Music

She was born in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1984. She's the adopted daughter of jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, whom she has always considered to be her real father.

In her family, as essential as water and bread, music and the arts in general were at the centre of daily concerns. Without blinkers or straitjackets...

Half-sister to Eagle-Eye Cherry, Neneh had already explored many musical paths up until she also found success with ‘Save Tonight’, from her first album in 1998. Her daughter, Mabel McVey, also embarked on a mysucal career.

Dropping out of school at an early age, Neneh obtained her parents' (somewhat forced) blessing and, in the early 80s, flew to London without a penny in her pocket. She started off with the dub-influenced New Age Steppes and then the wacky (and feminist) post-punk collective Rip, Rig + Panic. Then, in 1986, Papa Cherry took her under his protective wing for his ‘Home Boy / Sister Out’ tour.

Two years later, ready to stand on her own two feet, she recorded ‘Raw Like Sushi’, an album that blended hip hop and trip hop, and went viral with tracks such as ‘Manchild’ and ‘Buffalo Stance’. That's when Neneh Cherry's career launched, and her duet with Youssou'n Dour on ‘Seven Seconds’ in 1994 stil stands out today.

Stricken by Lyme disease, the singer was subsequently forced to curtail her activities, but she continued to work with a wide range of artists, including Michael Stipe (R.E.M) and Gang Starr. She also put the finishing touches to a few other little gems of her own, such as ‘Woman’, before returning to short-lived projects with her daughter or in tribute to her father-in-law Don Cherry.

Just before the covid pandemic, she returned with the highly committed ‘Broken Politics’ and a series of concerts, before once again devoting her energy to musical encounters with Chaka Khan and Sia, for example, or overseeing (almost) endless remixes and other tinkering with her own repertoire.

And so, Neneh Cherry will never give up taking the sideways to reach our hearts and move us...

(MH with AK - © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Neneh Cherry with her father-in-law Don on stage at Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Brussels (Belgium) on 22 April 1986.