Siobhan Maire Fahey (born 10 September 1958) is an Irish singer whose vocal range is a light contralto. She was a founding member of the British girl group Bananarama, who have had ten top-10 hits including the US number one hit single "Venus". She later formed the musical act Shakespears Sister, who had a UK number one hit with the 1992 single "Stay". Fahey joined the other original members of Bananarama for a 2017 UK tour, and, in 2018, a North America and Europe tour.
She is the first Irish-born woman to have written two number one singles on the Irish charts.
Siobhan Maire Fahey was born on 10 September 1958 in County Meath, Ireland. She has two younger sisters, Maire (who played Eileen in the video of the 1982 song "Come On Eileen", a hit for Dexys Midnight Runners) and Niamh, a producer and editor. Her parents, Helen and Joseph Fahey, both came from County Tipperary, Ireland. Fahey lived in Ireland for several years before her father joined the British Army and the family moved to England, then to Germany for several years, and back to England when Siobhan was nine years old. When she was 14, she and her family moved to Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and, two years later, she left home for London and became involved in the punk scene of the late 1970s.
Fahey took a course in fashion journalism at the London College of Fashion, where she met Sara Dallin in 1980. Along with Keren Woodward, they founded Bananarama and recorded their first demo "Aie a Mwana" in 1981. Bananarama then worked with the male vocal trio Fun Boy Three, releasing two top-five singles with them in early 1982 before having their own top-five hit with "Shy Boy" later that year. Fahey, with Dallin and Woodward, co-wrote many of the group's hits, including "Cruel Summer", "Robert De Niro's Waiting...", "I Heard a Rumour", and "Love in the First Degree".
In 1988, frustrated with the direction she felt Bananarama was heading, Fahey left the group and formed Shakespears Sister. Initially, Fahey effectively was Shakespears Sister, though American singer/songwriter Marcella Detroit later became an official member, making the outfit a duo. Their 1992 single "Stay" spent eight weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart and won the 1993 Brit Award for Best British Video. At the 1993 Ivor Novello Awards, Fahey, Detroit, and Dave Stewart received the award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection. Fahey often appeared in the band's music videos and on-stage as a vampish glam figure. After two successful albums, tensions began to rise between Fahey and Detroit and they split up in 1993. That year, Fahey admitted herself into a psychiatric unit with severe depression.
In 1996, Fahey continued as Shakespears Sister by herself and released the single "I Can Drive". Intended as the first single from Shakespears Sister's third album and her first record since her split with Marcella Detroit, the single performed disappointingly (UK number 30), which prompted London Records not to release the album. Following this, Fahey left the label and, after a lengthy battle, she finally obtained the rights to release the album (entitled #3) independently through her own website in 2004. ...
Source: Article "Siobhan Fahey" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
