Claudja Barry

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Singles
	Dancin 'fever
	Down by the water
	(Boogie Woogie) Dancin 'Shoes

Claudja Barry (* 1952 in Jamaica ) is a Canadian disco singer. She became known, among other things, by the hit (Boogie Woogie) Dancin 'Shoes (1979).

Life

Claudja Barry left Jamaica as a young child, moved to Toronto with her parents and grew up there too. In the early 1970s, Barry moved to Berlin to star in the musical Hair . In 1973, her first unsuccessful single Hallelujah, Oh Yeah , was released under the slightly modified name Claudja Barrie . Two years later, Reggae Bump followed, also unsuccessfully . For a short time she also belongs to the early cast of Boney M. to present their debut single Baby Do You Wanna Bump on stage. Barry was only allowed to dance and move his lips to the playback . Since she therefore saw no future at Boney M., she left the group after six months. The producer Jürgen S. Korduletsch then took Barry under his wing as a soloist, and the two became a couple privately. Barry's first album, Sweet Dynamite , was recorded in part with the same studio musicians who worked for Boney M. at the same time and supported their world careers. With the songs Sweet Dynamite (1977) and Dancin 'Fever and Johnny, Johnny Please Come Home (1978), Barry was able to place himself in the top 10 of the American disco charts. She finally achieved her greatest success with (Boogie Woogie) Dancin 'Shoes (1979, USA # 56), a song that received even more attention in her former home, Canada (1979, Canada # 7) and was in the RPM 100 for 23 weeks Chart stayed. Another single, Boogie Tonight , was on the Canadian charts at the same time, peaking at number 42 two months later. After receiving two nominations in 1978, Barry was named "Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year" in 1979 with the Juno Award - the Canadian equivalent of the American Grammys . (Boogie Woogie) Dancin 'Shoes was nominated for “Single of the Year” a year later. In total, she was nominated six times for the Juno by 1981. Despite this recognition, Barry did not make a breakthrough in the mainstream, her successes were mainly limited to disco and dance hit lists.

This was followed by smaller hits such as Down by the Water (1979, 19th place in Austria), You Make Me Feel the Fire (1980), Radio Action (1981) and the duet with Ronnie Jones , The Two of Us (1982). With I Will Follow Him / Work Me Over (1982) Barry was later in the top 5 of the disco charts. After the less successful LP Made in Hong Kong (1981), the singer only released singles until 1987 - including a successful duet with Bobby O , Whisper to a Scream , which was also heard in the 1985 film Nightmare II - Die Rache . The single Down and Counting was Barry's only number 1 in the American dance charts in 1986. The piece was later used on LP I, Claudja . In addition, the singer was photographed erotically in German Playboy in 1983 . Announced as "World Star, Claudja Barry" on the front page, one of the recordings was also used a year later for the cover of the single Trippin 'on the Moon . Two years later she made a brief appearance in the movie Rappin ' alongside Mario van Peebles .

In the 1990s, Barry was in demand as a guest singer, among other things. At the beginning of 1991 Barry placed in the American dance top 10 with the project SIN and the single Good Time , followed by a collaboration with General Base . The Euro-Dance piece Poison reached number 41 in Germany and is her first chart position there, although she has been producing records here since the 1970s. The album Disco 'round the Christmas Tree , however, was barely noticed. Barry gained new attention towards the end of the millennium. Montell Jordan sampled her song Love for the Sake of Love (1976) for his 1999 hit Get It on Tonite . Also Da Brat feat. Tyrese used the strikingly arranged piece for their What 'Chu Like a year later. In 2006 Barry made a surprising comeback: I Will Stand brought the singer back to the dance charts.

In 2013, Barry presented her first documentary, which thematically took her back to her native land: Losing Paradise and Music deals with the dancehall genre and its (negative) influence on Jamaican society.