Janet Kay is an English singer and actor from London, known for lovers rock and reggae. Born Janet Kay Bogle in 1958 to Jamaican parents Clifton and Monica Bogle, she is the first of six children and a descendant of Jamaican National Hero Deacon Paul Bogle.

Music career

Kay begins recording after being heard singing at a band rehearsal in 1977, while she studies at secretarial college. Tony Gad, a member of the band, introduces her to Alton Ellis, who produces her cover of Minnie Riperton’s Loving You. The song becomes a reggae hit and spends many weeks at number one in the reggae charts. She follows it in 1978 with versions of I Do Love You and That’s What Friends Are For, which also reach the top of the reggae charts.

In 1979, Kay makes history with Silly Games, produced by Dennis Bovell, becoming the first British-born Black female artist to have a reggae song at the top of the UK charts. The song also becomes a hit across Europe and is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Her first album, Capricorn Woman, contains mostly self-written songs and becomes a long-running best seller. In the same year she receives Black Echoes Music Newspaper awards for Best 7" Single, Best 12" Single and Best Female Vocalist.

Kay’s later recordings include the soulful Eternally Grateful and a collaboration with Jackie Mittoo on You Bring The Sun Out, a version of the Randy Crawford song. In 1989 she works with Lloyd Charmers on the cover album Sweet Surrender. In 1990 she collaborates with Beats International on Burundi Blues, and later features on Lindy Layton’s version of Silly Games.

International releases and collaborations

In 1991, Sweet Surrender is retitled Lovin' You, Best of Janet Kay and released in Japan, including a newly recorded version of Lovin' You. That recording helps establish her profile in Japan, where she signs to Sony Music. Her Sony releases include Loving You (The Best of Janet Kay), Love You Always, For the Love of You, In Paradise, Making History, Through The Years and Lovin' You … More. She also records with producers and musicians including Drummie Zeb, Tony Gad, Junior Giscombe, Jeremy Meehan, Shinichi Osawa, Kodama & Gota, Omar, and Sly and Robbie.

Her albums sell strongly in Japan, with sales exceeding one million copies there, and Love You Always sells more than 400,000 copies in its first year. She records La Dolce Vita in Japan with the composer Taro Iwashiro and visits Japan regularly from 1990, performing at Blue Note clubs in cities including Fukuoka, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya and Tokyo.

Acting and theatre

Kay’s acting career begins in 1980 after a chance meeting with Victor Romero Evans leads to an audition with the Black Theatre Co-operative. Her first stage role is in Faroukh Dhondy’s Mama Dragon, which tours England and Europe. Her theatre credits include Shooting Stars At Day, Redemption Song, Sink or Swim, Tewodos, Say Hallelujah, Don’t Blame The Post Man, With a Bullet, On a Level and Another Level.

She appears in the Black Theatre Co-operative television sitcom No Problem in 1981, described as the first Black TV show created by a Black theatre company. Her other television credits include Top of the Pops, Party at the Palace, Birds of a Feather, Verdict, Razamtaz, Runaround, Afternoon Plus, Hale and Pace, Snakes and Ladders, Blacka and Bella Show, In Between the Lines, Casualty and A Touch of Frost. Her film credits include Burning an Illusion and Time and Judgement.

Later work and recognition

In the early 1990s, Kay helps form the female theatre company Bibi Crew with Judith Jacob, Suzanne Packer, Suzette Llewellyn, Beverley Michaels, Josephine Melville and Joanne Campbell. The company writes, produces and directs its own shows. She later returns to theatre as the Fairy Godmother in Hackney Empire’s pantomime Cinderella. She also continues to perform in Lover’s Rock Unplugged shows with Victor Romero Evans and Carroll Thompson.

Outside performance, Kay works as a machine knitter, designer and lacemaker, and her work appears in craft editorial publications. She also completes a film editors course and co-edits the short film Evergreen Man, which receives a nomination from the BFM. She is named among Britain’s Top 100 Black Britons by the Evening Standard and receives an award for Outstanding Contribution to Black Music from Darker Than Blue in association with Barclays.