Neneh Cherry

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About Neneh Cherry

In the late ’80s, Neneh Cherry pioneered a fusion of hip-hop, dance, and soul that created a new avenue of pop music. Born Neneh Mariann Karlsson in Stockholm in 1964, Cherry took on the surname of her stepfather, jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. She dropped out of school as a teenager and moved to London, where she met and collaborated with artists in the then-nascent post-punk scene. Her first solo release, a cover of Edwin Starr’s “Stop the War Now,” came out in 1982. Four years later, she appeared on the Morgan McVey B-side “Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch,” which helped provide the skeleton for her 1988 breakthrough single, the brash, hip-hop-infused club smash “Buffalo Stance.” Her 1989 debut album, Raw Like Sushi, also contained the woozy “Manchild,” which blended Cherry’s soulful vocal with a warm rush of synths. In the years since, Cherry has released more albums of varying styles, including 1996’s globally minded Man, 2012’s wild collaboration with the Scandinavian jazz trio The Thing The Cherry Thing, and 2018's downtempo Broken Politics; in 2022 she released The Versions, bringing in collaborators such as Sia and Jamila Woods to reimagine her catalog.

HOMETOWN
Stockholm, Sweden
BORN
March 10, 1964
GENRE
Electronic
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