Anthology

Since the runaway success of her 1990 debut album Circle of One OLETA ADAMS has inspired a growing legion of fans in the U.S. and Europe with songs that draw deeply from her roots in gospel, while crossing effortlessly into the realms of soul, R&B, urban and popular music.

Adams was born the daughter of a preacher and was raised with gospel music. She moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s then Kansas City to pursue her music career. n 1985, Adams was discovered by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, founders of the English band Tears for Fears, while performing in a hotel bar in Kansas City, Missouri. They chatted with Adams after her performance, and two years later they contacted her to invite her to join their band as a singer on their next album, The Seeds of Love.

In 1989, the album was released and the single “Woman In Chains” – sung as a duet by Adams and Orzabal and with Phil Collins on drums – became her first hit. Following her work with Tears For Fears, Adams was offered a recording contract by their label Fontana Records and restarted her solo career in 1990, assisted by Orzabal who co-produced her new album, Circle of One.

The album received much critical acclaim and peaked at no.1 in the UK in 1991 when she scored her biggest hit to date with her Grammy nominated cover of Brenda Russell’s “Get Here”. The song was popular during the 1991 Gulf War as families of deployed troops in the region embraced the tune as a theme song.

Her next album, Evolution, was also a commercial success, making the UK top 10. It also featured her self-penned adult contemporary single “Window Of Hope”. Her 1995 release, Moving On, saw Adams move more in the direction of R&B, and she also reunited with Roland Orzabal for the duet “Me And My Big Ideas” on the Tears For Fears album Raoul and the Kings of Spain the same year. Two years later she released the Christian themed album Come Walk With Me.

In 2001, Adams released her sixth album, All The Love, a return to an R&B/Adult contemporary sound. Adams reunited with Tears for Fears in 2004 once again as she made a surprise guest appearance onstage at their Kansas City concert, performing “Woman in Chains”.

A new secular album entitled Let’s Stay Here, was released in 2009 by E1 Music.