Julia Fordham

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Julia Fordham
Cover of debut album Julia Fordham
Origin	Portsmouth, England
Years active	1988–present
Genres	Pop
Labels	Circa Records Virgin Records Vanguard Records

Julia Fordham (born August 10, 1962, Portsmouth, England) is a singer-songwriter based in California. Her professional career started in the early 1980s, under the name "Jules Fordham," as a backing singer for the likes of Mari Wilson & the Wilsations and Kim Wilde.

In 1988, she released her first album on Circa Records, Julia Fordham. The album, which contained a pair of UK top 40 singles, introduced her as a singer with considerable vocal range, and her deeply emotional lyrics endeared her to a small, committed audience. Licensed to Virgin Records America, the album was a minor hit and paved the way for the success of 1989's Porcelain. The lead single from this LP, "Manhattan Skyline," was an adult contemporary radio and VH-1 hit.

Ms. Fordham has had limited chart success since that time, but she continued to record throughout the 1990s. Three subsequent albums (1991's Swept, 1994's Falling Forward and 1997's East West) received some critical praise. 1998's The Julia Fordham Collection recaps the best-known songs from these five albums.

Signed in 1999 to a Warners subsidiary, Ms. Fordham recorded an album called Concrete Love, the release of which was delayed when a corporate shuffle caused her label to be closed and her contract terminated. The album, featuring a re-recording of its title track as a duet with India.Arie, emerged on Vanguard Records in 2001. A remix of the single "Wake Up With You" became a hit on Billboard's dance chart and an acoustic club tour played to sold-out shows across America.

She followed up this album with her seventh record, That's Life, which was released on her 42nd birthday in 2004. A live album and DVD, That's Live, was released in January 2005.

Currently without a record contract, Fordham has continued to record, releasing a rewrite of debut single Happy Ever After, in aid of tsunami relief.^[1]^[2] This was backed by two tracks written and recorded with Aadesh Shrivastava. In 2006, she released her "Baby Love EP" - a collection of songs inspired by the birth of her daughter, Marley Rose, which is available from music download sites. Whilst three of these new songs are very much from the genre in which Julia Fordham has made her name, two of them seem to confirm rumours that her next release will be firmly in a jazz direction.