promoting Affection, Lisa continued writing new music together with Ian and Andy. Whilst their second album began to take shape. Lisa was asked to perform at the 2nd Rock In Rio festival in Brazil in January '91. Several more charity based concerts followed that year which included a concert for Kurdish Refugees, an AIDS Benefit show for Red Hot & Dance and UK's Amnesty Int. Big 20 Concert.  

In November 1991, the fans were treated to a new, more sophisticated look and sounding Lisa with her second album "Real Love". With a run of several hit singles, which included Change, Set your Loving Free, All Woman, Time To Make you Mine and A Little More Love it was no surprise that in 1992 to the delight of her global fan base she won her third BRIT award . 

With this followed an invitation to write a song for The Bodyguard soundtrack which resulted in Someday (I'm Coming Back), a top 10 hit in its own right, as well as securing her place on the biggest-selling soundtrack of all time (which has sold over 200 million records).  

Lisa continued to tour in Europe, Asia and the United States.  She also grabbed pole position the UK pop charts in in April 1993 with the charity EP called 'Five Live' in conjunction with George Michael and the iconic British rock group, Queen. The record stemmed from her appearance with Michael at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley in April 1992. It remains a personal highlight of her years in the music business, with over 100,000 people attending with some of the worlds biggest artists.

"So Natural" was the third studio album released in November 1993, recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, also known as the "U2 studio" in Dublin, Ireland. It got to number six in the UK charts. However The album was not commercially released in North America. It also saw the last contribution of Andy Morris who had co-written three songs for this album together with Lisa and Ian.

That same year Lisa and Ian took the decision to move from Rochdale to Ireland for what seemed to be a quieter life and to get away from the celebrity glare. They bought a six-bedroom Victorian house (with its own recording studio) located in the picturesque Dublin suburb of Dalkey on Ireland`s east coast. During this period, they made several appearances on several film soundtracks and compilations.   

It took four years before the release of the fourth studio eponymous album in 1997, "Lisa Stansfield".  It featured covers of Barry White's "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up" and Phyllis Hyman's "You Know How to Love Me." The album was produced by Devaney and Peter Mokran. It performed well on the charts peaking at number two in the United Kingdom as well as in forty other European countries and in the United States.

In the summer of 1998, Lisa and Ian eventually took the plunge and got married at an intimate ceremony which took place in Washington Park Square, New York. 

During the same year, Lisa accepted her first major acting role. She worked together with director Nick Mead making her film debut in a British romantic comedy called "Swing" which was released in May 1999. Together with Ian, they wrote, recorded and produced a compilation of ten songs for the film soundtrack.

Lisa's fifth studio album, "Face Up" was released in 2001 which spurned two singles "Lets Just Call It Love" and "8.3.1".  This album also featured the song writing and vocal talents  of Richard Darbyshire from the 80's band  Living In a Box. 

The following year Lisa accepted another acting role making her West End debut in The Vagina Monolgues.  In 2003 Lisa completed her contractual obligation to Arista/BMG by releasing Biography the re-mastering of The Greatest Hits. The album sold well enough for BMG to re-master her entire album catalogue with a limited edition of the "Complete Collection". 

A desire to break the mould from her previous blend of soul and R&B, Lisa decided to go down the pop route and signed to Trevor Horn's ZTT record label in 2004. He produced "The Moment" subsequently releasing two singles "Treat Me Like a Woman" and "If I Hadn't Got You." However, at the time the album was not regarded commercially successful in the UK as Lisa's previous efforts, in spite of the European tour which followed in 2005 was a complete sellout.

Lisa then switched back into acting and some further rolls followed. In late 2006 she appeared in an UK TV drama series, Goldplated.
 
Lisa returned to some further acting roles and in 2007 appeared in another television series, Agatha Christie's, Marple. She played Mary Durrant in the episode titled Ordeal by Innocence. She also dubbed over one of the characters voices (Millie, an elf) for the English version of the Finnish animated film "Quest for a Heart" and also recorded the title song by the same name.

