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Pauline Matthews (born 6 March 1947),
Dee is best known for the hit singles "Amoureuse" (1973), "I've Got the Music in Me" (1974) and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", her 1976 duet with Elton John, which reached Chart-topper on the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 record chart. Her 1981 single "Star" became the theme song for the talent show Opportunity Knocks when it was revived by the BBC in 1987. In 1993, she performed another duet with John for his Duets album, a cover version of Cole Porter's "True Love", which reached number 2 in the UK. During her career, she has released 40 singles, three EPs and 12 albums.
Aged 16, Dee worked at Boots UK in Bradford during the day, while in the evenings she sang songs with a dance band in Leeds. A record scout liked her singing and invited her to London for an audition. There, in 1963, she signed as a solo artist to Fontana Records.
Songwriter Mitch Murray created her pseudonym, and penned her first single, "Early Night". In the United States she became the first white people British artist to be signed by Motown Records,
releasing her first Motown single in 1970.In the days before BBC Radio 1, Dee was a regular performer of cover versions on BBC Radio, and she starred with a group of session singers in the BBC Two singalong series, One More Time. She also appeared in an early episode of The Benny Hill Show in January 1971, performing the Blood, Sweat and Tears hit, "You've Made Me So Very Happy". Nevertheless, it was only after she signed with Elton John's label, The Rocket Record Company, that she became a household name in the UK. Her first major solo hits were "Amoureuse" (written by Véronique Sanson, with English lyrics by Gary Osborne) (1973) and "I've Got the Music in Me" (written by Bias Boshell), the latter credited to the Kiki Dee Band (1974). In addition to her burgeoning career as a lead vocalist, she could sometimes be heard singing backing vocals on various John recordings, such as "All the Girls Love Alice" from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and various tracks on Rock of the Westies.
Her biggest hit came in 1976, a duet with John, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (pseudonymously written by John and lyricist Bernie Taupin). The single reached number 1 in both the UK and US, remaining at the top for six weeks in the UK. At the end of the summer, she played as support act to Queen at their Hyde Park concert in front of a crowd of 150,000 people. Prior to the concert, in an interview for Record Mirror, she stated, "My confidence is at an all-time high."
After a quiet period in the late 1970s, Dee launched a comeback in 1981, releasing one of her biggest hits, "Star", written by Doreen Chanter of the Chanter Sisters. This later became the theme music to the BBC One programme Opportunity Knocks between 1987 and 1990. Dee joined forces again with John in 1981, recording a cover of the Four Tops' song "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" which was written by Ivy Jo Hunter and Stevie Wonder. Both of these were included on her album Perfect Timing, which became a modest hit on the album chart, and she supplied backing vocals for John's 1983 album Too Low for Zero. Dee also sang the song "What Can't Speak Can't Lie" (1983), composed and recorded by the Japanese jazz fusion group Casiopea, and with lyrics by Gary Osborne.
She performed at Live Aid in 1985, reprising "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with John, and performing backing vocals on the other songs in his set. After signing to Columbia Records, Dee released the album Angel Eyes in 1987. She contributed backing vocals to Elton John's 1992 album The One, and a year later recorded "True Love" with John for his 1993 album Duets.
Dee released the live album Almost Naked, a joint effort with Carmelo Luggeri in 1995, followed by the studio albums Where Rivers Meet (1998) and The Walk Of Faith (2005) with Luggeri. In September 2013, Dee and Luggeri released their third studio album, A Place Where I Can Go, on Spellbound Records. They have been touring together ever since and have played alongside Roger Taylor, Jack Bruce, Fish, Paul Young, Tom Robinson, Graham Gouldman and Madeline Bell.
In October 2009 she performed, with Luggeri, at London's Royal Albert Hall, in aid of the PRS for Music (formerly the Performing Right Society) for Music Members' Benevolent Fund.
Dee's single "Sidesteppin' with a Soul Man", released in October 2013, was her 40th single release.
Dee and Luggeri's album Long Ride Home was released in April 2022. In November that year Dee joined Elton John on stage to sing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" again for the final US show of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
In 2008, Dee's first DVD was released. Under The Night Sky was a collaboration with guitarist Carmelo Luggeri, filmed live at the Bray Studios in London; the music was produced by Ted Carfrae. That same year, several albums from her earlier 1970s–1980s Rocket catalogue were re-released by EMI Records, including an expanded edition of Almost Naked with extra tracks, such as a cover of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and a new take on "Sugar on the Floor". The same year, Demon Records (UK) issued a remastered edition of Perfect Timing, with several bonus tracks, including an alternate mix of "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever".
