Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading CBE (/ˈɑːrməˌtreɪdɪŋ/, born 9 December 1950) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading,[1] the third of six children, was born in 1950 in the town of Basseterre in what was then the British colony of Saint Christopher and Nevis.

[5] When she was three years old, her parents moved with their two eldest boys to Birmingham in England, sending Armatrading to live with her grandmother on the West Indian island of Antigua.

[9] At about the age of 14 Armatrading began writing songs by setting her own limericks to music on a piano that her mother had purchased as "a piece of furniture".

[2][10][12] Armatrading then began teaching herself guitar after her mother had bought her one that was worth £3 (equivalent to £73 in 2023)[13] from a pawn shop in exchange for two prams.

[2][3] She lost her first job (as a typist and comptometer operator) after taking her guitar to work and playing it during tea-breaks.

She only knew her own songs, but her brother asked her to perform something that would be familiar to the audience; she chose "The Sound of Silence".

[6] There she met the lyricist Pam Nestor in 1970,[16] and they worked together on Armatrading's debut album Whatever's for Us, released by Cube Records in 1972.

[18] On 31 October 1972, Armatrading appeared on the BBC Radio 1 John Peel Show performing "Head of the Table", "Spend A Little Time", "Child Star" and "Whatever's For Us".

[19] In 1973, Cube released on the Fly label (catalogue: Bug 31) Armatrading's first single, "Lonely Lady" (with lyrics by Nestor), a song that had not been included on the album.

[20] In 1975, Armatrading was free to sign with A&M Records, and issued the album Back to the Night,[17] which she promoted on tour with six-piece, English jazz-pop group The Movies.

A major publicity relaunch in 1976 and the involvement of producer Glyn Johns propelled her next album, Joan Armatrading, into the Top 20 and spawned the Top-10 hit single "Love and Affection".

[17] The album mixed acoustic work with jazz-influenced material, and this style was retained for the 1977 follow-up Show Some Emotion, also produced by Glyn Johns, as was 1978's To the Limit.

Between 1972 and 1976, Armatrading made a total of eight appearances in session for the John Peel show, and the decade saw her become the first Black British female singer-songwriter to enjoy international success.

Taking over production responsibilities herself, she recorded the albums Sleight of Hand (1986), The Shouting Stage (1988) and Hearts and Flowers (1990) for A&M Records, which all made the UK Top 40 but failed to achieve the level of commercial success of her earlier works despite successful national tours (a show from her 1988 "Shouting Stage" tour was also filmed for television).

1 on the US Billboard Blues Chart, making Armatrading the first UK female artist to earn that distinction.

[32] Each of the artists opening for her across the UK also had a track selected for a three disc compilation released by her record label Hypertension Music.

[35][36] In 2016, Armatrading was commissioned by director Phyllida Lloyd and the Donmar Warehouse to write the music to an all-female production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

[45] In addition to recording, Armatrading has toured extensively and appeared in high-profile concerts such as "The Picnic at Blackbushe" in 1978 (alongside Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton) and The Prince's Trust Rock Gala in 1983.

[47] She followed this up with another five-part series called Joan Armatrading: More Guitar Favourites, which was broadcast in November and December 2011.

[55] Her music draws on a wide range of influences including rock, folk, jazz, blues, soul, and reggae.

[58] She has played on Ovation acoustic instruments since 1973, and said this about them in an interview with the magazine Guitar Player: "I'm a bit of a hitter, you see – I bash – and I like to have everything going at once: bass, harmony, and melody.

They are very powerful-sounding guitars, and when I hit those strings, they ring with a nice, clear, percussive – but not overly bright – sound that highlights the rhythms I like to play.

When you go home, the reason it's beautiful is because it's personal to you and the people you want to include in it.In addition to her music career, in 2001, after five years of studying, Armatrading earned a BA degree in history from the Open University, of which she is now a trustee.

[68][69] A younger brother, Tony Armatrading, was a stage, film, and television actor who lived in Los Angeles.

[72] Armatrading performed as a cameo vocalist for the song "Don't Lose Your Head" on the 1986 Queen album A Kind of Magic.

[78] In October 2011, Armatrading was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge Award in recognition of her contribution to music.

Delphine Mordey, Fellow and Director of Studies in Music, said: "We believe that Ms Armatrading embodies and lives the spirit of Newnham.