(New wave) Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow) - Fever - 1986, MP3, 320 kbps

Everyone knows Annabella Lwin from her former kooky punk/new wave band Bow Wow Wow and their hit "I Want Candy". She was the underage girl who posed nude for an album cover and caused controversy and publicity for the band. Born as Myint Myint Aye in Burma, she moved to England at age 3 and was plucked out of obscurity at 13 by svengali Malcolm McLaren to front Bow Wow Wow, who were the "Ants" of Adam & The Ants fame. He renamed her Annabella Lwin and the group released four albums together before she was ousted from the band in 1983. A year later her first solo track, "Passion Play", appeared on the soundtrack of the film Thief Of Hearts. A year after that she released her first solo single on RCA, "Don't Dance With Strangers", for which she hooked up with electro-funk duo The System. This led to her solo album release on RCA, which included contributions from a host of popular dance producers including The System, John Robie, Zeus B. Held and Greg Walsh. The first single, "War Boys" was a minor dance hit, and she followed it up with the album's title track, yet another remake of the Peggy Lee classic. The album wasn't a huge success, and RCA dropped her. Listening to the album now, I appreciate it much more than I did then. It is a pretty solid and fun dance-pop album that incorporates many different genres. She collaborated as a songwriter over the next few years and formed the band The Naked Experience. They were picked up by Sony Soho Square, but broke up before any material could be released. The label did release two solo Annabella singles (as Annabella Lwin) in 1994 , "Car Sex" and "Do What You Do", which were both tribal house and minor dance hits. Unfortunately this didn't lead to a full album release, though she did record songs with the help of Guy Chambers, among others. Annabella reformed Bow Wow Wow with former member Leigh Gorman in 1997 and they toured and signed with indie Cleopatra Records, releasing a live album in 1998. She also appeared on the Cleopatra Madonna tribute album Virgin Voices in 1999 doing a cover of "Like A Virgin". The band again split soon after but reformed in 2003 and toured for a few years together. Since then Annabella has been songwriting, touring and recording material independently, as well as doing featured vocals on tracks by others. She is a practicing Buddhist and that is reflected in her new music, as can be heard in her song "Sacred Ground" on the tsunami relief album Of Hands And Hearts from 2005. Go to her website for updates and samples of her newest music.