In The Living Years

11Marcia Hines was born in Boston to Jamaican parents in 1953. She and her older brother were raised by their mother Esme after their father died when Marcia was 6 months old, during an operation to remove wartime shrapnel. Former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, was Marcia's cousin. At 16 she was discovered by Australians M. Miller and Jim Sharman who were in the USA looking for African American talent to star in the Australian production of Hair. She accepted the offer and went to Australia making her debut in 1970 making her the youngest person ever to star in a major stage role. Miller had to register as her guardian in fact! When Hair ended Miller and Sharman offered her the role of Mary Magdalene in the Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar.This role put her on the map so to speak and a prolific recording, stage and TV career followed.She produced more than a dozen studio albums and toured in support of people like B.B.King and Lionel Ritchie in the USA. Her repertoire ranges over Disco, romantic ballads , show music and covers of many people in Pop music. She is highly appreciated in her adopted land and in 2009 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. She has a daughter Deni born of a teenage pregnancy she had just before going to Australia.They sometimes appear on stage together. while doing this research I was given a selection of 150 tracks by YouTube and so found it extremely difficult to select two which define her and have stretched to 4, all very different in character! The first here is a cover of a Michael and The Mechanics number about someone wishing he/she had been closer to His/her father " In The Living Years"