Lisa's friend & film director John Maybury offered her a role as Ruth Williams in another film called  "The Edge of Love" which starred Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys. The film premiered in June 2008 and was received well at the box office.

Having lived in Dalkey (a suburb of Dublin) Ireland since 1993, Lisa and Ian eventually sold their house and moved to London.

In 2008 Lisa and Ian teamed up together with Nick Mead on a documentary about the Roma community. It followed their journey over five days across Europe from London to Aushwitz, following a contemporary gypsy woman's compulsion to visit her roots and discover her historical past. A tragedy where 80% of Romany gypsies were murdered at the hands of the Nazis during World War 2. They additionally spent much time documenting their travels with Britain's travelling community and Lisa wrote about her experiences in the Tribune Magazine in November 2010. They hope to release this project in the near future.

In 2009 Lisa and Ian collaborated once again with Nick Mead who directed a short film and self-shot documentary about London's Soho life called "Dean Street Shuffle". A further documentary film was made about The Colony club in London's Soho. It follows its evolution from a shelter for persecuted gays to a playground for rock stars and artists in Swinging London. Backed by tunes from The Clash, The Colony featured appearances by singer Joe Strummer, critic George Melly, filmmaker John Maybury, and Pop artist Patrick Caufield. 

Lisa received further acting propositions, even one which included an opportunity to star behind the bar in the Rovers Return, in the legendary UK soap Coronation Street. However unable to commit to a three year role, Lisa turned it down.

2012 proved to be an important year for Lisa with a welcome return to the limelight.  The filmmaker and photographer Elaine Constantine gave Stansfield a starring role in her upcoming independent film called "Northern Soul" (release din 2014) about the social phenomenon of the time with its music and dance movement. She teamed up with a renowned cast of UK actors including Steve Coogan and Ricky Tomlinson.

However it was Lisa's absence from the music scene that kept her fans wondering whether or not another album would be in the pipeline. In an a magazine interview published in early 2012, she hinted at the idea of recording a new album. 

After a hiatus of almost a seven year absence from touring, Lisa announced in the autumn of 2012 she was making a comeback with three intimate gigs (two were in London and one in Manchester). She Performed a set of her biggest hits and showcased several new tracks from her forthcoming album. The performances confirmed to the fans and the music world that, "the voice" still had it! So much so, several social media sources were quickly announcing Lisa's welcome return to the music scene.

Following on from the positive feedback, more tour dates were announced in the UK and across Europe in the Spring and Autumn of 2013. Together with her newly formed band they travelled to Indonesia for the Java Jazz Festival and set about recording her much anticipated new album between L.A,  California and at her own recording studio Gracieland in Rochdale Lancashire. 

Whilst in L.A, Lisa and Ian collaborated together with John Robinson, known as the most recorded drummer in history and Grammy Award winning orchestrator Jerry Hey, both integral to the creation of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad who had initially worked together with them on their very first album Big Thing. The final polishing touches were made at their own studio in Rochdale for completion in September 2013.

The wait was finally over and Lisa received a 21-gun salute with her seventh studio album "Seven" comprising of 10 impeccably crafted songs with several exclusive tracks added to the Deluxe edition. 

Produced and written by Lisa and Ian, ‘Seven’ was a welcome return to the soul and R&B that she has been so well known for. “It is a soul record and while it is eclectic there is a thread running through it. It was basically me and Ian doing everything…but we also had a team of amazing musicians in the studio with us.”  The album was released under earMUSIC, the international Pop Rock division of Edel, in Germany at the end of January and under their own label Monkeynatra on the 10th February in the UK. In October 2014 the album had a makeover and it was reissued as an expanded double CD edition with previously unreleased remixes from Cool Million, Snowboy, Opolopo, Andy Lewis and Moto Blanco.

During the sell-out European tour of Seven in 2014, 'Live in Manchester' (which was filmed and recorded at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on 7 September 2014) was released as a 2CD and DVD on 28th August 2015.

Having spent more than 30 years in the music business, Lisa is definitely 'back in business' and the release of Seven signals to be yet another amazing chapter in the continuing Lisa Stansfield story which is most definitely "to be continued"…

© Bev