Trinidadian-born British singer-songwriter Billy Ocean was born 76 years ago as Leslie Sebastian Charles in Fyzabad, Trinidad & Tobago, is married and has 3 children.
At the age of 10, Billy moved to England together with his family. In later years, he worked as a tailor and concurrently sang in a nightclub in London. When he was 19 years old, Ocean joined a band named ‘Shades of Midnight’ and was their lead vocalist. A few months later, he left the band and formed ‘Dry Ice’ with the keyboard player.
In 1976, Billy embarked on a solo career and released his first studio album bearing his name. Until 1982, he released 3 more albums, however, none of them charted. He did, however, have an international hit single in 1976 which was ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’. It reached no 2 on the UK charts and no 22 on the US chart.
Ocean made a career breakthrough in late 1984 with the issuance of his 5th album ‘Suddenly’ which featured the international number one hit single ‘Caribbean Queen’. The album was certified gold and also double platinum. For the rest of the 80s, Billy continued with his successful career and enjoyed more hit tracks like ‘Loverboy’, ‘When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going’, ‘There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)’ and ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’.
From the beginning of the 90s to date, Ocean had 4 more studio albums, 13 compilation albums and 13 singles. Over the years, other artists have recorded cover versions of Billy’s written tracks. These include La Toya Jackson, Bad Boys Blue, Boyzone and Marti Pellow, amongst others.
During his +55-year career, Billy received 7 ASCAP Pop Music, 2 Billboard Music, a Grammy and an Ivor Novello Awards. He was also presented with a University honorary doctorate in 2002 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. In addition, in 2020, he was appointed as Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music.
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