Teena Marie - Wonderful Woman No. 35

Teena Marie - 1956-2010
American Singer, Songwriter, Musician and Producer

Music is the thing that gets me through a day, if that sounds a little pretentious, it is not intended to. It is just how I feel. The majority of my friends are people I have met due to my musical tastes, my social life is centred around music, I present a specialist soul music show on local radio, I cannot and do not want to imagine my life without music.

One thing I have had to reign myself in from doing when creating this album was just posting endless photos of the female vocalists and musicians I love... I have included a good number of them though and I am thankful that some others have been suggested too. Teena Marie was always going to be featured, her music has meant so much to me, for so long and continues to be a part of the soundtrack to my life.

In 1976, Teena Marie, or Lady T as she was later nicknamed, auditioned for a role in a film being made by Motown Records. Motown shelved the movie but the label boss, Berry Gordy saw the talent in Teena Marie and signed her to the label.

She was not only a talented singer, she wrote her own material (uncommon at Motown at the time, especially with female artists) and she played piano, rhythm and bass guitar and the congos. Her third album on Motown, Irons in the Fire (which she later cited as her favourite album), was almost entirely self-produced and arranged. She went on the have production control over almost every song released since then.

Whilst at Motown, she became known as The Ivory Queen of Soul, most people being surprised by the voice coming from a girl with white skin. She appeared on legendary American TV music show Soul Train more than any other white artist.

When I first auditioned her she was so awesome she blew me away... She had so much soul - the only thing white about her was her skin. She was a powerhouse performer, writer, producer and arranger. Anyone who ever saw her perform... will never forget how exciting music can be.
Berry Gordy

Teena left Motown in 1982. She continued to have a celebrated career and to be adored by fans the world over. She had a total of thirteen album releases and collaborated with some of the finest artists in the history of music, including Rick James, Faith Evans and Smokey Robinson. She received great respect and recognition from the industry throughout her career and won four Grammy Awards. Her music has been sampled by an uncountable number of artists, she was a big fan of hip-hop and enjoyed hearing her own sounds used by artists such as The Fugees. Even after her death, she continues to be sampled and the subject of remix, only a few months ago I was given a fabulous John Morales reworking of Behind the Groove, which has had a few airings on my radio show and the Bah Samba version of Portuguese Lover is a record that never leaves my bag.

Go to any soul weekender and you will still see people arms in the air singing along to her records in absolute glee. Wonderful artists like Teena Marie never really die, they go on forever in the music they left behind. For her music, for her voice, Teena Marie will continue to leave me in awe for many years to come.

I just think it's a blessing that I was able to have the gift of words and to be able to put them into music. I was given a great gift all the way around. I didn't ever have to really go out and look for songs, you know.
Teena Marie

Vivienne Westwood - Wonderful Woman No. 34

Vivienne Westwood - Born 1941
British Fashion Designer and Business Woman

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara

To be truthful, modern fashion is not my area of expertise. I have not bought women's magazines for some years, I do not follow fashion blogs and during my lifetime, I have owned little more than a handful of designer clothes. I buy my clothes in charity shops and Primark, I wear things over and over, I recycle old outfits and have an unbelievable collection of accessories to wear with my plain old clothes. There are probably hundreds of designers you could name of whom I would never have heard but Vivienne Westwood, it would be almost impossible not to be aware of her... in fact, throughout my life, she has been a household name.

Vivenne was born in Derbyshire with humble beginnings. At the age of seventeen, with her family she moved to London. For one term only, she studied fashion and silver-smithing at the University of Westminster's Harrow School of Art, she left believing a working class girl could not make a career from art. She worked in a factory for a while and then studied to be a primary school teacher. Whilst working as a teacher, she made her own jewellery, which she sold at the weekends on a stall in London's Portobella Road.

In 1971, Vivienne was in the midst of breaking up with her first husband. In a squat she met an art student by the name of Malcolm McLaren, that was the start of a relationship that would change her life and the world of fashion forever. Vivienne left her job as a teacher, as the pair opened a boutique in London. For the boutique, she created clothes inspired by bikers, prostitutes and the seedy underbelly of London society. During this time, Malcolm became manager of the punk group The Sex Pistols. The group wore Vivienne's designs and in doing so the iconic image of punk in the 1970s was created, using bondage and fetish styles, spikes and safety-pins, combined with Scottish tartan and even designs inspired by 16th and 17th century historical portraits, Vivienne becoming a central part of the cultural movement taking place in the United Kingdom.

The idea of mad, mad, mad torturous clothing was kind of fun... and I support them [Vivienne and Malcolm Mclaren] for that, for going that way.
John Lydon

Vivienne's first catwalk show came in 1981, with the theme Pirates. All subsequent collections have had their own theme. Vivienne spearheaded the concept of fashion as art, her catwalk shows as much a theatrical experience as a platform for her wares. Reflective of her contribution of art through fashion, The Victoria and Albert museum exhibited a retrospective of her work in 2004/2005, since then a number of other world galleries have displayed her work.

Vivienne Westwood has become a celebrated brand, stores around the United Kingdom and also in Milan, Paris and L.A. Her designs are worn by the great and the good. She has been British designer of the year on three occasions and continues to be recognised as one of the most talented creatives of our time.

Intelligence is composed mostly of imagination, insight, things that have nothing to do with reason.
Vivienne Westwood

Aung San Suu Kyi - Wonderful Woman No. 33

Aung San Suu Kyi - Born 1945
Burmese Political Activist

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara

She should be president of the universe...let alone just her own country.
Owain, A Wonderful Man

Sometimes I feel the magnitude of just how wonderful many of the women in this album are, may be too great for me to be able to adequately write about in this blog. Aung San Suu Kyi is one of those women, a woman who symbolises peace, democracy and all that should be in the world.

