Leslie Sebastian Charles MBE (born 21 January 1950), known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-born British singer and songwriter.

After releasing several recordings under other stage names, he achieved breakthrough success with the 1976 single "Love Really Hurts Without You".

After a period of limited chart success, he released the single "Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)" in 1984.

It also charted in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and across Europe under three different titles.

[1] Ocean was born on 21 January 1950 in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago, to Hainsley Charles, a Grenadian musician,[2][3] and his wife Violet.

[4] He moved to Romford, Essex, England, when he was 10 years old, shortly before Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962.

He was discovered by his first manager, John Morphew, who recorded a double A-side single at Pye Studios in London with a full orchestra.

However, the ballad-singing style of Ocean was going out of fashion, and Morphew was unable to get any major label to release it.

In 1969, he joined a local band, the Shades of Midnight, playing in the Shoreditch area of London.

[citation needed] He recorded a David Myers and John Worsley composition, "Nashville Rain",[5][6] his first single, backed with "Sun in the Morning", in 1971 for Spark Records under the name Les Charles, and for two years fronted a studio band called Scorched Earth, with whom he released "On The Run" backed with "Super Woman, Super Lover" in 1974.

[citation needed] In an interview with Myf Warhurst on ABC Radio Melbourne, Ocean stated that the story of his stage name being taken from the local Ocean Estate, Stepney in London's East End,[7] where he was living at the time, was incorrect.

According to the interview, the name was derived from a local football team that was in his home town in Trinidad and Tobago, who called themselves "Oceans 11".

[8] Between 1976 and 1982, Ocean released four studio albums: Billy Ocean (1976), City Limit (1980), Nights (Feel Like Getting Down) (1981) and Inner Feelings (1982)[9] through his record label GTO, none of which scored success on any musical charts, aside from his biggest single up to that point, 1976's "Love Really Hurts Without You", which was a top 40 and a top 10 hit in both the UK (no.

[9] As Sony Music acquired GTO Records in 1978, Ocean was shifted to Jive from Epic, in which he received a second breakthrough in his career in the early 1980s.

Late 1984 saw the release of his fifth studio album Suddenly and its main single, "Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)" becoming successes on the charts.

[9] Suddenly reached gold in the UK, and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Ocean appeared at Live Aid from JFK Stadium in Philadelphia in 1985, singing "Caribbean Queen" and "Loverboy".

In February 1986, Ocean's music video for "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" was banned by the BBC, owing to such non-union members as the American actors Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito, all three of whom were cast members of Romancing the Stone (1984) and The Jewel of the Nile (1985), miming to the backing vocals.

Ocean is now a patron for Tech Music Schools in London,[17] made up of Drumtech, Vocaltech, Guitar-X and Keyboardtech.

25 on the Billboard digital singles chart and garnering radio play across the United States and UK.

In January 2016, Ocean appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform some of his hits as part of a promo tour for his new album.

[27] Ocean was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to music.