Anita Kelsey

Biography

Whether as a backing vocalist with the Spice Girls, Boy George, Sean Ryder or Razorlight, featured vocalist on TV productions & feature films, lead vocalist fronting her own band or as the voice/wordsmith on a rapidly growing collection of successful dance projects, Anita Kelsey never ceases to surprise with her versatility & amaze with her inspired performances. Anita burst onto the dance scene with style in 1997 winning the UK's coveted MOBO award for her first album with Sunship, an album on...

Whether as a backing vocalist with the Spice Girls, Boy George, Sean Ryder or Razorlight, featured vocalist on TV productions & feature films, lead vocalist fronting her own band or as the voice/wordsmith on a rapidly growing collection of successful dance projects, Anita Kelsey never ceases to surprise with her versatility & amaze with her inspired performances.

Anita burst onto the dance scene with style in 1997 winning the UK's coveted MOBO award for her first album with Sunship, an album on which her vocals were described by 'The Face' magazine as 'soulful and rich'. The second album yielded the massive club hit 'Try Me Out' (another Kelsey vocal & co-write) which was an Agia Napa anthem of 2001 and marked Sunship out as one of the UK's seminal garage acts culminating in their mix of 'You Bring Me Flowers' reaching number 1 in the UK national charts.

She collaborated on three of Dorado label-mate Matt Cooper's Outside albums at around the same time, which were much more leftfield albums and offer a much more intimate, deep and ethereal side of her writing and vocal work.

Further commercial success came a year later for Anita's collaboration on D*Note's Shed My Skin (Pete Tong's record of the week) which steamed into the top ten in both the UK & US dance charts and topped the Belgian dance charts at number 1. The track entered the Belgian national charts, staying for 22 weeks, peaking at number 4 and has so far been featured on more than 40 compilations worldwide.

Other collaborations followed, including the track 'Clouds' with Grammy nominees The Latin Project, Signum with 'Come Around Again', Cor Fijneman with 'Healing' and 'Colourless World', Bluefish (aka Evolution) with 'Been Too Long', Memento's 'New Life' and various other releases worldwide. Her two tracks on last year's Markus Schulz album 'First Time' & 'Travelling Light' are some of the best work to date from either artist and have been received warmly by fans & jocks alike.

Anita is also approached on a regular basis by labels and producers to write for other artists such as Virgin signing 'Lost Witness' whose single 'Home' was co-written by Anita and performed brilliantly by Tiff Lacey.

As well as being a full-time writer (signed to BMG Music Publishing) Anita is also featured on many TV productions, commercials and feature films. Major sci-fi cult blockbuster Dark City sees American actress Jennifer Connelly miming to Anita's voice in 2 prominent scenes as well as the Kelsey rendition of 'Sway' being featured on the end credits. Other major films featuring Anita include Bring Me The Head Of Mavis Davis, Long Time Dead and Merlin.

Her own project ToyShop with partner Gordon Hulbert gained recognition in 2004 with their single 'Million Miles' being voted Top Tune in IDJ Magazine/Sure Player in DJ Magazine and was supported by prominent DJ's such as Pete Tong, Pete Heller, Timo Maas, Pete Gooding and others. The track is included on Defected's Café Mambo 10th Anniversary compilation. Anita's recent track 'Every Kiss' on Extrema Records also featured a ToyShop mix, and an eclectic mixture of original material is currently being crafted lovingly by the duo into a ToyShop album.

Anita has just released 'Satisfy' with Airwave under the guise of 'Velvet Girl', as well as new material with Hardsoul, René Amesz and TDR, 'Never Ever', with an exciting, varied and surprising (not forgetting X-rated in some cases!) take on her songwriting. Be sure also to listen out for soulful house track 'Good Lovin' by Ashman and Perky with vocals by Anita on Armada's Fame imprint. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.