Juliet Roberts was ‘caught in the middle’ of L.O.V.E. in 1993. So why haven’t we heard from her ‘again’?
London born singer Juliet Roberts (b.1962) dropped her ‘t’ when she started singing at the age of 19. She got her break with British reggae band Funk Masters, and performed vocals on their one and only UK chart hit, “It’s Over”, in 1983, which reached No.8. Signed by Bluebird Records that same year, she released her first solo single, “Fool For You”, the following year, although this only made it as far as No.77. Juliet would release a total of five more singles in the mid 80’s, none of which found any success. She moved into television presenting as a host of the then new Channel 4’s Solid Soul programme.
She worked with British group L.A. Mix at in 1989 on their album, “On The Side”, which featured the chart hits “Check This Out” and “Get Loose”, with rapper Jazzi P. Juliet then became a sought after backing singer, working with Cathy Dennis on her debut album, “Move To This“, in 1990 and with the band Breathe on the follow up to their debut album, “Peace Of Mind”, in 1991. In 1992 she performed backing vocals on Dannii Minogue‘s single “Love’s On Every Corner” and from this, she was signed by Cooltempo Records to develop her as a dance/soul diva. She released the funky soul ballad, “Again”, followed by “Free Love” in 1992, which broke the UK top 40 and went to No.25.
In 1993, she released “I Want You”, which to everyone’s surprise, found an audience in America, where it topped the dance chart and made No.44 on the singles chart. The song did not chart in the UK, initially, but Juliet did make it to No.24 with her next single, “Caught In The Middle”, the song which would become her signature tune. A re-release of “Again” coupled with “I Want You” as a double A sider at the beginning of 1994, peaked at No.33, as Juliet released her debut album, “Natural Thing”, soon after. A David Morales remix of “Caught In The Middle” that Summer made its way to the top of the UK dance chart and the US club chart and this we released commercially, reaching a new high of No.14, Juliet’s best sales chart position to date.
Some time now elapsed between her first and second album, although she was not idle, releasing “Never Had A Love Like This Before” with Steven Dante, who had a top twenty hit in 1987 with producer Jellybean, and found herself back in the top twenty of her own accord in 1997 with “So Good” (No.15) and in 1998 with a remix of “Free Love” (UK No.17). She reunited with Morales in 2001 for the single “Needin’ U II”, which topped both the UK and the US dance chart. Her second album, “Beneath The Surface”, finally arrived in 2002, but went unnoticed by anyone. Juliet has remained in demand as a backing singer and also as a songwriter as well as performing to club audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
Juliet performed vocals on the 2007 remix of T-Empo’s 1994 dance hit, “Saturday Night And Sunday Morning” and when she isn’t being a dance/club ‘legend’, she performs and records jazz music! Juliet released a brand new single, “Finally Mine”, in 2018.
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