Julie Covington (born 11 September 1946) is an English singer and actress, best known for recording the original version of " Don't Cry for Me Argentina", which she sang on the 1976 concept album Evita.

Early life

Julie Covington was born in London. Her parents were Ernest Gladden and Elsie Gladden (née Moody). Her parents divorced and her mother married Leslie Covington in 1957. She attended the girls'

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

Brondesbury and Kilburn High School in Kilburn, northwest London. She started acting at school, and performed both acting and singing at two Edinburgh festivals. She won the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe Best Actress Award.

Career

Covington started singing songs written by Pete Atkin and

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in Cambridge. She toured North America with the Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare Company. Covington's break came in 1967 when, as a student at Homerton College, Cambridge, she was invited to sing on

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's television show. After the show, she secured a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

. In 1971, she was cast in the original London production of ''

Godspell ''Godspell'' is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set to lyrics from traditional hym ...

'' at

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, alongside

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and

Marti Webb Marti Webb (born 13 December 1943) is an English actress and singer, who appeared on stage in '' Evita'', before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show ''Tell Me on a Sunday'' in 1980. This included her biggest hit single, "Take That ...

. A recording of the production, featuring Covington's lead vocal on the track "Day by Day", was released in 1972. This was followed by a role in the hit Australian comedy film, " The Adventures of Barry McKenzie". She was then cast as Janet Weiss in the original production of ''

The Rocky Horror Show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to the Science fiction film, science fiction and Horror film, horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s, the ...

'' in 1973. Between 1974 and 1984 Covington appeared regularly in the companies of the National Theatre and the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

, creating such roles as Alice in '' Plenty'', Vivienne Eliot in ''

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'' (for which she received an

Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known a ...

nomination) and Edward in the original production of

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's '' Cloud Nine''. During the early 1970s, she appeared and sang on the children's television programme '' Play Away''. She starred in the BBC's 1975 Christmas production ''Great Big Groovy Horse'', a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse shown on BBC2. It was later repeated on BBC1 in 1977 1976 and 1977 saw her appearing in both series of the primetime British television programme, '' Rock Follies''. In 1976, the composer

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musical ...

saw her perform in cabaret, and recognising her from ''Rock Follies'', suggested to lyricist

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that she might be the actress to play the title role in their original studio recording of their musical '' Evita''. The singer Elkie Brooks had previously turned down an offer. Covington's recording of the song " Don't Cry for Me Argentina" reached No. 1 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in February 1977. Later offered the opportunity to originate the role in the stage production of ''Evita'', she declined, which led to

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being cast. Speaking in 1985, Covington expressed some regret at this decision, but explained that she did not like

Eva Perón María Eva Duarte de Perón (; ; 7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952), better known as just Eva Perón or by the nickname Evita (), was an Argentine politician, activist, actress, and philanthropist who served as First Lady of Argentina from June 19 ...

and that without some positive feeling for the person she had preferred to turn the role down. As ''Evita'' opened in 1978, she instead appeared with the

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as Anna in '' The Seven Deadly Sins''. Paige's successor in ''Evita'',

later also played Anna in the ENO's production of ''The Seven Deadly Sins''. In 1978, Covington performed the role of Beth, wife of Parson Nathaniel (

Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish singer, bassist, and songwriter. His most commercially successful group was Thin Lizzy, of which he was a founding member, the principal songwriter, lead vocalist and b ...

), on the recording of "The Spirit of Man" from '' Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds''. Covington achieved chart success with a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

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's " Only Women Bleed" which reached No. 12 on the

. It is included on reissues of her eponymous 1978 album. After recording a second solo album and guesting on other artists' albums she returned to the theatre, starring in the 1982 National Theatre production of ''

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'', playing Sister Sarah opposite

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's Sky Masterson. Russell Davies said that her performance "is of such a special timbre that she isn't easily matched." In 1989 she took part in a British television special with

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and Paul Jones called ''Let's Face the Music of Lennon and McCartney''. Her solo performances of " If I Fell" and " In My Life" are available on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

Albums

Solo albums

* '' While the Music Lasts'' (1967) * ''The Party's Moving On'' (1969) * ''The Beautiful Changes'' (1971) * '' Julie Covington'' (1978) * ''The Beautiful Changes Plus'' (1999) * ''Julie Covington Plus'' (2000)

Cast recording A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...
s and
soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...
s

* ''Godspell: Original London Cast Recording'' (1972) * ''The Adventures of Barry McKenzie'' (1972) * ''

'' (1973) * ''Hey You! Songs from Play Away'' (1975) * '' Evita: An Opera Based on the life of Eva Peron (1919–1952)'' (1976; re-released 1996) * '' Rock Follies'' (1976) * ''The Mermaid Frolics'' (1977) – benefit for

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

* ''

Rock Follies of '77 ''Rock Follies'' (together with its sequel, ''Rock Follies of '77'') was a musical drama shown on British television in the 1970s. The storyline followed the ups and downs of a fictional female rock band called the Little Ladies, as they struggl ...

'' (1977) * '' Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds'' (1978; remastered 2005) * ''Guys and Dolls: National Cast Recording'' (1982) * ''The Wildcliffe Bird (audio book)'' (1991) * ''Guys and Dolls'' (1992)

Singles

Awards

* Britannia Awards 1977 – "Best British Female Newcomer"

References

External links

*
Julie Covington Website
(unofficial) {{DEFAULTSORT:Covington, Julie 1946 births Living people English stage actresses English television actresses Brit Award winners Alumni of Homerton College, Cambridge Actresses from London Singers from London 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses 20th-century English women singers 20th-century English singers 21st-century English women singers 21st-century English singers