Who is Liz Mitchell? Liz Mitchell (born Elizabeth Mitchell, 12 July 1952, Clarendon, Jamaica) was Boney M`s lead singer. The Mitchell family moved to London in 1963. By the end of the decade, the young Liz Mitchell auditioned for Hair (musical) and eventually moved to Berlin for the German cast where she took the place of a young Donna Summer. After "Hair", Liz Mitchell joined the Les Humphries Singers for a few years where she had a relationship with Malcolm Magaron. The two left the group to form Malcolm Locks who released the album "Caribbean Rocks" in 1974 to minimal success. Liz Mitchell, finding her career coming to a standstill, returned to her parents in England. A phone call from a fellow Jamaican, Marcia Barrett, however, persuaded Liz to come back to Germany to join the group Boney M. for TV and discotheque performances of the song "Baby Do You Wanna Bump" - Boney M. soon became a real recording group with Mitchell, Barrett and producer Frank Farian as the vocal core. Liz Mitchell, however, became the most featured lead singer of the three. Frank Farian later even stated that "All members could be replaced, except Liz" although the departure of Bobby Farrell late 1981 proved this wasn`t entirely true. Although Boney M was largely Frank Farian`s vehicle for his own songwriting, Mitchell is credited as co-composer of the Boney M song, "African Moon", which appeared on their album, Boonoonoonoos (1981). After the group split up after their 10th anniversary in 1986, Bobby Farrell got Liz Mitchell, Maizie Williams and a replacement for Marcia Barrett together for a tour in 1987 and even set up a record deal for the group. When Farrell and the replacement never showed up for the rehearsals, Liz and Maizie added singer Celena Duncan and dancer Curt Dee Daran for the tour. Since Maizie Williams had never sung on Boney M.`s recordings, Liz Mitchell ended recording the scheduled album on her own. However, it proved difficult to Liz Mitchell to find a record company for the album No One Will Force You. It was released in Spain in the fall of 1988, supported by the singles Mandela (a re-work of Boney M.`s 1979 hit El Lute) and "Niños De La Playa" (Children of the Beach). The latter was also released on Mega Records in Scandinavia where the group did a tour in October (Maizie Williams had now been replaced by Carol Grey) but due to poor sales, the LP was eventually cancelled. At the same time, Simon Napier-Bell and Donovan Nelson had set up a remix album of Boney M.`s greatest hits and wanted the original line-up to promote it. A reluctant Liz accepted the offer and Boney M. appeared together again on German TV on October 25th even though Liz Mitchell`s line-up still had gigs to play. The success of the remix album led Liz to sign her album for a French and Dutch release in 1989 and since she didn`t get along well with the other group members, she eventually decided to focus on her solo career. Even though Madeleine Davis took her place in the group, Farian eventually called Liz back for a second remix album by the end of 1989 and also had her front a new Boney M. line-up for the single "Stories" as an answer-back to an unofficial Boney M. single, "Everybody Wants to Dance Like Josephine Baker", recorded by the other three with Madeleine Davis, without Farian`s approval. In 1990, Liz Mitchell re-formed her 1988 line-up with Patricia Foster replacing Celena Duncan and kept touring the cabaret circuit to make a living. In April 1991, she released the single "Mocking Bird", produced by long time Boney M. collaborator, Helmut Rulofs to minimal attention. After three dire years, the success of Boney M. Gold - 20 Super Hits boosted the career of her line-up, entitled Boney M. feat. Liz Mitchell, and they were officially approved by Frank Farian to promote the album and the accompanying singles. For the follow-up More Gold - 20 Super Hits Vol. II, Liz recorded four new songs. No One Will Force You with two previously unreleased tracks from 1984 was also re-released in Denmark, five years after it was recorded. In 1996, Liz Mitchell and her husband Thomas Pemberton built the Dove House Studios and formed Dove House Records. With a new-founded fan club, Liz recorded an EP with four Christmas songs as a special Christmas gift for her fans. In November 1999, Liz Mitchell finally released her album Share the World which had taken three years to complete. The controversial rap title "Fools (Don`t Know Nothing)" was removed from the track listing in the last minute - the song dealt with the fact that the singer never felt acknowledged that she was the lead singer of such a successful group as Boney M., yet nobody knows her name or the fact the was the major vocal contributor. This a story which she`s often told to the media over the years, damaging her own popularity with several of the group`s fans since she often attacked original members Maizie Williams and Bobby Farrell for touring as Boney M. with new line-ups (like herself), despite having never sung on record. At this time, she also had to suffer the humiliation of not being invited to promote Boney M.`s current remix album 20th Century Hits. In November 2000, Liz released the seasonal album Christmas Rose which consisted of part new material, including the title track, "Lord`s Prayer" and "I Want to Go to Heaven" co-written by herself, part re-recordings of Boney M.`s Christmas Album which was meant to have been Liz` first solo album back in 1981 but eventually released as a Boney M. album to strengthen the group`s waning popularity. Liz, now a born-again Christian, continued the inspirational path on Let It Be, her fourth solo album, released in November 2004. Just a few onths later, the album Liz Mitchell Sings the Hits of Boney M., recorded in Prague, backed by a Czech symphoni orchestra, was released. As of 2006 Mitchell is still singing. A brand new song recorded in 2006, called "A Moment Of Love", can be found on the compilation The Magic of Boney M. She is still touring, billed as Boney M featuring Liz Mitchell. They will be undertaking a concert tour in Germany in November 2007, playing live with a band. Her most recent concert was given in Famagusta in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on July 4th, 2007.
Name: Liz Mitchell
