Browsing: Frankie Paul

Paul Blake was born on 19 October 1965 in Kingston Jamaica. He was born blind but had his sight slightly restored as a child through a surgery. His father died when he was young and his mother Grace Kerr was a street trader. He attended a Salvation Army school in Kingston and the school was for the bling, Here he learnt to play the guitar, drums and the piano. One of his main influences musically was singer Dennis Brown. In 1975 Blake sang for Stevie Wonder when he had visited his school in Jamaica and Wonder was impressed with Blake’s talent, Stevie Wonder encouraged him to purse his career in music,

In 1980,when he was only 15, Blake made his first recording with a single called “African Princess”. He was featured as an emerging talent on a side of Channel One clash album where he was up against the already known Sugar Minott. This record contributed a lot to his reputation as an artist and he recorded big singles including “Worries In The Dance” on 1983 and “Fire Deh a Mus Mus Tail” in 1874. Other notable hots included  “Tidal Wave”, “Sara” “Casanova”, “Slow Down”, “Alesha” and many others. for the next decade he worked with many Jamaican labels such as Greensleeves and producers including Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes and Philip ‘Fatis’ Burrel. During this time, he depended more on covers.

from the mid 1990s, Paul lived in Gambia. He made his last public performance in 2016 when he released an album “Frankie Paul Sings Dennis Brown”. He died on 18 May 2917 and having gone through a surgery to amputate his leg in 2016.