Suu Kyi's parents were both prominent political figures in her native Burma, her father founded the Modern Burmese Army and it was he who negotiated independence from Britain in 1947. In the same year, he was assassinated. Suu Kyi's mother later became the Burmese ambassador to India and Nepal. Suu Kyi travelled well in her early life and became a graduate of Oxford University, having studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She later earned a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

In 1988, Suu Kyi returned to her native Burma with her husband Dr Michael Aris, initially to visit and tend to her critically ill mother. Her return to the country coincided with major political strain in the country, students, workers and Buddhist monks protesting for democratic reform from the military leaders. Suu Kyi felt compelled to join the campaign and before long was leading the revolt, travelling far and wide organising rallies and calling for peaceful demonstrations to demand democratic elections and political reform. Such demonstrations were militantly combated by the country's army leaders, who had by then seized power from the dictator General Ne Win.

In 1990, a general election was called by the military junta. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy won the election with 59% of votes, this would have given the party 80% of parliamentary seats and would have seen Suu Kyi become Prime Minister of Burma. Would have... the leaders of the military did not allow this, they nulified the election, refused to hand over power and placed Suu Kyi under house arrest. She remained in confinement for much of the next twenty years, her husband left the country and she was never able to see him again. Despite international pressure, Burma remains to this day under strict martial law, elections were held in 2010 but Suu Kyi refused to take part as she believed they would be unfair, a fear supported by the international community, described by Barrack Obama as "neither free nor fair."

Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and has received a number of other awards and honours for her promotion of democracy, people power and free thought. She is heralded by political figures the world over and is an inspiration to so many. She will forever be celebrated as a symbol of peace.

No matter the regime's physical power, in the end they can't stop the people; they can't stop freedom... We shall have our time.
Aung San Suu Kyi

Thank you, once again, to Tara for her wonderful addition. To finish, a video of Herbie Hancock with a beautiful piece inspired by and named after Aung San Suu Kyi.

Juliette Lewis - Wonderful Woman No. 32

Juliette Lewis - Born 1973
American Actress and Singer

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara

I love her as an actress... the roles she has done have been ballsy.
Tara

Tara makes a great point, Juliette Lewis has tackled some intense roles as an actress. From the feisty teenager setting Robert De Niro alight in Cape Fear to her psychopathic murderous in Natural Born Killers, Juliette often portrays a strong female character, unafraid of throwing herself into the dramatisation, allowing the characters to be three dimensional, full of emotion, sometimes dark, sometimes good, sometimes ugly and sometimes beautiful.

Let me tell you, Juliette Lewis is awesome... I really admire Juliette, because she puts it down.
Jada Pinkett Smith

As well as film, Juliette has been seen in many television roles in show such as The Wonder Years and Dharma & Greg. Her acting career has allowed her to work with some of the greatest ever directors, including Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone, she has held her own starring alongside some of Hollywood's most famous leading men such as the above mentioned De Niro and Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Gary Oldman, she has been nominated for an Academy Award and won a number of other accolades and has received critical acclaim for many of her roles.

Sometimes, life immitates art, Juliette played a rock chick in the film Strange Days and in 2009, Juliette embarked on a new career in the music industry. She fronted American rock band Juliette and the Licks and The New Romantiques, before launching herself as a solo artist. She has also appeared on a number of tracks by The Prodigy.

I don't want to be famous as a movie star and have the whole world love me, I want to be a creative actress.
Juliette Lewis

We love a powerful woman and Juliette has created a few of those, making her too another wonderful woman.

Björk - Wonderful Woman No. 31

Björk - Born 1965
Icelandic Singer, Songwriter & Actress

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara

Creative, unique and successful - These are the things I admire about Bjork most but add to that being a fabulous lyricist and singer, she sure seems pretty wonderful to me.

(Bjork is) more intelligent than most opera singers.
John Tavener, Composer

I remember hearing her for the first time in the 1990s. Her singing style divided opinion, my parents hated her, some of my friends did not understand her, I thought she was amazing. Her lyrics are intensely emotive, I love the quality of her voice and the different sounds she is able to create and I have loved many of her songs, most notable Big Time Sensuality, Violently Happy and Possibly Maybe. She is produced by other people I admire, she has collaborated with people I think are great. As an artist she has just got it right as far as I am concerned.

Often those that are individualistic and creative seem not to receive the credit they deserve but that seems to be different where Bjork is concerned. Of course, many have lined up to be critical but the list of people who credit her as an inspiration is enormous. More over, she has released eight hugely successful albums between 1992 and 2011, has won a plethora of awards including Brit Awards and Icelandic Music Awards in her home nation, she has further been nominated for masses of awards including twelve Grammy nominations and a nomination for an Oscar in the category Best Original Song in a Motion Picture.

As well as a wonderful career in music, Bjork has flirted with a career in film. She has starred in four motion pictures and has also made cameos in a number of others, many of her films also featuring her music.

It was Björk's role in Dancer in the Dark that made me want to be an actor.
Gemma Arterton

What many people admire most about Bjork is her individual style, the way she creates an image, making herself a piece of living art. And also that she is damned feisty, remember when she knocked that photographer to the ground? Maybe we are not supposed to like it when people do that sort of thing but it did make me feel quite impressed by her.

Thank you Tara for another excellent suggestion.

You only live twice, one life for yourself and one for your dreams.
Bjork

Often imitated but never equalled, Bjork a definite wonderful woman.