A heartfelt tribute to the great singer (22 February 1964 – 28 October 2015).
Diane Charlemagne has left us after a brave battle against cancer, a terrible loss. She began her career in 1984 when she joined 52nd Street, one of my all time favourite bands, just in time for their last electro funk single on Factory, Can't Afford, co-produced by Steve Morris from New Order. After leaving Factory and signing to Virgin, the band moved to a much smoother and successful sound produced by Nick Martinelli.
Diane Charlemagne and Tony Bowry, after the split of 52nd Street, founded Cool Down Zone which continued on the path of a quality smooth soul music, but this band did split as well, Diane joined the very successful Euro-techno band Urban Cookie Collective and began (also with pseudonyms like D'Empress) her long career of collaborations with acts such like the techno-rock crossover of Eskimos & Egypt or Nomad Soul which featured Howie B.
After recording vocals with the trip hop band 4 Hero, Diane guested in the mid-90s on extremely successful Goldie releases like Inner City Life. Since that soulful and touching performance, she has always been in high demand for guest vocals (and songwriting as well) by artists in the fields of house, techno, drum'n'bass and dubstep. Tommy Vee and Joey Negro are just the most famous of them.
Goldie wanted her back for his return in 1998 and Moby brought her on tour.
In 2012 Diane recorded We Got Pride with MG for the Norwich Gay Pride.
In 2013 she contributed guest vocals for the charity single of Street Child, I Am Somebody.
Keeping a positive approach to everyday life and facing the illness with courage, she remained as prolific as ever, recording wonderful vocals almost until the very end. Both last year and in 2015 she appeared on great songs by drum'n'bass artist Taxman and guested, amongst the others, on beautiful songs by The Memory Notes and Opolopo.
This playlist doesn't want to be a complete collection, but just a tribute in chronological order to the best and most important music of her fantastic career.
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