Janet Gabriel was born in London, the first of three children of Nigerian parents. She moved to Nigeria for her secondary education and studied at the University of Ibadan. Janet has been singing and writing songs since the age of 12 and, whilst a student at University, pursued avenues to express her artistic self. She started to perform at University gigs and joined the dance troupe Rockforce.

She moved to Lagos temporarily and by the age of 16 she had sung backing vocals for Mandy Ojugbana (of Taxidriver fame) and worked as a session vocalist wherever the opportunity arose. She later went on to win the Miss Nigeria pageant and tried her hands on TV presenting and had a brief acting stint.

In 1993 she became part of a Lagos-based lounge act named 'Motivation' that played a repertoire of music from the 70s to the 90s. Here influences have been the greats, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker and Toni Braxton.

She then returned to England and proceeded to experiment more with her songwriting and vocal technique which brought more session work and in contact with many producers such as Don V Louie (Ministry of Sound), Stipo Androvic (Soho Electric), Kevin Warren (Pure Silk Records), Mouse and Francesco Giuffrida (Mediamix). The result of these collaborations is music that combines dance, house, breakbeat, soul and R&B.

Her debut album The fire within features her own flavor of the music that has influenced her greatly from the formative years in addition to her feelings about life and love. An album independently released on her label, Amethyst Music UK

Official Web Site: www.janetgabriel.co.uk

The Fire Within (Amethyst Music UK, 2005)