Artist: Nancy Martinez, Album: Not Just The Girl Next Door, Song: For Tonight

"A little love and candlelight."  Nancy Martinez is a singer from Montreal.  She began her career singing back up for many popular Francophone artists during the disco/dance craze of the late seventies and early eighties.  She released her first singles in 1982 under the names of Jade and Nancy Martin.  In 1983, she would release her debut album as Nancy Martinez on homegrown label, Matra Records.  Matra was already home to some well known disco artists like Carol Jiani (see blog 3/29/11).  However, in 1986 she would gain international acclaim with her major label debut entitled, Not Just The Girl Next Door, on Atlantic Records.  The album yielded a couple of popular tracks including this one, For Tonight.  The album is likely Canada's premier release in the freestyle genre.  Freestyle was a form of R&B music that grew in popularity around the same time as break dancing and hip hop.  Electronic dance based music with lots of syncopated percussion and sampling.  This genre likely became mainstream with the release of Madonna's debut in 1983 but was also championed by many dance artists like Shannon, Debbie Deb, Trinere, Connie, Expose, Starpoint and Nu Shooz to name a few!  Nancy's debut ranks up there with all of them and the song, For Tonight, is a standout.  You can check out the tune on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig44vs4nC9A).  Nancy was nominated for the Juno for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1987 as a result of this release but lost out to Rita MacNeil.  This album is most likely her crowning achievement but she has had a long and prosperous career in music since 1986.  She has eight albums to her credit and has released albums in both English and French.  She also released a Jazz standards album in the last decade.  Aside from her own solo career, she has continued to work with other artists and has contributed her vocals to albums by artists like Celine Dion.  While not all of her work is available for download currently, her major label debut is and you can purchase it from Itunes.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!