Omar Lye-Fook

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This biography of a living person does not cite any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. (November 2008)

Omar Lye-Fook (born October 14, 1968 in London), also known as Omar, is an internationally acclaimed British soul singer, songwriter and musician. He grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He learnt his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano and percussion.

Omar also spent two years at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester and the renowned Guildhall School of Music in London. His most well-known song was his debut single "There's Nothing Like This". It was originally a minor #78 chart single in 1990, but reached #14 on re-release in 1991.

After studying at the Identity Drama School, on 11 June 2009, Omar made his acting debut in Ché Walker's musical Been So Long[1]

Contents

[edit] Albums Discography

  • There's Nothing Like This (1990)
  • Music (1992)
  • For Pleasure (1994)
  • This Is Not a Love Song (1997)
  • Best By Far (2001)
  • Sing (If You Want It) (2006)

[edit] Collaborations

Some of the notable musicians Omar has performed with include (but not limited to):

[edit] Trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2008)

Omar is sometimes credited as Omar Hammer. His birth father's surname is Lye-Fook, while his stepfather's surname is Hammer. He and his siblings, two brothers and a sister are all musicians. Samia Lye-Fook (Omar's sister, and youngest of the four) is a BRIT School alumna, who has provided background vocals for some of Omar's recordings.

Following his first two singles, "Mr Postman" and ‘"You and Me" featuring backing vocals from Caron Wheeler, Omar released his first album, also entitled ‘'There’s Nothing Like This.

Released on his father's label, Kongo Records, it entered the UK album charts unaided by promotion or advertising.

With this, Omar earned his name as the founder of nu-classic soul.[citation needed]

Signing to his first major record label, Talkin’ Loud, saw the release of his second album ‘'Music'’ which proved less successful than the first.[citation needed]

A new signing to RCA led to some high profile collaborations, something he hadn’t experimented with before.

Motown’s songwriter Lamont Dozier, keyboard wizard David Frank (From the American Synth-Funk Duo The System (band) & a player on Chaka Khan’s ‘I feel for you’), former Heatwave bass player Derrick Bramble, Marvin Gaye’s arranger Leon Ware and even Stevie Wonder all collaborated with Omar.

Stevie Wonder got in touch after hearing Omar’s second album. As a result, Omar went over to L.A. for six weeks to write with him. “He was working on his new album at the time so I had to fit in with his sessions. It’s a complicated way of working but he’s my idol and I was just glad we could work together.”[citation needed]

In 2003, after one of his songs ("There's Nothing Like This") was used in the intro round on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, presenter Mark Lamarr questioned Omar's supposed instant recognizability, quipping that he would require a Blockbuster card to confirm Omar's identity. Omar's agent, Vie Marshall swiftly emailed the show and a few episodes later, Omar appeared in the show's identity parade round, Blockbuster card in hand. Lamarr was force to concede that Omar is indeed instantly recognizable, and a rather more significant artist than he had earlier given him credit for.[2] Omar became the father of twins in early 2008.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ "Episode 11". Never Mind the Buzzcocks. 17 March 2003. No. 11, season 12.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Lye-Fook"
Languages