Sheena Easton

Sheena Shirley Easton Bio

Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and actress who became one of the most recognizable pop voices of the 1980s. Born Sheena Shirley Orr, she rose to prominence after appearing on the BBC documentary series The Big Time: Pop Singer in 1980 and went on to sell an estimated 20 million records worldwide. Easton is the first artist in Billboard history to place a top-five hit on each of the publication’s primary singles charts. A two-time Grammy Award winner, she is also the only James Bond theme singer to appear in the opening credits of a Bond film.

After dominating the U.S. charts through the 1980s, Easton relocated to the United States, became an American citizen in 1992, and later settled in Henderson, Nevada. She continues to record, perform, and pursue theatrical work while overseeing a steady schedule of catalog reissues.

Early Life and Background

Sheena Shirley Orr was born on 27 April 1959 at Bellshill Maternity Hospital in Lanarkshire, Scotland. She was the youngest of six children raised by Annie Orr and steel mill labourer Alex Orr, and she grew up alongside siblings Robert, Alex, Marilyn, Anessa, and Morag. Her earliest known public performance came in 1964, when at the age of five she sang “Early One Morning” for relatives at a 25th wedding anniversary celebration.

Her father died in 1969, and her mother took on heavy work to support the family while still finding time to teach her children to read at home. Easton credits her mother with a profound influence on her upbringing. She did not seriously consider a singing career until watching the film The Way We Were, in which Barbra Streisand’s vocal performance over the opening credits convinced the young Easton that she wanted to move audiences the same way.

Her strong school results earned her a scholarship to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, where she trained from 1975 to 1979 as a speech and drama teacher by day. At night, she sang with a local band called “Something Else” in area clubs, choosing the teaching course so she could keep developing her voice as a performer.

Path to Singing

In 1979, Easton married Sandi Easton; the marriage lasted eight months, but Sheena decided to keep the surname as her stage name. That same year, one of her tutors encouraged her to audition for BBC producer Esther Rantzen, who was developing a documentary about an unknown’s rise to pop stardom. Easton was selected as the subject of The Big Time: Pop Singer, signed to EMI Records, and was paired with producer Christopher Neil and manager Deke Arlon.

During the filming of The Big Time, Easton met and sang for established artists including Dorothy Squires, Dusty Springfield, and Lulu. Her debut single, “Modern Girl,” initially stalled at number 56 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1980, but after the documentary aired in August 1980, the single was reissued and climbed into the top 10 alongside her follow-up “9 to 5,” also called “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” in the United States. The U.S. release reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Gold certifications in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The success of those early singles led to her first three U.S. albums, a 1982 concert special filmed at the Palace in Hollywood and broadcast on HBO, and an invitation to perform at the Royal Variety Performance before the Queen Mother in November 1982.

Sheena Shirley Easton Career

Early Career (1980-1982)

Easton’s debut album, Take My Time, was released in 1981 and performed well commercially, particularly in North America where it was retitled Sheena Easton. While still building her profile, she recorded “For Your Eyes Only” as the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name; the track earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1982.

In February 1982, Easton received the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards. Her next two albums, You Could Have Been with Me (1981) and Madness, Money & Music (1982), kept her in the soft rock and pop lane, with the title track of You Could Have Been with Me reaching the U.S. top 15. She also became one of the first artists to record “Wind Beneath My Wings,” a song later made famous by Bette Midler.

Breakthrough (1983-1985)

In January 1983, Easton duetted with Kenny Rogers on “We’ve Got Tonight,” a cover of the Bob Seger song that became a top 10 U.S. pop hit, a number 1 U.S. Country hit, and a UK Top 30 entry. Around the same time, she headlined the NBC variety special Act One, which featured Rogers and a cameo by Johnny Carson. The single “Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)” from her album Best Kept Secret became her fourth U.S. top 10 hit and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

In 1984, Easton recorded the Spanish-language duet “Me Gustas Tal Como Eres” with Mexican star Luis Miguel, winning a second Grammy, this time for Best Mexican-American Performance. She then reinvented her image as a dance-pop siren, with the Nile Rodgers-influenced A Private Heaven (1984) becoming her biggest-selling U.S. album, certified gold and platinum by the RIAA. Its lead single, “Strut,” reached the U.S. top 10, while the Prince-penned “Sugar Walls” climbed to number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Billboard Dance Chart, despite being placed on the Parents Music Resource Center’s “Filthy Fifteen” list. The follow-up album, Do You (1985), was also produced by Nile Rodgers and certified gold.

By 1985, Easton’s career in the United Kingdom had stalled, but she remained a dominant commercial force in the United States, thanks in part to her duet with Prince on “U Got the Look” from the 1987 concert film Sign o’ the Times, which reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned two more Grammy nominations. She also co-wrote “The Arms of Orion” with Prince for the Batman soundtrack (1989).

Notable Works and Milestones

Easton’s signature recordings include “Modern Girl,” “Morning Train (Nine to Five),” “For Your Eyes Only,” “Strut,” “Sugar Walls,” and the Prince duet “U Got the Look.” Her chart accomplishments include two Grammy Awards from six nominations, a James Bond theme that remains the only one to feature its singer in the opening credits, and the historic distinction of being the first artist to score a top-five hit on every primary Billboard singles chart.

Sheena Shirley Easton Award Nominations

Easton has received six Grammy Award nominations from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences across the 1980s and into the early 1990s. In addition to her Best New Artist win, she was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)” in 1983 and again in 1984. Her duet with Prince, “U Got the Look,” earned nominations for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Best R&B Song in 1987. She also received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Song for “For Your Eyes Only” in 1982, the same year the song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Sheena Shirley Easton Awards Won

Easton has won two Grammy Awards: Best New Artist at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards in 1982, and Best Mexican-American Performance at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards for her 1984 duet with Luis Miguel, “Me Gustas Tal Como Eres.” In 2004, she was inducted into the Casino Legends Hall of Fame at the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas in recognition of her years of residency work in the city.

Sheena Shirley Easton Family

Sheena Shirley Easton was born the youngest of six children to Annie and Alex Orr in Bellshill, Lanarkshire. Her father worked as a steel mill labourer and died in 1969, after which her mother raised the family while working long hours. Easton has two brothers, Robert and Alex, and three sisters, Marilyn, Anessa, and Morag.

Personal Life

Easton has been married and divorced four times. Her first marriage, to Sandi Easton, took place in 1979 and ended after eight months, though she kept the surname. She married talent agent Rob Light in 1984, with the marriage ending 18 months later, and later married producer Tim Delarm in Las Vegas in July 1997; that marriage lasted one year. Her fourth marriage, to Beverly Hills plastic surgeon John Minoli, took place on 9 November 2002 and ended in divorce in 2003. Easton became a United States citizen in 1992, holding dual citizenship with the United Kingdom, and adopted a son, Jake Rion Cousins Easton, in 1994 and a daughter, Skylar, two years later. She currently resides in Henderson, Nevada.