Jully Black, Canada’s queen of R&B and soul, is celebrating a milestone on Wednesday – her 40th birthday!
Born on Nov. 8, 1977, she burst onto the music scene two decades later with the song “Rallyin’” (feat. Saukrates) but really took off with the release of her 2005 debut album This Is Me, which included the hit track “Sweat of Your Brow” (feat. Demarco).
Two years later, Black scored her biggest hit with an upbeat cover of the 1961 Etta James classic “Seven Day Fool.” The song helped her sophomore album Revival win the Juno Award for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year.
Black went on to release The Black Book in 2009 but — except for a mixtape in 2010 and the single “Fugitive” in 2012 – she hasn’t given fans a new collection of songs since. Black continues to sing live, including a recent performance at WeDay in Winnipeg.
In celebration of Black’s 40th, here are 10 things you should know about her:
- She was born Jullyann Inderia Gordon in Toronto, the youngest of seven children of Jamaican immigrants Lloyd and Aretha. Her parents divorced when she was nine so she was raised by her mom, whom she recently described as her best friend.
- Black grew up in Toronto’s low-income Jane and Finch neighbourhood and attended Topcliff Avenue Public School, where she often impressed classmates with her rendition of Whitney Houston and Pointer Sisters songs.
- She has shared that she was sexually abused as a teenager – something she didn’t tell her mother until she was in her 30s. “Her response was was loving but very Jamaican,” Black recalled in a social media post. “She basically said had I told her sooner I would be busting her in jail for MURDAH!”
- Black was ranked No. 24 on CBC Music’s list of “The 25 Greatest Canadian Singers Ever.”
- She had a role in both the stage and television productions of ‘Da Kink in My Hair. Black also appeared in the Ontario-shot crime flick Saving God.
- Black spent one season as a correspondent on CTV’s eTalk, where she interviewed big names like Jay-Z and Oprah Winfrey. When Black interviewed the hosts of The View, Rosie O’Donnell told her she looked like Mary J. Blige. “Oh no," Black snapped back, "she look like me."
- Among many causes she supports is mental health awareness. “I know too many people dying FROM and IN silence in the black community,” she wrote on Instagram recently. “Mental illness has no colour, religion, sex or social economics status.”
- In 2015, Black shared a #tbt photo on Instagram of herself, standing beside members of Metric, meeting Queen Elizabeth at a 2010 event in Toronto. She recalled that she didn't curtsy as directed but instead shook the Queen's hand.
- Black has had 10 Juno Awards nominations so far, including two wins.
- Black is proud to be Canadian. “I did want to run south,” she said of the lure of America. “I was ready to go.” But, she told CBC News last February, “my career was birthed here, cultivated here…it’s amazing.”