Julia Fordham – Julia Fordham (1988)

One of my all-time favourite artists, Julia has an incredible vocal range and one of those voices you recognise straight away; she imbues each word with meaning – and has written a good few cracking tunes too.  This self-titled debut features ‘Happy Ever After’, ‘Where Does The Time Go’ and ‘Woman Of The Eighties’.  She hardly ever bothers the chart compilers but has a solid fan base who, like me, buy everything she releases.  Her songs are mostly slowish ballads that allow her voice to soar and caress the lyrics, a touch jazzy at times and occasionally up-tempo.  She even released an album of songs, mostly from this debut which had been overdubbed by various dance outfits – which was called Mixed, Shaken and Stirred.  Maybe she is a bit ‘Marmite’ – you either love her voice and songs or don’t.  This album was a mild success in the UK reaching Number 20 in the album charts.  Recently she has teamed up with Beverley Craven and Judie Tzuke to release 2 albums as Woman to Woman.