Dee had previously starred in Pump Boys and Dinettes in London's West End, at the Piccadilly Theatre, from 20 September 1984 to 8 June 1985.
| 1968 | I'm Kiki Dee | – | – | Fontana Records |
| 1969 | Patterns (US top-price release) | – | – | Liberty Records |
| 1970 | Great Expectations | – | – | Tamla Motown |
| 1973 | Loving & Free | – | 38 | Rocket |
| 1974 | I've Got the Music in Me | – | – | |
| Patterns (UK mid-price release) | – | – | Philips Records | |
| Kiki Dee | – | – | MFP/Sound Superb | |
| 1977 | Kiki Dee | 24 | – | Rocket |
| 1979 | Stay with Me | – | – | |
| 1980 | Greatest Hits | – | – | Warwick |
| 1981 | Perfect Timing | 47 | – | Ariola Records |
| 1987 | Angel Eyes | – | – | Columbia (UK) |
| 1991 | Spotlight On Kiki Dee – Greatest Hits | – | – | Rocket |
| 1994 | The Very Best of Kiki Dee | 62 | – | |
| 1995 | Almost Naked | – | – | Tickety-boo |
| 1998 | Where Rivers Meet | – | – | |
| 2005 | Love Makes the World Go Round – The Motown Years | – | – | Universal |
| The Walk of Faith | – | – | Spellbound | |
| 2008 | Cage the Songbird | – | – | EMI Records |
| 2009 | The Best of Kiki Dee | – | – | |
| 2013 | A Place Where I Can Go | – | – | Spellbound |
| 2019 | Gold | 44 | – | Crimson |
| 2022 | Long Ride Home | – | – | Spellbound Recordings |
| 1963 | "Early Night" | – | – | – | Fontana Records |
| "I Was Only Kidding" | – | – | – | ||
| 1964 | "Miracles" | – | – | – | |
| "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" | – | – | – | ||
| 1965 | "Runnin' Out of Fools" | – | – | – | |
| 1966 | "Why Don't I Run Away from You" | – | – | – | |
| 1967 | "I'm Going Out (The Same Way I Came In)" | – | – | – | |
| "I" | – | – | – | ||
| "Excuse Me" | – | – | – | ||
| 1968 | "Can't Take My Eyes off You" | – | – | – | |
| "Now the Flowers Cry" | – | – | – | ||
| 1970 | "The Day Will Come Between Sunday and Monday" | – | – | – | Tamla Motown |
| 1971 | "Love Makes the World Go Round" | – | – | 87 | Rare Earth (Motown) |
| 1973 | "Lonnie and Josie" | – | – | – | Rocket |
| "Amoureuse" | 13 | 12 | – | ||
| 1974 | "Hard Luck Story" | – | – | – | |
| "I've Got the Music in Me" | 19 | 52 | 12 | ||
| 1975 | "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" | 33 | – | 74 | |
| "Once a Fool" | – | 82 | |||
| 1976 | "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (with Elton John) | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| "Loving and Free" / "Amoureuse" ( Kiki Dee EP) | 13 | – | – | ||
| 1977 | "First Thing in the Morning" | 32 | – | – | |
| "Night Hours" | – | – | – | ||
| "Chicago" | 28 | – | – | ||
| 1978 | "Stay With Me Baby" | – | – | – | |
| 1979 | "One Jump Ahead of the Storm" | – | – | – | |
| 1981 | "Star" | 13 | 64 | – | Ariola Records |
| "Perfect Timing" | 66 | – | – | ||
| "Midnight Flyer" | – | – | – | ||
| "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" (with Elton John) | – | – | – | ||
| 1983 | "The Loser Gets to Win" | 105 | 99 | – | EMI Records |
| 1984 | "Amoureuse" | 77 | – | – | Rocket |
| 1986 | "Another Day Comes (Another Day Goes)" | 117 | – | – | Columbia Records (US) |
| 1987 | "I Fall in Love Too Easily" | – | – | – | |
| "Stay Close to You" | – | – | – | ||
| "Angel Eyes" | – | – | – | ||
| 1993 | "True Love" (with Elton John) | 2 | – | 56 | Rocket |
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