Nicki French

    One of the UK's finest dance divas, Nicki French rose to fame when her cover of Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' became a global hit becoming a Top 5 hit in countries all over the globe, peaking at #2 in America of all places! Nicki has gone one to represent our country in the Eurovision Song Contest and release two albums, 1995's 'Secrets' and 1998's 'French Revolution'.

Turn around!

In 1994 released a dance version of 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' a song made famous by British rock queen Bonnie Tyler a decade before. Not a big hit the first time around, the rights were sold to Love This Records, run by 80's hit makers Stock & Aitken, formerly of SAW. It wasn't long before they polished the track and it became a massive hit. Eventually it sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

A full album soon followed entitled Secrets. A classy pop affair surprisingly free from the hinrg dance beats and hand claps that had made it's producers household names. Three further singles were released, a light dance cover of The Carpenters hit For All We Know, which failed to set the charts alight, despite it being brilliantly done. The original ballad 'Did You Ever Really Love Me' suffered a similar fate, and didn't even get a video. To me it's one of Nicki's finest singles. An excellent remix of Is There Anybody Out There, another original was the final single and sank without trace. International singles included covers of Stop In The Name Of Love (The Supremes) and Heaven Is A Place On Earth (Belinda Carlisle), obviously to capitalise of the success of Total Eclipse, however they were not on the UK or US version on the album. A further single was promoed, Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, but it wasn't commercially released.

French Revolution!

Nicki struck out on her own after leaving Love This Records and made an album on her own terms. The distinctly European flavoured CD includes a few covers such as a surprisingly soulful take on Chaka Khan's brilliant Through The Fire. But its mostly originals with the single Te Amo being a perfect example of what to expect. The UK single included trendy mixes by the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels but you can't beat the Euro Pop of the original in my opinion! Sadly it's a bit hard to come buy these days and only received a release in a few countries.

"Oh DJ please don't play that song again"

The UK public in its wisdom voted in their millions for Nicki to represent us at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. Her track 'Don't Play That Song Again' only came 16th, but it was #1 in the hearts of millions of Brits on Eurovision night. Nicki's popularity grew enormously and she is still very much in demand around Eurovision time every year and does countless TV interviews on the subject. The single again didn't even have a video, but managed to make it to the UK Top 40 despite virtually no airplay. I was on work experience at a popular newsagents at the time and they were virtually giving away copies, much to my horror!

Calling out her name

Nicki returned with a full on dance cover of Celine Dion's 'I Surrender' in 2004. It was released by Rumour Records and Nicki had hoped to have a Top 40 hit, maybe she should've added another naught onto that as the single tanked. Another single was put out in 2005, this time with a music video. Calling Out My Name was an original track which in my opinion was't exactly complimented by the unsuitably tacky remixes on the single. The video didn't get a single play and barely registered on even the lowest reaches of the charts. Never one to be deterred Nicki decided to pull her trump card and in June 2006 she released a brand new remix of Total Eclipse of the Heart accompanied by what many critics have called "the worst video of all time". Nicki's 50p budget was well spent if you ask me!

She's currently still playing every gay club she can find in the phone book and there is talk of some more music, perhaps not the double album she'd wanted to make I'll bet! You can see Nicki in Menopause the Musical currently running in London's West End, she's an understudy to one of the main stars.

- Jamie 

Total Eclipse Of The Heart 2006