Miriam Arlene Stockley (born 15 April 1962) is a British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music of her home country. Her distinctive vocalise style gained international acclaim when Karl Jenkins launched the Adiemus project with Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary, with Stockley as the lead singer.
At the age of eleven, Stockley and her older sister Avril formed the group the Stockley Sisters and had a hit with a cover of Shocking Blue's "Venus" in 1976[1] on the South African Top 30, ten years before Bananarama's version. Later in her life, she moved to the United Kingdom, settling in London to further pursue her musical career.[citation needed] There, she contributed vocals to several albums and TV commercials.
Career
1970s
She formed part of Blush, a short-lived South African disco act consisting of herself, Malie Kelly and guitarist Mike Pilot.[citation needed]
1980–1999
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stockley worked as a session singer for the UK songwriting and production trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and appeared on tracks by Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Sonia. Alongside fellow session singer Mae McKenna, Stockley is credited with being partly responsible for the distinctive Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound of the 1980s.[2]
In 1991, Stockley became a part of the dance group Praise whose single "Only You" reached number four in the UK Singles Chart.[4] A year later, the band, with Stockley on vocals, released its second single, "Dream On". This failed to have the same success as their previous single and the band decided to call it a day. In 1995, she worked with Karl Jenkins as the multi-layered vocalist on his first Adiemus release, which also gave her broad international exposure in a Delta Air Lines television commercial and release on the album Pure Moods.
In 2004, Yamaha released Vocaloid software that allows people to synthetically create background vocals. One of the three available voices from the studio Zero-G released for the first edition of the software is based on material recorded by Stockley.[6]
In December 2006, Stockley contributed as a solo vocalist and as a co-vocalist with Mike Oldfield at the German Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts.[7] She also released her third solo album, a collection of rearranged classical standards entitled Eternal, in 2006.
In 2006, she joined Richard Gannaway and Jay Oliver as a primary member of the world music group AO Music (also known as AO). She first appeared on the album "Twirl", released 17 February 2009 on the group's indie label Arcturian Gate (debuted on international music charts at No. 5).[8][9][10]Twirl contained the song "On Jai Ya"; a piece composed as Olympic theme music (2008) at the request of the Beijing Olympic Committee. Ultimately, the song was not selected and later chosen as soundtrack music for the 2011 promotional trailer "Project Peace on Earth".[11]Twirl was released to an international audience in 2009 with Stockley as the group's main vocalist.[10][12]
In June 2009, she, Richard Gannaway and Jay Oliver composed and produced the song "Gaiya Lo Mane" as theme music for the Give Kids the World Foundation.[13]
In February 2011 Arcturian Gate released the AO Music's third album ...and Love Rages on!, where Stockley's voice is joined by children's choral ensembles from Beijing, Tbilisi, Johannesburg, Asheville and Orlando (charted at No. 2 internationally and awarded Zone Music Reporter's "Best World Album of 2011").[14][15][16] With the release of the song "...and Love Rages on!", Stockley and AO Music aligned with HavServe under GlobalGiving to build sustainable villages for children in Haiti who were displaced by an earthquake in 2010.[17] On 28 March 2011, she was invited to give a private performance for the Education Without Borders International conference in Dubai.[18]
In March 2013 the AO Music group released Hokulea, which charted #3 internationally and sustained top 20 ranking (Zone Music Reporter) for five consecutive months. With the release of Hokulea AO Music established themselves as 100% non-profit through AO Foundation International, supporting several worldwide organizations that attend to disadvantaged children. Stockley was also credited as the album's co-producer.[19][20][21]