Jo O'Meara

[SakuraSYayoi]

Do you know Jo O'Meara?
Where does she come from?

I found:
BBC - Music - Pop
... Helps Out S Club's Jo The Carpenters songwriting genius Richard
Carpenter is to help ex-S Club Jo O'Meara write the songs that will make her a star in the USA. ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp/news/2003/08/26/6481.shtml

http://www.popextreme.com/jo/
If you choose 'Audio', you will go to the page where you can hear Jo's "Dancing in the Street" .

Sakura

 

[newvillefan]

My god I'm STUNNED at this news!!!

Jo O'Meara is the lead singer with British pop band S Club 7 - they disbanded a few months ago, I was at one of their last concerts at Newcastle Arenea, UK.

She's from London, and has an amazing powerful singing voice. For those wondering, she doesn't really sound a lot like Karen; Jo has a strong high voice, I would say she's a true soprano rather than Karen's contralto voice. But stunning all the same - she's sung many beautiful ballads with S Club, including 'Never Had A Dream Come True' and 'Have You Ever'.

I've been a fan of the group since they came out and really rate her as an artist, so this is great news, two of my favourite people teaming up!! It's made my day!

Stephen

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

Thank you, Stephen.
I thought her family name was people of UK's. But I found an article in spanish. So I asked.
I see she's from London.
Queen's concert, Party at the Palace was aired in Japan last year.

Sakura

 

[Harry]

My only brushes with Jo O'Meara and S Club 7 come from two Corrs-related items. In 1999, Polydor released an ABBA tribute album called ABBAMANIA. It featured The Corrs doing "The Winner Takes It All", so of course I had to have the album. Also contained on the album is S Club 7's rendition of "Dancing Queen." It's a slightly beat-heavier version of the song and the vocals are not all that unlike the original ABBA version.

Then there's last year's Party At The Palace, both on DVD and CD. The DVD is a more detailed record of the full concert, and has more individual artist stuff, whereas the CD concentrates on the combined efforts of many of the artists who joined together on stage in tribute to the Queen. The Corrs did "The Long And Winding Road" individually, and then joined Brian Wilson on stage in a rendition of "God Only Knows." The first one is on the DVD, the second on both the DVD and CD.

Similarly S Club 7 performed their own song "Don't Stop Movin'" and then later joined Cliff Richard in one of his old tunes, "Move It." As is typical with groups of the nature of S Club 7, their individual 'performance' was a lip-sync (they dance and sing at the same time). One can hardly expect vocal gymnastics at the same time a group is doing real on-stage 'gymnastics.' Once they joined Cliff Richard, though, we got to hear the real deal as it was performed live.

From what I've been able to glean from these few items is that Jo O'Meara does indeed posess some vocal talent. Her vocal range sounds rather like Veronique's to me, and I enjoyed Veronique's work with Richard Carpenter, so it might be a good match.

All in all, exciting news - we'll have to keep an eye on it.

Harry
NP: ABBAMANIA

 

[newvillefan]

Interesting post Harry.

I have all four of their albums released in the UK, and on each of them Jo takes the majority of lead vocals, with a liberal smattering of stunning ballads, from memory they include the following titles in case anyone outside the UK wants to try and find MP3 downloads:

Ballads:

Two In A Million (the best of them all in my opinion)
All in Love Is Fair
Cross My Heart
Have You Ever
Never Had A Dream Come True

Uptempo:

Reach
You're My Number One
Don't Stop Moving
You (NOT the Carpenters song of the same name!)
Alive
Bring The House Down

I'm so excited this sounds really promising!

Stephen

 

[350hunny]

Heard about them before but I didn't really care that much.
Now that Jo is going to work with Richard, I will root for her.

It's been a long time since the '80s British Invasion in US but I think that if Jo can really bring about some sensation in UK, then other countries would be interested in her talent.
I think it's likely that Jo and Ricahrd will be asked to perform together on a Japanese tv show.

I don't think it's not too late for her to see the Statue of Liberty after she has had some hits in other countries making her more famous.

Even Abba was said to have had big hits in Europe and then seemed to be having trouble with being popular among American listeners with songs like Mamma Mia, S.O.S, I Do I Do I Do I Do and Fernando.
After Dancing Queen hit the US charts, you know the rest of their history.

Jo's collaboration with Richard may end just for once but it'll be a priceless experience in her musical life.

American music industry must be tough and so big a market to crack.

 

[PJ]

Interesting update ....Jo has a good clear voice , by far the best Singer in S Club ....not a favouite act .....with a few good songs Don't Stop Moving , Never Had A Dream etc and some terrible manufactured teen band material......

Probably Richard's elder girls saw and enjoyed S Club TV Series that ran for several years , liked some songs and perhaps bought several Albums

Richard is interested in recent talent and clearly feels , good new songs plus new vocal talent will recharge the batteries .....perhaps linking up with Jo, a very ambitious manager Simon Fuller and aggressive Record Label is just what Richard needs in 2004 .....

On the basis of S Club's success in UK and Europe , these will be key markets .....interesting to see whether Richard's songs / production plus massive marketing will open up USA and other key regions ?

Await more news from both sides

Peter