Back in 1988, when Neneh Cherry paired a gold jacket with a gold bra and a pregnant belly on Top of the Pops, the world tilted a little on its axis. But Buffalo Stance – her solo hit single from the genre-busting album Raw Like Sushi – was neither the beginning nor the end of Cherry’s illustrious and vanguard-chasing artistic career.
Born in Sweden, the daughter of textile artist Monika “Moki” Karlsson and Sierra Leonean musician Ahmadu Jah, she grew up thoroughly bohemian; US jazz musician Don Cherry was both stepparent and father figure. The family divided their time between rural Sweden and bustling, down-at-heel 1970s New York, where she had a ringside seat while Cherry Sr combined free jazz with world music. Talking Heads were her neighbours.
At the tender age of 15, Neneh Cherry moved to London and fell in with the Slits, living for a time in a squat with their singer Ari Up. Cherry was in and out of bands – most notably post-punk outliers Rip Rig + Panic, alongside the celebrity TV chef Andi Oliver – before falling in with producer Cameron McVey, the collaborator who would become her life partner. Raw Like Sushi also featured input from members of the future Massive Attack; Cherry returned the favour by bankrolling and working on their 1991 debut, Blue Lines. “We recorded a lot at her house, in her baby’s room,” remembers Grant “Daddy G” Marshall. That baby, also the bump on TOTP, was Tyson, sometimes known as Lolita Moon; Cherry’s younger daughter, Mabel, is also a pop star in her own right.
Multicultural, multiracial and a Londoner with global reach, Cherry has collaborated with everyone, from The The and Youssou N’Dour to Four Tet, who produced her 2018 LP, Broken Politics. Cherry is now 60 and her memoir, A Thousand Threads, due to be published in October, will look back at her extraordinary four-decade tenure. To mark the occasion, she will be answering questions from readers and famous fans as part of a New Review interview in the Observer. Now is your chance to get fresh – metaphorically speaking – with Cherry. What do she and her friend Zadie Smith talk about? How did it feel to have Anohni and Robyn revisiting her work on her covers album The Versions? Did she really melt down one of her 1990 Brit awards and turn it into jewellery? Post your question below by midnight Monday 19 August.
Kitty Empire
