WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Dee C Lee

Singer Dee C Lee really did see the day when she would score a top five hit. So what happened next…?

Diane Catherine Sealy is her real name. She was born in London in 1961 and made her chart debut as a backing singer for Wham in 1982 on their hits “Wham Rap”, “Young Guns” and “Club Tropicana” before giving way to Pepsi and Shirlie. Under the stage name of ‘Dee C Lee’, the lady next became a vocalist for The Style Council on their debut album “Cafe Bleu” in 1984. She liked them so much she would eventually marry Paul Weller of the group. 1984 saw Dee c release her debut solo single as well, “Selina Wow Wow”, but this only scraped into the top 100. She mixed a couple more solo tracks in between her work with the Style Council and also the collective Masquerade on their 1985 single “Set It Off”, which also included the vocals of a 17 year old budding singer by the name of Dina Carroll!

Dee C Lee wrote her fourth single, “See The Day”, herself, and that was a good move as the song would finally give her a hit single in her own right. And a big hit at that! Released in October 1985, the song saw staggered releases through the globe during 1985 and 1986 and would peak at No.3 in the UK and No.5 in Australia. “See The Day” would ultimately become her signature song and also her biggest hit of all. Twenty years later, Dee C was in the chart again with “See The Day”, though this time it was an all girl group that were providing the vocals. Girls Aloud recorded the song for their third album, “Chemistry”, and released the track as the third single in the run up to Christmas that year. This time “See The Day” would chart at No.9. Back To Dee C Lee. She would release her debut album, “Shrine”, in 1986, from which another three singles were lifted, although only “Come Hell Or Waters High” would do much (UK No.46).

Dee C seemed to put her solo career on hold at this point and following her wedding to Mr. Weller in 1987, sandwiched between their albums “The Cost of Loving” (1987) and “Confessions Of A Pop Group” (1988), she next hooked up with The Blow Monkey‘s lead singer Robert Howard to form the duo Slam Slam, that would culminate in the album, “Free Your Feelings” in 1991. 1993 saw Dee C Lee make a return to the UK top 40 as vocalist on rapper Guru’s single “No Time To Play”. The song would peak at No.25, and to date, that is the last time she herself has achieved a hit single. Dee C Lee would release two further albums in the 1990’s, the most recent being “Smiles” in 1998, although 1998 was hardly a year for smiles as she and Weller would separate and divorce. Apart from her brief return to chart success with the Girls Aloud recording of “See The Day”, Dee C has kept a fairly low profile.

She has popped up in a couple of films in the 00’s while in 2009 she joined up with members of Level 42 for a ‘comeback’ gig in London. Dee C Lee keeps us all up-to-date with her thoughts through her social media accounts and there have been on/off rumours that she has been writing and recording new material, and at the beginning of 2024, it duly arrived with the release of “Walk Away”, her first new material for 25 years! Dee C has performed live on the odd occasion since 2009, but will we ever see the day when she does something really big, just as she did in 1986…?