Kim Richardson (born December 22, 1965) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

singer and actress, who won two

Juno Awards The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's music industry. The Grammy Awards are the United S ...

as a solo recording artist in the 1980s. She is still very active today, being part of over 150 shows, mostly in province of Quebec, in 2017.

Early life and education

Richardson was born in

Richmond Hill, Ontario Richmond Hill ( 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and the 27th most populous municipality in Canada. Ric ...

, the daughter of singer and actress Jackie Richardson, the niece of blues and jazz singer Betty Richardson and the cousin of '' Polka Dot Door'' host Gairey Richardson.

Career

Richardson began performing professionally in the early 1980s, both as a solo blues, jazz and R&B vocalist and with the family musical group The Richardsons. Her first recording, the dance-pop single "He's My Lover", was released in 1985, and she won the award for Most Promising Female Vocalist at the

Juno Awards of 1986 The Juno Awards of 1986, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 10 November 1986 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Howie Mandel at the Harbour Castle Hilton Hotel. CBC Television broadcast the ce ...

. Her second single, "Peek-a-Boo" was released the following year and won the award for Best R&B/Soul Recording at the

Juno Awards of 1987 The Juno Awards of 1987, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 2 November 1987 in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. Howie Mandel was the host for the ceremonies, which were broadcast o ...

. The song was also named best single, and Richardson best female artist, at the 1987 Black Music Awards of Canada. Her third single, "I Want It", followed in 1987. In the same year she participated in the recording of a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

charity single, "A Christmas Wish", with a lineup of Toronto-area performers that also included

Billy Newton-Davis Billy Newton-Davis (born April 26, 1951) is an American-Canadian R&B, jazz and gospel singer and songwriter. Life and career Newton-Davis grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. He was one of two lead singers in a local soul ba ...

, Erroll Starr,

Frozen Ghost Frozen Ghost, stylized as Frōzen Ghōst, was a Canadian rock band formed in 1985 in Toronto by Arnold Lanni and Wolf Hassel, who were previously with the band Sheriff. The band received a Juno Award for " Most Promising Group of the Year" ...

Prairie Oyster Prairie Oyster was a Canadian country music group from Toronto, Ontario. They were named Country Group or Duo of the year six times by both the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) and the Juno Awards. The band also won the Bud Country Fan ...

, Messenjah, The Pursuit of Happiness, Salome Bey,

Zappacosta Alfredo Peter "Alfie" Zappacosta (born July 5, 1953), also known by just his surname, is an Italian-born Canadian musician. Career Zappacosta's first band was Surrender, a five-piece group that recorded three albums in the late 1970s and earl ...

, Arlene Duncan and Lorraine Scott. She subsequently moved to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, performing with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir and Jim Hillman and the Merlin Factor. The latter band won a Juno Award for

Best Contemporary Jazz Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality ...

at the

Juno Awards of 1995 The Juno Awards of 1995 was an awards show representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year. It took place on 26 March 1995 in Hamilton, Ontario at a ceremony in the Copps Coliseum. Mary Walsh, Rick Mercer and other regular ...

. She continued to perform in Montreal as a jazz singer, as a performer in

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

productions, in continued collaborations with her mother and as a backing vocalist for other musicians. Her first full-length album, ''Kaleidoscope'', was released in 2006, and her second, ''Mes amours'', followed in 2011. She also participated in the recording of the soundtrack to the 2011 film ''

Funkytown "Funkytown" is a song by American disco-funk group Lipps Inc., written and produced by Steven Greenberg and released by Casablanca Records in March 1980 as the second single from the group's debut studio album, '' Mouth to Mouth'' (1979). T ...

''. In recent years, she has also been a frequent collaborator with singer-songwriter Jonathan Roy.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Kim 1965 births 20th-century Black Canadian women singers 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Black Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers actresses from Montreal actresses from Toronto Black Canadian actresses Canadian blues singers Canadian contemporary R&B singers Canadian dance musicians Canadian film actresses Canadian gospel singers Canadian jazz singers Canadian musical theatre actresses Canadian women jazz singers living people Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners Juno Award for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year winners Musicians from the Regional Municipality of York Singers from Ontario people from Richmond Hill, Ontario singers from Montreal singers from Toronto