Born 78 Years Ago Today in Jamaica, the Disco Icon Who Sold 150 Million Records With a Group Whose Biggest Hit Was Banned in the Soviet Union
Marcia Barrett, born in Jamaica on 14 October 1948, became a lead singer of Boney M., the West German disco group that rose to international fame in the late 1970s. The group’s blend of disco, reggae and funk produced major hits including “Rasputin” and “Rivers of Babylon”; “Rasputin” was popular in the Soviet Union despite officials trying to ban it.
Barrett moved to England as a child and later went to Germany, where she worked as a singer and dancer before joining Boney M. in 1975. She shared lead vocals on hits such as “Daddy Cool” and “Ma Baker”, and led “Belfast”; after the group split in 1990, she released two solo albums, founded Xoah Records and toured with her own version of Boney M. Her career was interrupted by two bouts of cancer, and in 2003 she released a benefit EP supporting War Child.
- Marcia Barrett was born in Jamaica in 1948.
- She became a lead singer of disco group Boney M.
- “Rasputin” found Soviet fans despite efforts to ban it.
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Boney M. was a West German group formed by producer Frank Farian in the mid-1970s. Its members, including Jamaican-born singer Marcia Barrett, performed a dance sound drawing on disco, reggae and funk, and the group became widely popular internationally.
Barrett shared lead vocals on several of Boney M.’s best-known songs and led “Belfast”. “Rasputin”, a song about the Russian courtier Grigori Rasputin, also found listeners in the Soviet Union, where officials tried to prevent it being played. The group’s popularity and the attempts to restrict the song reflect how its music travelled across political borders.