Belinda Carlisle is an American pop and rock singer from Los Angeles, born in 1958. She is best known as the lead vocalist and one of the founding members of the Go-Go’s, the all-female new wave band that becomes one of the most successful American groups of the early 1980s.

Early career and the Go-Go’s

Carlisle first works in music briefly as a drummer for the punk band the Germs under the name Dottie Danger, although illness prevents her from performing live with the group. She then forms the Go-Go’s with friend Jane Wiedlin. The line-up also includes Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine and Gina Schock. The band records its own material and plays its own instruments, and becomes the first all-female band in rock history to reach number one with an album.

The Go-Go’s debut album, Beauty and the Beat, becomes a multi-platinum success and includes the hits “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed”. The band later releases two more studio albums, including Vacation, which goes gold on the strength of its title track, and Talk Show, from which “Head Over Heels” reaches number 11.

Solo career

After the Go-Go’s split in 1985, Carlisle begins a solo career while continuing to work with former bandmate Charlotte Caffey. Her first solo album, Belinda, appears in 1986 on I.R.S. Records. It includes “Mad About You”, which reaches number 3, along with “I Feel the Magic” and a version of “Band of Gold”. Around this period she also records songs for film soundtracks, including “In My Wildest Dreams” for Mannequin and “Dancing in the City” for Burglar.

Her second album, Heaven on Earth, is released in 1987 through MCA in the United States and Virgin in the United Kingdom. It shifts towards polished 1980s pop and power pop and is nominated for a Grammy Award. The album reaches the Top Five in the UK and Australia. Its lead single, “Heaven Is a Place on Earth”, reaches number one in the US, UK and Australia, and its dance mix also tops the dance chart. “I Get Weak”, written by Diane Warren, reaches number 2 in the US, and “Circle in the Sand” becomes another Top Ten hit in several countries. The album also includes “World Without You” and a cover of Cream’s “I Feel Free”. Rick Nowels produces the record, with a video for the title track directed by Diane Keaton.

Runaway Horses follows in 1989 and again reaches the Top Five in the UK and Australia, becoming double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK. “Leave a Light On” reaches number 11 in the US and the Top Five in the UK and Australia, and features a slide guitar solo by George Harrison. Other singles from the album include “Summer Rain”, “La Luna” and “(We Want) the Same Thing”. Harrison also contributes to “Deep Deep Ocean”.

In 1991 Carlisle releases Live Your Life Be Free, which returns partly to 1960s-influenced pop. The title track and “Do You Feel Like I Feel?” are among its singles, and “Half the World” and “Little Black Book” also chart outside the US. The album performs better in Europe than in the United States.

Her 1992 compilation The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reaches number one in both the UK and Australia and goes double platinum in both territories. It includes the major hits from her previous albums as well as the I.R.S. singles from Belinda. Later in 1992 she gives birth to her son, James Duke Mason.

Real, released in 1993 on Virgin, is a more stripped-back album on which Carlisle co-produces and co-writes much of the material with Charlotte Caffey. It reaches number 9 in the UK. Its singles include “It’s Too Real (Big Scary Animal)” and “Lay Down Your Arms”. She also records “One by One” for the soundtrack of The Harvest.

After the Northridge earthquake in 1994, Carlisle and her family move to Europe. The Go-Go’s reunite later that year for the Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s compilation and its promotional tour, before breaking up again. Carlisle has since lived in France and England.

In 1996 she releases A Woman and a Man on Chrysalis in the UK and Australia, and later on Ark 21 in the United States. The album marks a return to successful chart activity in Europe, reaching number 12 in the UK and going gold. Its singles include “In Too Deep”, “Always Breaking My Heart”, “Love in the Key of C” and “California”. Neil Finn writes “He Goes On”, and the album also includes “California”, on which Brian Wilson arranges and sings backing vocals. Carlisle also records “I Wouldn’t Be Here (If I Didn’t Love You)” for Two if by Sea and “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” for European distribution of Disney’s Hercules.

In 1999 she releases the double-disc greatest-hits set A Place on Earth in the UK, with three new tracks, including “All God’s Children”. Some of the remixes are by William Orbit.

Her album Voilà appears in 2007 and is her first full-length solo studio album in over ten years. Produced by John Reynolds, it consists of French pop songs and chanson standards, including covers associated with Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf. Brian Eno plays keyboards on the album. Carlisle records it after moving to France and choosing to make a collection of songs she has long admired rather than another straight pop record.

Collaborations and later activity

Across her solo career, Carlisle works with a wide range of musicians. Michelle Phillips, Chyna Phillips and Carnie Wilson provide backing vocals on Heaven on Earth. Thomas Dolby plays keyboards on some tracks from that album, and Bryan Adams sings backing vocals on “Whatever It Takes” from Runaway Horses. She also performs with the Beach Boys, and Freda Payne appears when Carlisle covers “Band of Gold”. Outside her own albums, she sings backing vocals on Then Jerico’s “What Does It Take?” and The Smithereens’ “Blue Period”, and joins Pat DiNizio on “Blue Period” as well.

Carlisle and the Go-Go’s reunite several times, including later touring periods after their late-1990s reconciliation and 2001 reunion. She also appears on television programmes and reality shows, including Hell’s Kitchen, Hit Me Baby One More Time, Celebrity Duets and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. She performs at Manchester Gay Pride in 2007 and at Retro Fest in Scotland the same year.

Personal life

Carlisle marries Morgan Mason in 1986. He is the son of actor James Mason and a former Deputy United States Chief of Protocol. She has a son, James Duke Mason. She also speaks about Buddhism as an important part of her life and says she embraces Buddhist practice after reading widely, including the Dalai Lama.